What is the NOS DAC sound?

Monotone

With the music I listen to most of the time the DAC64 gives me more than the NOS, no question. More detail, more punch, more life, with none of the relentless, harsh drawbacks that others mention. I've probably just been lucky. To my ears it fits the rest of our system really well. That said, if I had the choice of buying a huge number of CDs or buying a DAC64 [even second-hand] I could certainly live with the NOS.

DAC64 is worth a listen IMO. Either way my 20 year old Xerxes turntable dumps on CD from a great height...

Paul

 

Thanks Paul

I actually picked the Chord64 over MF21. Found the presentation is much more 'forward' and a way better control of the low. Would definitely be interesting to find out the NOS sound on my system. Will keep everyone when I get a chance to test it with Stuart's DAC.

 

As the person who bought Michaelab's DAC64, I strongly endorse the recommendation to give it a try. I had a serious listen to mine last Saturday and it made me jump out of my seat (in a good way!) I too have a Xerxes turntable, and the DAC64 has brought the sound of CD and the sound of vinyl closer in 'listenability' terms, even using an el cheapo 15 year old Arcam Alpha as the transport. It has quite a 'warm' balance which might or might suit depending on the rest of your system, room etc.

Of course this tells you nothing about how it matches up to the NOS DAC ....

 

I'm sure your Alpha works just fine with the DAC64, Joe. Haven't found much difference with either different transports or i/cs in my system, sounds largely the same. I'm running a Denon DVD-2900 as a transport so I can have DVD and SACD too.

Paul

 

Having a bake off at mine (nr Bradford) Isaac's bringing his superdac (and transport) and Chris is bringing his born-again NOS is there any dac64 users near by fancy coming along?

Proposed date is Thursday 19th May for anyone interested.

 

Hi,

I may be up for this. I own a Chord Dac64.

SCIDB

 

Unfortunately I live a long way from Bradford and have to be in London on that day anyway. Be interested to hear people's opinions.

 

I'm thinking of maybe going down the multi-player route myself at some point, so that's good to know. .

 

Just a quick update...

Thanks to Stuart, we had a listen to NOS Dac against the Chord64 last week on my set up.

My personal opinion... wow! the NOS is certainly great value for money. I reckon it could easily match the MF21 DAC. The NOS was really naturally sounding, and if my recollection is right, it actually handles the lows better than the MF21.

As a Chord64 owner, hopefully not being bias I'm relief to know the Chord still outperforms the NOS. The clarity of the soundstage, details, forwardness improves, but of cos by no way of the price ratio. And of cos the superficial side of things - design, material & manufacturers warranty etc.

Only issue with the NOS is its single digital input option.

Would be interesting to see how much an improved power supply will further enhance the reproduction.

Certainly a great option to improve your CD/DVD player sound.

 

don't forget the chord puts out 3 volts, that will make it sound so much better, when the vols are equalized, the dac 64 sounds less impressive side by side, but on balance, I think the dac64 is perhaps a tad better.
the nos dac is very natural, its problem lies in it uses the output stage in the dac chip, which is a bit weedy, and didn't like a 10kohm input i loaded it with at all.

 

Partly cos the DAC64 costs the equivalent of about £2600RRP in Oz .

I looked at getting one a while back, but I decided to go for the NOS DAC and PSU instead, which should be arriving shortly this wk.

I thought Stuart's NOS DAC had a PSU? If not, it'd be interesting to see how the comparison fares with that in place.

 

Yogus,

I have a NOS DAC with Power Supply in Perth.

It is a mightily impressive performer (in a none hi-fi way).

I have not had it very long and I will post more later, however current thoughts are that it exceeds the peerformance of my other digital gear.

Ken

 

Hey Yogus... the Chord64 mk III is abt £2000 RRP I think... got a even better deal as I was buying it with other gear.

I'll be fuming now if I actually did get the MF21. The Nos is definitely great value if it is built consistantly (and it seems like it does with so many happy users) and design is not an issue.

Enjoy the Nos when it arrives next week!

 

Hi,

Had a pleasant evening playing around with the DACs in Monotone's system. This was my first listen to a DAC64, having only fondled one in a shop previously before dismissing it as too expensive to consider! The Chord is an impressive device, not seeming to do anything wrong with the music, it compliments the rest of Monotone's system very well. It was a little difficult for me to get a handle on the relative differences between the DACs given an un-familiar system and the significant output differences between the DACs. Suffice to say I'd be able to live happily with either.

My NOS DAC doesn't yet have the add on power supply, only the wall wart thingy it came with. I'll get around to ordering the power supply sooner or later – perhaps when I'm next itching for the upgrade hit.

Regards,

Stuart.

 

Mine just arrived a few hours ago, and after spending an hour looking for spare cables, I must admit that it's a mightily impressive device.

In comparison to my Alpha 9, music just seems a bit more rounder and less sterile. The HF seems a bit more etched and detailed, but with no harshness. The mids are nice with good presence and absolutely no sibilance. In contrast, my Arcam was laid back. The mid bass was a big improvement as the Arcam was a bit too warm and full, meaning that bass textures are more easily defined.

By far the biggest improvement was that everything seemed to hang together more cohesively. With my Arcam, you sort of feel that everyone was playing, but maybe not in the same room. With the NOS DAC, everything hung together as if they were all playing together. Call it timing if you will, but not it's the same as the timing you get from say a Naim.

I think the natural sound of the NOS DAC seems to complement the rest of my gear (Bryston + PMC).

 

Yogus,

Glad you like it! Mine was OK out of the box as well, but certainly improved over the first couple of days use. I'm led to believe that this is an artifact of the Black Gate caps. 'burning in'.

Regards,

Stuart.