Diamond Differential vs ACSS output (Audio-gd)

I am interested in this as well. I want to get a ROC (ACSS) or a ROC SA (Diamond Differential)... If I understand the audio-gd website correctly, the use of the DD will result in a smoother, warmer sound while ACSS will give you a neutral sound.

There is another thing that confuses me about the ROC SA, its very large power output of 15W (!!) @ 60Ohm. That would be enough to power small speakers, and way too much for normal headphones... I have just sent an email to audiogd about this.

Give me a couple of weeks- I have the Ref-1 and am getting the Ref-8 and can compare.

I realized this is the amp section but I will post impressions in the source section.

Sorry for reviving an old thread, but it was either that or making a new thread with the same name :p.

Just wanted to share some first impressions after ~40 hours of listening of their diamond differential sa-3000 preamp, connected to ref 1 dac, fbi-500 integrated amp, and mirage omd 28 speakers. I'm double preamping, with xlr input and output on the sa-3000. Double preamping is probably the worst way you can test a preamp, so just think of this as a dubious brief impression of the coloration diamond differential may add to a mostly acss setup. I'll go ahead right now and say if you have an acss gear, and want to replace it with a diamond differential equivalent, or vice versa, I'd suggest not to do it unless you are quite sure what you're getting beforehand, because from what I can tell the difference in both technical detail and sound signature is surprisingly small, which required a lot of listening and switching before I even tried to guess at the differences.

One of the most notable difference in the sa-3000 is that decays and ambience are not as precisely and minutely articulated as acss. It seems to impart a tiny bit of smoothness and harmonic richness without compromising vocal complexity or soundstage depth and width, and seems to dethorn sudden percussions and sibilance without muddying the sound. These colorations are just compared to acss, and I think more practical would be to call this neutral but acss to be just very faithful. These characteristics make the coloration sound unfatiguing and also pleasing for many genres, and great when you want to listen just for fun, but it does detract from recordings where faithful reproduction of the venue, or instruments with rough, harsh or metallic sounds are why we want to listen to the albums. I liken different colored gear as viewing a stone (recording) from different angles and different microscopes, there is one most objective and most clear way to view it, and that reality is what ACSS tries to achieve, with less regard for how album recording and mixing flaws or music itself may occasionally bore us or jar us. Whereas diamond differential, at least when just using one piece in a primarily acss setup, tries to turn the stone to hide minor imperfections, and present it in a way perhaps more palatable or familiar to most non-hardcore hi-fi enthusiasts, with a slight change in lighting to make it look a bit nicer than it really is but not in any way enough to make it seem fabricated or cheesy like some colorations are apt to be.

Not a big difference, but there is still enough difference I'd guess that ~6.5/10 people would enjoy at least one diamond differential piece in their setup more than a purely acss setup, but those people who crave real life sound in all its glory, and are willing to gear match, tweak, and throw out poorly recorded albums, acss would be preferable to you. To sum up, I believe this diamond differential preamp is 90% neutral on most genres, hard to consciously pin down colorations unless you actively listen for high frequency decay and microdetail resolution, but quite unfatiguing and pleasing to listening to for a long time, almost never draws attention to itself since it softens sibilance so well. Biggest drawback is it doesn't have the wow (or ahh the sibilance) factor of acss when it comes to digging up the truth on recordings.

After ~1000 hours on the sa-3000, I may comment more. I know I haven't given this much burn-in so the gear may change a lot, and my opinion may change a lot, but I'm posting now since I was surprised by the sound characteristics I heard. Clearly Kingwa loves neutral and this is a minimalistically colored gear.