NOSDAC vs SuperDAC, Round 2

[snip][leftnews]http://www.zerogain.com/forum/gas/images/1/1/4/1/bakeofft.jpg[/leftnews]Earlier this year a group of the ZeroGain faithful rolled up at Lordsummit's for the big fight of the budget DAC sensations, NOS DAC versus SuperDAC. Result was a no score draw due to some technical mishaps.

Come back to the present and both DACs are back, both fighting fit and ready for the rematch. But as round two gets underway, there's a dark horse lurking...[/snip]Earlier this year a group of the ZeroGain faithful rolled up at Lordsummit's for the big fight of the budget DAC sensations, NOS DAC versus SuperDAC.

Unfortunately, a few technical hitches were encountered with the NOS not being entirely well, and the SuperDAC having its sockets falling off.

Come back to the present and both DACs are back, both fighting fit and ready for the rematch. Thus, round two was arranged, this time at a new venue courtesy of rsand.

The rabble in attendance was: Rsand, ChrisPa, Chris1968, SCIDB and myself. Rsand's system comprises of a Copland 288 CD player, Quad Preamp, Quad II Forty power amps and Quad ESL-988 speakers with Ecosse cables.

The additional kit brought in included my modified Marantz CD16 and modded SuperDAC and Chris1968's NOSDAC and wall-wart psu. However, a third contender joined the fray. Attracting comments on its blingworthiness with gold nameplate, solid alu casework, window and shiny LEDs, SCIDB's Chord DAC64 came along to see how the budget DACs compared.

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Various excellent tunes were played before we even got onto to fiddling with hifi kit. Howard Tate put in for "Strangest Title" award with "She may be white but she be funky", but was immediately smacked down by the winner of that award, Tori Amos with "The power of orange knickers".

Earl Okin had us rolling on the floor with his cover versions of Wheatus' Teenage Dirtbag and Blur's Song 2. During the course of the evening many cover versions were played, including Howard Tate - Kiss, Me first and the gimme gimmes - Stand by your man, Tori Amos - Smells like Teen Spirit and KD Lang - Hallelujah.

A little bit of setup time and then we were let loose on the Pizza. Well, these evenings have their priorities. :cookie:

Wading back into the fray, and we encountered what appeared to be the first technical hitch of the bake-off (it wouldn't be a bake-off otherwise!). A strange crackling echo coming from the output of the DAC64... It didn't recur later, so I think it was to do with the buffer overflowing as it reached the end of a 77 minute disc that had played over the food break.

So, the DAC64 was let loose in anger on Thea Gilmore - Land of the Free. We decided to follow Michaelab's route, and try the NOSDAC next, and finally the SuperDAC. On balance, my preference was for the DAC64, which was very natural, extremely detailed but coherently presented. The NOSDAC was extremely smooth and rounded comparatively; a very different presentation. The SuperDAC, strangely, fell almost exactly in between the two.

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The next track was Damien Rice's "The Blower's Daughter". Again, the DAC64 gave a very beguiling presentation that was easy to forget about testing and comparison and to just listen. The NOS was again very smooth and mellow, but it lost out on some of the fine details and had a flatter soundstage than the 64. On this track the SuperDAC came in third, without the delicacy to handle the fine detail as pleasantly as the DAC64, and verging into a harsh edge on a few vocals.

After some experimentation with speaker positioning, we played a few more tunes and eventually, at around half past midnight, decided to call it a night.

The synopsis of the evening was the expected result of a good bakeoff: Good food, good people and good tunes. Of the DACs... for me, the DAC64, but taking price into account, both the superDAC and the NOS provide excellent value. The NOS was a little too smooth in the test system for my liking.

The evening's track listing:

Thea Gilmore - My own private riot
Alison Moyet - Windmils of your mind
Nitin Sawhney - The river
Howard Tate - Kiss
Howard Tate - She might be white but shes funky
Tori Amos - The power of orange knickers
Me first and the gimme gimmes - Stand by your man
Earl Okin - Teenage dirtbag
Earl Okin - Song 2
Radiohead - No surprises
2 Wons??? - Dirty dance hall
Louis Prima - Buona sera
Mark Knopfler - Boom, like that
John Martin - Glory Box
Ray Lamontagne - Forever my friend
Luther Vandross - Lets make tonight the night
Damien Rice - The blowers daughter
Thea Gilmore - Land Of The Free
One Giant leap - My culture
The Mavericks - La Mucara
Fox - Single bed
Red hot chilli peppers - Give it away
Red hot chilli peppers - Under the bridge
PJ Harvey - Working for the man
Alvin Cash - Keep on dancing
Cymande - Brothers on the slide
Tori Amos - Smells like teen spirit
KD Lang - Haliluja
Jill Scott - Do you remember