Neko D100 : Initial impression

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Sorry, man. Still cannot find time to bring Stello back from work. But based on your suggestions I compared optical out of my Sony Vaio with Trends UD-10.1 feeding Chord DAC-64. I disabled buffering on Chord to eliminate extra dejitter to make source difference more apparent. Well, Trends clearly outperformed optical out. It sounded more smooth yet detailed at the same time, optical out was veiled and sibilant in comparison, I could clearly hear those nasty sss in Rebeca Pidgeon's 'Spanish Harlem' from Chesky Demo CD. I even brought independent expert (my wife) to tell which one she likes better and she told me right away that the "first one" (she had no idea what was used the first or second time) sounded more detailed and effortlessly natural, she then did extra round of listening just to confirm.
Forgot to mention, W5000 was used as a test phones due to their insane resolution and GS-1 as an amp. Trends was paired with CIAudio VDC-SB PSU with BNC coax to Chord.

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Hi Andrew

Not sure what your results are? Are you saying that optical out of your Sony laptop was not as good as optical out of the USB Trends? Did you compare the coaxial out of the Trends to optical out of the laptop?

Does the Chord have USB capability?

USG

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Sorry, I thought I mentioned what outputs were used in my post, that was optical out of laptop vs. BNC coax out of Trends. And Trends clearly pulls ahead there. I have just one optical input on Chord to do quick switching, and doubt that heard difference can be attributed by coax vs. optical, if that's what you are trying to imply, it's just too much for that. The Chord I have is older version w/o USB input. So the test was just a comparison of direct optical out with Trends as a converter, take the DAC out of equation for simplicity.

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No implications, just investigations.

Did you try the optical out of the Trends?

Were you able to volume balance?

USG

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It's a digital stream of data, if no digital volume control was utilized, bit by bit they are identical, afraid volume matching is not applicable here. In the end it all goes to the same DAC.

Go for audiogd. Cheaper and performs better

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stainless824 said:

Go for audiogd. Cheaper and performs better

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I disagree with this.  I preferred the D100 to the Ref7.

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the monkey said:

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stainless824 said:

Go for audiogd. Cheaper and performs better

Click to expand...

I disagree with this.  I preferred the D100 to the Ref7.

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The Monkey, could you explain your choice ? What is better with D100 ?
 
Thanks.

 

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kamajihoji said:

I can't believe this is the only thread on this DAC.

 

I've cycled through the Benchmark DAC-1, Eastern Electric Tube DAC not to mention a bunch of  other cheaper DACs, and the Neko Audio remains my favorite.

 

I would describe it's sound as being very neutral in terms of tonality with a flat frequency response, besides a small bump in the lower midrange.  Clarity and detail are superb and beat out the DAC-1.

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I agree. The Neko has been my main DAC for over a year. Very transparent, delicate, and resolving midrange with a nice musical slightly warm sound. I listen to it via a preamp  and speakers.  No head phones. I feel it needs a good preamp. On its own it is slightly lacks a certain vividness of definition and energy (micro-dynamics). This is remedied with a good pre-amp. I am currently comparing it to an Audio-gd NFB-7 which I have on a 30 home trial.

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pasgod said:

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the monkey said:

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stainless824 said:

Go for audiogd. Cheaper and performs better

Click to expand...

I disagree with this.  I preferred the D100 to the Ref7.

Click to expand...

The Monkey, could you explain your choice ? What is better with D100 ?
 
Thanks.

 

Click to expand...

 
I just prefer the sound signature of the D100.  Of course, this is from memory so take it for whatever that's worth.  But I thought the D100 had better bass and more impact.  However, I'm the first to admit that memory-based impressions are not the most reliable.  Regardless, not every thread in this forum needs to be about audio-gd.
 

I just finished my 14 day trial....
 
I would like to thank Wes again for initiating this program. This is great way to audition a piece of gear in YOUR system for an extended period of time with no pressure for only the cost of shipping the gear to the next person on the list.
 
I was expecting the differences between my 1K source and the Neko to be negligible but this really wasn’t the case. I use some basic vibration control devices in my system but since I have a small rack and I wanted to retain the ability to A/B the Neko with my current dac the Neko wound up in the only place there was room within cable’s distance from my amp - on top of the CD transport. I plugged the Neko straight into the wall and used the power chord supplied with unit.
 
I power up my system at least an hour before I do any listening. I find that it takes about this long for my DAC and/or Class A amp to sound its best.
 
I listened to an entire CD that I am very familiar with on my system before switching over to the Neko. For the first 30 seconds I couldn’t help think that this whole exercise was a waste of time as I initially found the Neko to be somewhat dull and lifeless. Within a few minutes though the Neko graciously presented its strengths and differentiated itself from my dac.
 
I don’t speak much ‘audiophile’ so I’ll explain what differences I noticed in my own words.
 
Instrument Placement – IMO the Neko excels in this area. While I can easily locate instruments within the sound-stage with my dac I found the Neko is better at providing the necessary information to do this regardless of what’s going on within the music. My dac doesn’t move soft/quiet instruments during busier/louder passages but it places a haze or curtain between them and you. They’re still there but you have to really focus to locate them once the music steps up in other areas. With the Neko the quiet subtle sounds remain completely unchanged when the musical composition gets busier/louder. Steve Gadd’s drumming on Steely Dan’s AJA album occasionally crescendos into somewhat of a drum solo style and normally the band gets lost behind the drum kit but with the Neko even the quietly mixed sax can be heard without straining.   
 
Grunge – Call it what you’d like, power contamination, vibration induces distortion, jitter, cable reflections, or digitalitous. I couldn’t detect any of it.   
 
Sound-stage Depth – MA Recordings – VOICES really demonstrated how good the Neko is in this area. This CD is a compilation of female vocalists and small accompaniments in empty churches. The Neko easily defines the size of the venue and also places all of the players within that space, left to right and front to back.
 
Details – The Neko allows you to hear many details overlooked by lesser dacs but doesn’t really overly accentuate them nor do you have to strain to listen for them.
 
Cohesion – The music is clear, it’s complete, and it remains intact throughout the performance. 
 
Timbre – I preferred listening to pianos more on my dac than the Neko but my dac has a much warmer sound so I can’t say with any confidence which one is more ‘right’ but only which I prefer.
 
The Neko is considerably ‘less warm’ than my current dac (I would never think to call it lean) but I can’t say with any confidence where it actually falls in lean-neutral-warm spectrum.  
 
I don’t think the Neko does anything wrong and in fact does quite a few things very well. For the two weeks it was in my system all I really ever heard was the music. I don’t think I thought about how my system sounded once during the whole trial period.
 
Gear used: Sennheiser HD-650 (stock cable), Sony CD Player feeding the Neko via a TOSLINK and Veloce Black Cat coax cable, DIY Class A headphone amp, Herbie’s Audio Labs tenderfeet under the CD player and amp, Parasound power filter feeding the CD player and amp.
 
Here’s just some of the CD’s I used: Steely Dan’s AJA, Rush’s MOVING PICTURES, MA Recordings’ VOICES, Norah Jones’s COME AWAY WITH ME, Carolyn Dawn Johnson’s ROOM WITH A VIEW, and Sabine Meyer MOZART CLARINET CONCERTO (K622).
 
 
 
 
 
 

^
I have to say thanks to Tom W, that made me aware of the Neko D100 EU Loaner program. I just signed for it and hopefully in a few months I'll be able to try this DAC at home. Any other UK volunteer??

I remember hearing the non-MKII version with a Stax O2 system and it was definitely a very warm sounding DAC and for my personal taste, it was a little bit too dark. The O2 by itself is tilted towards the dark side though so perhaps they were not a very good match. I guess some system matching is needed with the D100 because with the wrong headphone and amplifier, the combination can be a little bit dull-sounding. 

Just joined the EU Loaner program so likely to be next after Realmassy