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REVIEW: Ross Martin PCM 1794 DAC- $250 Overachiever - Page 4

post #46 of 59
6/21/12 at 4:47pm

I ended up canceling my order after waiting almost 6 weeks with nothing, but crickets. 

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post #47 of 59
6/21/12 at 4:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by alphaphoenix View Post

I ended up canceling my order after waiting almost 6 weeks with nothing, but crickets. 

damn that sucks man I'm sorry to hear that. did you speak to him at time of cancellation?

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post #48 of 59
6/21/12 at 6:03pm

I tried.  Never could contact directly over the phone and get a live person, and after my initial email inquiry with a response "just wait", they never responded back to any more of my update inquiries for a rough estimate time of completion.  Perhaps, I was in deep with a swarm of orders that may have occurred at the same time I placed my order.

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post #49 of 59
6/21/12 at 6:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by alphaphoenix View Post

I tried.  Never could contact directly over the phone and get a live person, and after my initial email inquiry with a response "just wait", they never responded back to any more of my update inquiries for a rough estimate time of completion.  Perhaps, I was in deep with a swarm of orders that may have occurred at the same time I placed my order.

that's weird, he was pretty responsive to all my emails. Even the one I sent after I received it thanking him he responded rather quickly to.

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post #50 of 59
6/21/12 at 6:52pm

I've had one of the RMA 1794 DACs for about 5 months now and love it!  Mine has the National OP amps and a BNC input.  I use the single ended RCA outputs because they sound better to me than the balanced XLR outs.

 

Prior to the RMA DAC, I had a stock PS Audio D-link III which I sold because it really didn't sound any better than the other digital sources I had, such as a Sony ES blu-ray, and Emotiva ERC-1..  The D3 did best the DAC in my Behringer DEQ2496, but not by much!  The down-stream gear, consisting of a Cary Audio class D integrated, Jungson class A integrated and Gallo Acoustics Reference 3.1s  certainly are capable of revealing differences between components, if those differences do, in fact, exist.  After all the great buzz, I was surprissd the D3 didn't blow away my other sources, but it didn't and in the end, I couldn't justify keeping it. 

 

Enter the Ross Martin Audio DAC...  To be fair to the D3, since it was already gone before the Ross Martin  DAC arrived, I couldn't do a direct comparison between the two, but if the D-3 had sounded this good I would have thought my $650.00 well spent and been thoroughly satisfied with the SQ of my system.    Unlike the D3, the Ross Martin DAC, in the configuration I ordered, definitely does sound substantially better than the other digital sources listed above.   You know how much fun it is to hear textures and effects etc. in familiar music that you've never noticed before, even though you've heard the music dozens or even hundreds of times?  Well this DAC has that in spades and I can hardly tear myself away from listening these days.  Even though it sounded very good right out of the box, it just keeps getting better, even now at 5 months out.   

 

I suspect the word is getting out about these DACs and Ross might be inundated with orders.  Any business person in this economy would naturally be cautious hiring workers and expanding their business and he may be trying to juggle it all by himself.  I hope he doesn't burn himself out and I wish him much success because offering this much SQ for so few FRNs is a gift to those of us in this hobby.  As the technology evolves I'll look forward to what he offers us in the future.   BTW, It took about 2 weeks from order to arrival for mine.

 

All the usual caveats apply and I have no affiliation with Ross Martin Audio other than being a very impressed customer.

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post #51 of 59
7/13/12 at 12:40pm

I am getting ready to order the the PCM1794 Dual "Bare Beast" with OPA627 and OPA1612's but I don't need a headphone amp.  

It will have everything else:
 
2-TOS/Optical input
2-SPDIF input
1-AES input
1-96kHz USB input
Balanced XLR outputs
RCA analog outputs
 

I contacted Ross and he quickly responded to say that he would build it for $391.95 + $13.50 shipping.

 

For a studio/audiophile quality DAC (dual PCM1794 and high end OPA's), this is an exceptional value.

I can't wait to get mine!


Edited by MrKTrout - 7/13/12 at 12:44pm
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post #52 of 59
7/19/12 at 12:54pm

is there any advantage to the dual setup other than bragging rights?  I'm going to try one of his builds.
 

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post #53 of 59
7/28/12 at 8:20pm

I found a USB cable at work and brought it home to use with with DAC and noticed that even when I was using optical I could hear noise from the computer like mouse scrolling and hovering over links like the links at the very bottom of the forum. As soon as I removed the USB cable these disappeared.

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post #54 of 59
8/8/12 at 11:59pm

I am now selling this unit if anyone is interested.

 

http://www.head-fi.org/t/621794/ross-martin-pcm-1794-dac

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post #55 of 59
8/19/12 at 11:56pm

my little Ross Martin DAC kills my CS4398 with transformer output on digital 2-mic recordings I made 20 years ago of my live band ---its significantly clearer and more dynamic --- will have to compare it to other DAC in my pile.   This tells me the HA INFO USB-SPDIF is pretty good too.

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post #56 of 59
2/13/13 at 11:26am

Has someone compared it to Bifrost yet? I saw such requests a few pages back... I'm really interested in getting one of these.

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post #57 of 59
2/14/13 at 2:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by adani View Post

Has someone compared it to Bifrost yet? I saw such requests a few pages back... I'm really interested in getting one of these.

I can't comment on the bifrost but it's an awesome DAC, you should take the plunge

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post #58 of 59
2/15/13 at 1:18am
Quote:
Originally Posted by kskwerl View Post

I can't comment on the bifrost but it's an awesome DAC, you should take the plunge

You sig says you own FiiO E10. Currently I have FiiO E17 (which I plan to use as a DAC only) and since the two are roughly similar in SQ when used as DACs, can you please briefly compare e10 with Ross Martin's 1794? Is it a substantial upgrade over fiio?

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post #59 of 59
2/16/13 at 2:06am
Quote:
Originally Posted by adani View Post

You sig says you own FiiO E10. Currently I have FiiO E17 (which I plan to use as a DAC only) and since the two are roughly similar in SQ when used as DACs, can you please briefly compare e10 with Ross Martin's 1794? Is it a substantial upgrade over fiio?

The Ross Martin is a significant upgrade in SQ over the FiiO E10. I cannot comment on the E17 though.

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