Cypher Labs AlgoRhythm Solo - Discussion and Impressions Thread - Page 84

Dave is old school. Great in responding immediately...just old school great. I guess, i'll know when it comes in with a different serial no. 

When I sent mine back for the balanced output issue, he sent me a brand new one with extra cables. He is a great guy to deal with. Truly a top-notch customer service. 

yea i got a mail from david too and he asked me to send it back.  i checked with the local post office and they're not exactly happy to mail any battery device at all(overseas).  see if dhl or other vendor can help. 

It seems that the r and db have compatibility issue with any amp without input coupling capacitor. Simply raising the output level won't be a solution. I wonder how will cypher labs will fix this problem.

Supposed to already be fixed.........I'll let you know in a week or two when i have a new one because i have one of the amps that seems to be incompatible on the -R thus far.

Dave got my defective R and is shipping the replacement tomorrow. Real stand up guy.

Got my new Solo -R today, playing it with the Pico Power.  A/Bing with the Fostex HP-P1 periodically.

I'm living in France and David swapped my defectuous -R against a -dB again defectuous against an updated -dB full brand new and that's done !! ALL is fully functionnal with any Amp: RxMKIII, Portaphile, PicoAmp.

Even a CL tee-shirt in the last parcel...

Great sound with different Headphones (even RxMkIII fueling HE-500).

Very high level service from David. Buy there eyes closed.

Edited by cladane - 3/27/13 at 4:13am

I just got myself a second hand Original CLAS and a new iPod Classic hoping to improve my portable rig. I have to say that I am very disappointed in the sound quality from the DAC of the CLAS. It sounds so dark and veiled that I do prefer my old iPod classic 5.5G with a LOD directly into my Just Audio AHA-120. The old iPod Classic has better clarity and wider soundstage to my ears.

 

 

Is it just me or is the sound characteristics of the old CLAS, using the analog out, a darker than neutral sound signature?

 

 

Are the DAC in the new -dB and -R better (or brighter) than the old CLAS DAC?

How about resolution - do the new versions offer better resolution in the sound from the -R or-dB analog out?

 

.... if not then I think I will just go back to using the analog LOD out from my old iPod. I really do not like the darker coloration of the sound signature if that is what I will get. 

Edited by rasmushorn - 3/28/13 at 3:38am

I just a/b against the line out of the classic, because i hadn't tried that yet and i feel the Solo -R is a substantial improvement.  My ears are so used to the Fostex that at first i was a little underwhelmed with the Solo but what i think i am hearing is a more balanced sound out of the CLAS -R than the Fostex.  Maybe because the Fostex seems to emphasis the Bass and Treble and the mids are set back a bit to give stronger imaging and detailed appearance.  They are both good, just different presentations i guess.  The Line out dock i find pretty flat.  

My replacement solo-r came back from Dave and sounds great with my other portable amp that initially had aproblem with the music cutting off beyond 9. No more of the scratchy sound when turning the volume and for some reason, sounds even better. While the solo-r was gone this week. Was just using the LOD with the pico power...sounds good but with the solo-r connected, even better. Thanks, Dave.

 

Sorry to hear the CLAS disappointed. Because CLAS requires an interconnect to and from, maybe this is where improvements could be made?

They should sound different as I believe they use two different DAC chips as the original CLAS used a Wolfson chip and the CLAS -db uses an AKM 4396 chip.  My Logitech Transporter and my CLAS -db both use this DAC chip and both are incredibly detail sounding and revealing...

The "Miracle" DAC.

Q: For those of you who received your -R and -db replacements, could you brief us what has changed (aside from the cut-off fix with certain amps)? In particular the following factors I'm keen to know :-

 

1) Does balanced mode still exaggerates pot scratch noise on the amp?

2) Any change to volume?

3) Any RF noise still when the CLAS -db & Rx Mk3 are banded together, and when you touch the amp chassis?

 

Anything else that you've noticed that wasn't mentioned above?

 

Cheers