Updated Picks.
Hello all!
I have some new picks here for my favorites and deleted those items that I no longer carry. I will update the PV site shortly. Anyway, In addition to the alreaedy famous picks here are four new favorites:
The Teradak Chameleon
As Teradak gets closer and closer to a reference NOS DAC, we have with the Chameleon, a very reasonable stop along the way. In our pursuit of great DACs, we are looking for the dynamics, bling bling and articulation of vinyl, without a smushy soundstage. The Chameleon comes close to this as it has some of the resolution capabilities of the Musiland Modified, although it falls short on complex passages and what we use for the digital audio test tone, the piano. But, what a fun listenable DAC we have here – and most of your average catalog Class “B” or whatever DACs cannot touch it.
The Audio gd Reference One
While it is not as musical as the Brigatta, where you can hear throat smoke on the singer, the Reference One is my DAC champ. Why? Because it does everything right, so much so, that on the piano test, not only can you hear the correct initial tone and after tone, you can also precisely hear the after tones of the chords echoing around the wood in the piano. I have only heard this, BTW, with EAC ripped FLAC files through a CyberServer.
The YS Audio Symphonies R
There are resolving preamps, musical preamps, musical preamps that resolve and resolving preamps that are musical – phew!. The YS Audio Symphonies R is a musical preamp that resolves. With the tube upgrade, it is just so much fun because it gets musical timbres right. For the price point, purchasers of this preamp are going to get a price / performance that is out of this world. I just love listening to this thing and right now it leads the pack in preamps less than 1K.
The QLS CyberMini
Ok, putting WAV files on an SD card is a pain in the butt, but, for a couple hundred bucks, you will have a transport that can create such a jitter free sound, that it easily compares to transports costing 3K. When you purchase the CyberMini, you see what we are talking about that digital music should be played through a quiet, spin-less, motionless device that is hard wired and NOT wireless into a DAC. WAV files on the CyberMini excel at our piano test and the lower bass registers are properly produced. You will see what we mean.
Showing posts with label DACS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DACS. Show all posts
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Here they go again.....
In an attempt to woo readers to their never ending boredom of over price audio components, we see our two beloved magazines blaze the dusty desert trail of high end audio in search of the next giant killer. In an effort to keep the very subscribers they are disenfranchising, they will suddenly perseverate on mediocre components and try to make them great. Their history of doing this makes a much better read than their latest pro-bono $20000 amp that they have sitting in their listening rooms waiting for a glowing review.
The giant killer trend started back in the late ‘70s when Mr. Peter Pritchard was making the wonderful moving iron ultra high compliant ADC cartridges. Having sold the company and the patent, Mr. Pritchard started a cartridge company called “Sonus”. The cartridge they all went ga-ga over was the troubled Sonus “Blue” that was put together with peanut butter as the cartridge would literally fall apart while playing, leaving magnets and other space shuttle debris whirling around the player. While they praised these high compliant wonders, the Shure V15 Type III, beat the pants off of the Sonus, as it went much deeper and wider. That’s why my friends, the V15 type III was always in pictures with the excellent SME tonearm. The folks at SME were no dopes.
They went on to hale the $13.00 Grado FTE+1 cartridge all the way to a inexpensive CD player out of Tawain that they claim sounds so good, when in fact, an $80 Onkyo player sounds just as good. Now, in the latest issue of a magazine, they are at it again, claiming that an $89 USB DAC is the same as the $495 Bel Canto 3. ( I can’t wait for the review)
Now I know that folks who read this blog are not falling for the hype of the $89 USB DAC. If they really understood that the weak link in the whole USB computer audio chain is the computer itself, they would not be so quick to jump to this conclusion. And to be honest, I did not order or hear this $89 USB DAC. I don’t have to.
The correct way to compare and listen to computer audio via USB (except for software based USB products like the LILO, Brigatta, Ayre and the Wavelength) is to 1) reboot, 2) close applications in your start tray, 3) close all applications and 4) turn off your monitor. If they did that, then they could help remove most of the grunge that computers generate. Hence maybe they would see the differences in these two DACs are wider than they think.
But why? Saying you have an $89 USB DAC that is a giant killer sells advertising and magazines. It fools the reader into thinking you actually have some value to offer. I got it.
In an attempt to woo readers to their never ending boredom of over price audio components, we see our two beloved magazines blaze the dusty desert trail of high end audio in search of the next giant killer. In an effort to keep the very subscribers they are disenfranchising, they will suddenly perseverate on mediocre components and try to make them great. Their history of doing this makes a much better read than their latest pro-bono $20000 amp that they have sitting in their listening rooms waiting for a glowing review.
The giant killer trend started back in the late ‘70s when Mr. Peter Pritchard was making the wonderful moving iron ultra high compliant ADC cartridges. Having sold the company and the patent, Mr. Pritchard started a cartridge company called “Sonus”. The cartridge they all went ga-ga over was the troubled Sonus “Blue” that was put together with peanut butter as the cartridge would literally fall apart while playing, leaving magnets and other space shuttle debris whirling around the player. While they praised these high compliant wonders, the Shure V15 Type III, beat the pants off of the Sonus, as it went much deeper and wider. That’s why my friends, the V15 type III was always in pictures with the excellent SME tonearm. The folks at SME were no dopes.
They went on to hale the $13.00 Grado FTE+1 cartridge all the way to a inexpensive CD player out of Tawain that they claim sounds so good, when in fact, an $80 Onkyo player sounds just as good. Now, in the latest issue of a magazine, they are at it again, claiming that an $89 USB DAC is the same as the $495 Bel Canto 3. ( I can’t wait for the review)
Now I know that folks who read this blog are not falling for the hype of the $89 USB DAC. If they really understood that the weak link in the whole USB computer audio chain is the computer itself, they would not be so quick to jump to this conclusion. And to be honest, I did not order or hear this $89 USB DAC. I don’t have to.
The correct way to compare and listen to computer audio via USB (except for software based USB products like the LILO, Brigatta, Ayre and the Wavelength) is to 1) reboot, 2) close applications in your start tray, 3) close all applications and 4) turn off your monitor. If they did that, then they could help remove most of the grunge that computers generate. Hence maybe they would see the differences in these two DACs are wider than they think.
But why? Saying you have an $89 USB DAC that is a giant killer sells advertising and magazines. It fools the reader into thinking you actually have some value to offer. I got it.
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