The Lavry DA11: For your ears only

[niemion]

Originally Posted by Jeremy

The built-in amp is truly excellent! In fact, I have yet to find an external amp to beat it. I've auditioned several tube and solid state amps with the DA11, several in the $1000 + range, and none cold match the built-in amp. Of course, there are lots of headphone amps out there and I have only heard a fraction of them.

That's good to hear. I hope some comparisons won't be judged OT:

The DA11 would cost me about 2170USD.

What would I gain/lose if I brought the Audio-gd Ref-1 + Phoenix over the DA11? For me, the price would be 30% in favor of the latter.

I also got interested in the Decware CSP2 after reading a HD800 review done by skylab. Coupling the Decware CSP2 with something like the DacMagic or the Abrahamsen V6 DAC, what kind of sound would I end up with, still comparing it with the DA11? The CSP2+DacMagic combo would be only 70% of the DA11 price.

I realize that one strong point of the DA11 is it's humble size, to me it looks almost portable. (judged from a couple of flickr images where the DA11 is set up next to the Sonett and the Raptor respectively)

[thisbenjamin]

niemion - If you're looking for a transparent, reference quality DAC solution I would strongly urge you to look at the DA11, the Alpha DAC from Berkley, maybe a used Pacific Microsonics, the Wadia or McIntosh but those might be a bit of budget. I wouldn't compare the compass to the DA11 - they performance very different. The build quality of the DA11 is leaps beyond the compass as well.

I'm not saying the DA11 is the only option out there, but for the size, bundled features, customer and product support from the Lavry's and overall sound quality regardless of using it purely as a DAC or a DAC with the built in headphone amp (PiC is growing on me) it's hard to beat it. Not being in the US the fact that it's designed, and built in the US likely doesn't mean to much, but it's a huge deal for us

[niemion]

Originally Posted by thisbenjamin

niemion - If you're looking for a transparent, reference quality DAC solution I would strongly urge you to look at the DA11, the Alpha DAC from Berkley, maybe a used Pacific Microsonics, the Wadia or McIntosh but those might be a bit of budget. I wouldn't compare the compass to the DA11 - they performance very different. The build quality of the DA11 is leaps beyond the compass as well.

I'm not saying the DA11 is the only option out there, but for the size, bundled features, customer and product support from the Lavry's and overall sound quality regardless of using it purely as a DAC or a DAC with the built in headphone amp (PiC is growing on me) it's hard to beat it. Not being in the US the fact that it's designed, and built in the US likely doesn't mean to much, but it's a huge deal for us

Thank you tb. I'm not comparing it to the compass though. US built doesn't mean anything to me, I think well crafted China-stuff can be just as good. I do understand where you're coming from though, but given Audio-gd's renome, the origin doesn't bother me.

The only thing I can complain about with the HD800 is the treble emphasis on certain tracks. Would the DA11 make this worse? Better? Same?

[thisbenjamin]

The DA11 is accurate to the source material. If a track is bright you're going to hear it, if it's perfect and mastered / engineered by the best you're going to get it all. If you like a tube sound, or that type of distortion (nothing wrong with that) you will want to use it as a DAC so you can hear every source from a tube amp, or bugger stage before an external amp. The transparency is amazing, it's the only DAC I've heard in this price range that I'm comfortable using to demo my mastering, engineering efforts. I wish you were near by I'd let you come check it out.

[ranma172]

I have a question.

At my home, some wall sockets have ground connection (first picture) while others don't (second picture). (And I'm not sure if ground sockets are really connected to ground).

Is it important to plug the DA11 into a wall socket with ground connection? Will it affect sound quality? Or is it just for safety reasons in case of voltage variations? (may I fry the device?...)

Thanks!

[USAudio]

Originally Posted by ranma172

Is it important to plug the DA11 into a wall socket with ground connection? Will it affect sound quality? Or is it just for safety reasons in case of voltage variations? (may I fry the device?...)

If you don't get a satisfactory answer here you might try posting it on the Lavry Engineering forum where it will be noticed by Lavry Customer Support:
Lavry Engineering - View forum - Audio Technology
or just email them directly, they're pretty responsive:
http://www.lavryengineering.com/supp...e_contact.html

[ranma172]

Thanks USAudio, I'll post there too.

[ranma172]

I also wanted to know what you think about the noise in AC power lines?
Is the DA11 isolated from it, should we use some kind of filter?
Or we don't need to bother about it at all?

[Dan Lavry]

Originally Posted by ranma172

I also wanted to know what you think about the noise in AC power lines?
Is the DA11 isolated from it, should we use some kind of filter?
Or we don't need to bother about it at all?

We have been a bit slow to answer here and in the Lavry engineering forum on our site - our tech support is just back from the Audio Engineering convention in NY... Just catching up.

The DA11 is a very low noise unit, and there is much filtering and isolation. As always, it is a good idea to follow good practices. Such practices include powering all the gear involved in recording and listening from nearby AC plugs, and paying attention to grounds. This tends to be is less of an issue with headphones, and it is also less of an issue with DA's in general:

Power and grounds can have a rather obvious and direct impact on analog gear - power line hum, RF pickup and alike. With a DA the input is digital, enabling ground current isolation. In the DA11, the electric inputs are transformer coupled, and of course the optical input is isolated as well.

Most of the INPUT related interconnections of a DA tend to be around jitter.
It would take a lot of abuse for the DA11 to be impacted. For the output, when using a headphone, there is no grounding issues at all - the cans are connected directly to the DA11. If you use external devices (power amp, headphone amp and others), it is best to use BALANCED input for rejection of power line noise, grounding, cable pickup of noise... And of course it is best to use very nearby AC plugs for all devices (including the DA11).

But as a rule, the DA11 is very sturdy and provides high immunity against interference.

Regards
Dan Lavry

[ranma172]

Thank you very much for your explanation, Dan!

What do you mean by "nearby AC plugs"? Wall outlets that are near to the house main power supply? Or just any wall outlet (without using a cable extension)?

Brad replied in your forum and said that if it were connected to an un-grounded outlet, it could cause "hum" or noise in the audio. What do you think?

[danne]

Finally made up my mind about what DAC to get and ordered an DA11 today, will get it by friday. :-)

[thisbenjamin]

You made the right decision danne, prepare for a new world of transparency.

[danne]

Ive listned to the DAC before at the mini-meet so I already know its a great pice of work, but so is many of its competiors.
What made me go this route was actually after reading alot the great posts by Dan and seeing how he contributes to the forum without advertising hes product.
So it really feelt like well spent money. :-)

[thisbenjamin]

I don't think meet's quite portray the experience of something as masterfully engineered as his DAC/ADC creations. When at first it was an amazing veil lifted from the music (we're talking in transparency, not in the "experience") - it's game changing when you can trust hardware to reveal the entire production, no jumping between daws and hardware, this is it.

[Jeremy]

Originally Posted by danne

Finally made up my mind about what DAC to get and ordered an DA11 today, will get it by friday. :-)

Did you decide on an amp as well? I remember in another thread you were concerned about the built-in amp sounding too thin alongside dedicated headphone amps. I think the built-in amp is extremely good, but I confess I'm sorely tempted to add the DNA Sonett to the chain, which is even better, though not by much.