Rerurn to Romy the Cat's Site


In the Forum: Didital Things
In the Thread: DAC Recommendations
Post Subject: It shall be easy.Posted by Romy the Cat on: 7/8/2013
fiogf49gjkf0d
 de charlus wrote:
Due to this thread, I called the friend upon whose boat I heard the Vox Olympian in order to find out precisely which DCS DAC he was using with his TLOX to get the sound that I found so remarkable. It turns out that whilst the DCS unit was indeed present, he had given up on the thing - finding it too "clinical" in combination with the TLOX - and was running the TLOX into the decidedly old-fashioned Kondo DAC that I mistakenly thought was a power supply for the pre - or power-amps or something. So, I am nowhere nearer to knowing what was going on than before, since the remarkable results could have been the result of the Vox Olympian, the amplification, the transport and/or DAC, or the synergy of the whole thing. It does tend to lend justification to Romy's assertion that the TLOX is best employed with DACS employing more anachronistic topologies than I might consider if buying a DAC to use with hi-res computer files or a new universal player. It would have been nice to compare the Kondo to the DCS in said system, but since I didn't know what was going on at the time, I didn't ask for such a comparison. Furthermore, I cannot home-audition anything Kondo in Toronto - not that I would want to spend that kind of money on a DAC anyway - and cannot shop-audition the TLOX with the Kondo. So, what I have learned/had confirmed, is that the TLOX is most likely best employed with a specie of DAC that I don't want to afford anyway. I am increasingly of the belief that I should go the universal route with a DAC optimized for that unit, and accept some compromise in the playback of Redbook CD, which is compromised in and of itself. Thanks.

Honestly, if I were you I would not be in harry with any transport or DAC selection. You are good 1-2 years away from the time your installation will be running at full throttle. I absolutely assure that during the next 2 years at least 30 new DACs become available and surprisingly the prices for them are dropping rapidly. Even 10 years ago you would be able to see DACs with $10K-$20K price tag. They were peaty much empty boxes with $50 parts inside, genetically designed with oops in output stages. Even if they were discreet then they still cost pennies. Nowadays the prices are dropped and I think a good DAC shall not be more expensive than $1000-$2000. Take a look what Antelope DACs do – the top of the line machine are around $2000.

I am not surprised that DCS were no go DAC. It is very pure sounding machine; it is no surprise that it needs so much industry help to be sold. You might look into some old chip DACs that were surprisingly good and that cost nothing today: like old Parasoaund 2000, old CEC, old Musatech. It is possible that even looking into something like Linx card which has DACs abort would be fine as a temp solution if you will be screaming from PC.

Charlus, I personally feel that it is wrong to witness a great sound at some place and buy the same units presuming that it will assure your better sound. It never works this way.

Rerurn to Romy the Cat's Site