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Review of Audio-GD DAC-19MK3 - Page 14

post #196 of 691
10/14/09 at 11:05am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by regal View Post
I ordered both boards but I don't like the DF1704, every implementation I've heard had sharp sibilance, It can be corrected somewhat by using the Slow-rolloff feature but IMO it is an inferior chip. The issue people are having is the analog filter cuts into the audio band, this will affect the PMD100 more, fixing the analog filter will solve this and show the PMD100's potential. In other words the analog filter was designed around the DF1704 not the PMD100.
I have read many times that PMD100 is supposed to be superior to the DF1704. But it seems that the people at Pacific Valve prefer DF1704 with the dac-19mk3.
So it would be very intersting to see if modding the analog filter gives the edge back to the PMD100 chip
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post #197 of 691
10/14/09 at 7:51pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by regal View Post
The way I look at Chinese gear is they owe us the schematic 'cause it is too costly to send back to China for repair. With the schematics we can service it ourselves.
I think this is a ridiculous assumption. If you paid 2K for it maybe, (that is a very slight maybe), but the low cost of the unit is the reward here.

Peete.
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post #198 of 691
10/19/09 at 11:06am
I recieved this DAC today. For the money it is excellent. It blows the PS Audio DLII out of the water. It compares very closely to my Pass D1. Not quite as lifelike as my DIR9001-PMD100-PCM63K- 6n6P tube DAC. I am debating about doing away with the discrete analog stage and switching to a tube stage but this is more difficult with the PCM1704's because they have less output current. The analog filter is causing some rolloff/muffling.


As far as schematics, any peice of equipment you buy, be it Sony, Panasonic, appliances, TV, anything, you can get the schematic from the dealer. It is not rediculous to expect a service manual/schematic from Audio-GD.
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post #199 of 691
10/19/09 at 11:40am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by regal View Post
I recieved this DAC today. For the money it is excellent. It blows the PS Audio DLII out of the water. It compares very closely to my Pass D1. Not quite as lifelike as my DIR9001-PMD100-PCM63K- 6n6P tube DAC. I am debating about doing away with the discrete analog stage and switching to a tube stage but this is more difficult with the PCM1704's because they have less output current. The analog filter is causing some rolloff/muffling.


As far as schematics, any peice of equipment you buy, be it Sony, Panasonic, appliances, TV, anything, you can get the schematic from the dealer. It is not rediculous to expect a service manual/schematic from Audio-GD.
It is interesting to know that it performs better than the PS Audio DLII.
As for the sound, it may still open up, it took me around 400 hours of burn-in. As for the roll-off/muffling, I found that the DF1704 module solves that issue.
Anyway, let us now if you are able to mode the unit, you might be the first one to do it
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post #200 of 691
10/19/09 at 12:35pm
Audio-gd has a lenient warranty if you blow up their product yourself, free labor for repair. And they have full warranty for a year if it blows up by itself. So they have incentive not to give people schematics although they do provide schematics for some products. But since you have the expertise to repair, I think it might be fair for you to ask audio-gd to give you schematics after the warranty period is over. They might refuse though because they might not want people copying their design or getting the idea that they should be as mod-happy as yourself, but eh worth a try, I remember tyson saying once that audio-gd provided full schematics to attempt repair himself.
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post #201 of 691
10/20/09 at 9:44am
Besting the PS AUdio II is no surprise, remember it uses inferior sigma delta PCM DAC chips.


In the first 24 hrs I am blown away by the sound. I am even starting to prefer it to my custom tube DAC. Now I only wonder what the DAC-9 MK3 sounds like, I don't see how it could be any better.

I bought the DF1704 board with it but about 90% of my music catalog is HDCD so I don't I'll bother with it, mainly bought the DF1704 board for resale value if I decide to upgrade to the DAC-9 MK3.
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post #202 of 691
10/21/09 at 12:51pm
Day three and this thing is mind-blowing. The best DAC I have heard under $2000. I am so tempted to try one of their higher models with the PMD100. Has anyone tried the DAC 9-MK3 or the DAC-3SE? Not sure which one is considered their best PMD100 DAC.

I am amazed at how little attention the 19MK3 is getting, it is a giant killer, nearly at the level of the Mark Levinson 36 which I consider the best DAC ever made.

This is big news IMO, all these new S-D DACs sound like digititis compared to this 19MK3. You have all the features of a good DAC design: R2R DAC chip, zero feedback discrete output, choice of PMD100 or DF1704, and a solid DIR9001 reciever. This is really bucking the trend of marketing ploy jitter reduction schemes which do nothing , DSP filters, and $8 sigma delta chips, which is what we have been dealing with for 9 years. I hope this is a new trend toward sound quality rather than marketing mumbo-jumbo. Too bad both the PMD100 & the DF1704 have been discontinued.


Edit- The DF1704 is still available but is planned to be discontinued, hopefully TI learned their lesson when the tried to discontinue the PCM1704.
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post #203 of 691
10/21/09 at 1:19pm
I receive my DAC19MK3 5 days a go, and it's a really good DAC, blow the hell away the DACMagic, wich now belong to my son, the quality of these DAC it's just amazing, the best invest i make to my system in many many years, if these thing it's gona give it's best until 300 hours of use i really can't imagine the quality of the sound it's going to produce.
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post #204 of 691
10/21/09 at 4:04pm
Hi guys, I need your input here, currently owned a unit of COMPASS with EARTH as DAC, I'm looking upgrade to DAC19MKIII, personally looking for better bass impact from DAC19MKIII compare to COMPASS, the DF1704 struck me as being more analytical chip, scare the DAC19MKIII might ends up being less impactful compareto COMPASS in bass attack which is quite important in some of my drum record playback! Hopefully to see some feedback here, thanks!
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post #205 of 691
10/21/09 at 4:12pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by godluvsxs View Post
Hi guys, I need your input here, currently owned a unit of COMPASS with EARTH as DAC, I'm looking upgrade to DAC19MKIII, personally looking for better bass impact from DAC19MKIII compare to COMPASS, the DF1704 struck me as being more analytical chip, scare the DAC19MKIII might ends up being less impactful compareto COMPASS in bass attack which is quite important in some of my drum record playback! Hopefully to see some feedback here, thanks!
Before upgrading to the DAC-19mk3, I had the Audio-gd DAC-100 (with the Earth hdam) which is basically the dac section of the Compass, and there is a huge improvement in bass impact with this upgrade. In fact, it is like adding a subwoofer to your system. When I first tried the DAC-19mk3, I was surprised by the improvement in bass (and all other sectors), it was the kind of improvement in drive I would have expected in an amp upgrade (you can read my review in the first post).
As for the DF1704, I found that after burn-in it has deeper bass than the PMD100 (in my system). So you should definitely not worry about bass impact
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post #206 of 691
10/21/09 at 4:21pm
I don't think the 19MKIII or any Audio-GD product will provide you with more bass than the original bass in the recording, audio-gd products are all natural sounding.

In my experience so far with these DAC if the bass is in the original signal i can hear it loud, deep an clear as it's meant to be, it's a very revealing DAC.
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post #207 of 691
10/21/09 at 6:16pm
godluvsxs, bass can be much tighter on the dac19mk3 but they both have about the same quantity if your audio chain can show it. Imo bass is highly dependent on cables and clean power, it may not be worth it to upgrade to the dac19mk3 if you don't at least recable the headphones, with stock headphone cable the main difference you will hear between compass and dac19mk3 are in the mid and high frequencies. I think if you recable your headphones with something like Canare 4E6S, plug everything into a power conditioner and try a bassy media player like otachan+mediamonkey and you'll get a big improvement in the compass' bass performance, these upgrades won't make the compass have as tight bass as the dac19mk3 but it may give you what you're looking for.
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post #208 of 691
10/21/09 at 6:55pm
Thread Starter 
The dac-19mk3 has a deeper but tighter bass than the dac-100 (compass) in my system.
So indeed, if godluvsxs is purely looking for a bassy dac, the dac-19mk3 might not provide the expected improvement especially if he didn't recable his headphone and upgraded his power cord.
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post #209 of 691
10/21/09 at 7:11pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by regal View Post
Day three and this thing is mind-blowing. The best DAC I have heard under $2000. I am so tempted to try one of their higher models with the PMD100. Has anyone tried the DAC 9-MK3 or the DAC-3SE? Not sure which one is considered their best PMD100 DAC.

I am amazed at how little attention the 19MK3 is getting, it is a giant killer, nearly at the level of the Mark Levinson 36 which I consider the best DAC ever made.

This is big news IMO, all these new S-D DACs sound like digititis compared to this 19MK3. You have all the features of a good DAC design: R2R DAC chip, zero feedback discrete output, choice of PMD100 or DF1704, and a solid DIR9001 reciever. This is really bucking the trend of marketing ploy jitter reduction schemes which do nothing , DSP filters, and $8 sigma delta chips, which is what we have been dealing with for 9 years. I hope this is a new trend toward sound quality rather than marketing mumbo-jumbo. Too bad both the PMD100 & the DF1704 have been discontinued.


Edit- The DF1704 is still available but is planned to be discontinued, hopefully TI learned their lesson when the tried to discontinue the PCM1704.

If you like the 19MK III you ought to try the Reference 1 I love mine for it's amazing red book performance.

Peete.
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post #210 of 691
10/21/09 at 11:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by JulioCat View Post
I receive my DAC19MK3 5 days a go, and it's a really good DAC, blow the hell away the DACMagic, wich now belong to my son, the quality of these DAC it's just amazing, the best invest i make to my system in many many years, if these thing it's gona give it's best until 300 hours of use i really can't imagine the quality of the sound it's going to produce.
Really? It blows away the DacMagic? That's what I have right now and I always thought it sounded pretty decent. This has me very curious now. Can you comment on what things you noticed that were better on the 19MK3 compared to the DacMagic?
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