Grace 901 replacement: Grace m902 - Page 14

Drat! What a time to be out of town. At least it will be safe at the office till I get back next Monday.

Insomniac: Congrats on receiving your 902, I'll let you know how mine is when I get home next week. Enjoy!

ps: Thanks to Jamey and HeadRoom for fantastic service.

Okay, insomniac!

You've had over 24 hours, we expect a review! And I know you don't sleep.

My impressions so far are very positive. The best word I can come up with to describe the sound is tight. Everything sounds so clean and controlled but never edgy. I don't think I had ever really understood what it meant for an amp to control the sound until now. Little details come alive and feel vibrant. The bass is impactful and deep yet fast and tight. This is from using it as a dac and amp. Haven't listened much yet as just an amp.

Insomniac: I see that you have the Benchmark Dac1 in your system. How does the dac of the Grace compare to the Benchmark? Would you prefer one to the other? Or are they about the same. I'm having a hard time deciding whether to buy a dac1 and a headphone amp, or get the whole thing in one package with the Grace. The Grace appears to be very tempting.

Noel

Just ordered an m902.

Will be comparing it to the Grace 901 and Benchmark DAC1.

-Ed

I'm looking forward to that comparison I've considering getting the DAC1 or a m902.

If all goes well, it will be in my hands Tues of next week.

-Ed

Might be useful to point out some other threads/reviews of the 902 on head-fi, as I had not noticed them - figuring people would keep most 902 comments in here - and no one else seems to have pointed them out.

http://www5.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=99931
http://www5.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=100418

Cheers

PS.
Edwood, I'm looking forward to your 902 review about as much as Steve Jobs MacWorld presentation on Tuesday. :-)

M902 Manual

Has any one got a copy of the manual yet? Where on the Grace site can it be found?

Not sure the manual is linkable yet from the website, but Michael Grace provided the above link earlier in this thread.

May be it's such an old thread and a little bit too late. But I'm currently reading this thread and find it very appealing.

I currently use Sony SCD-XA333ES, Earmax Pro(Lush, smooth, organic).

I would like to try to incorporate Grace M902 into the system.
What would be the best sound settings?
Option:
1. Sony -> S/PDIF -> Grace M902(DAC) -> Earmax Pro -> RS-1 or HD650?
2. Sony -> TOSLINK -> Grace M902(DAC) -> Earmax Pro -> RS-1 or HD650?
3. Sony -> Grace M902(headphone out) -> RS-1 or HD650?
4. Sony -> Earmax Pro -> RS-1 or HD650(Meaning forget Grace M902 altogether?)
5. Sony -> Analog out -> Grace M902(pre-Amp) -> EarMax Pro(Amp) -> RS-1 or HD650(SACD/CD)

Also I read from Grace website that this is an audiophile preamplifier. How do I use M902 as a preamplifier to be integrated with Earmax Pro? If I want to use M902 as pre-amp not as DAC, do I connect from Sony to M902 via unbalanced in(Analog Kimber Kable) and then from there I use an additional analog cable Line-Out from M902 to Earmax? Would this result in better sound quality? If this works, the advantage is then, I can turn on Sony SuperAudio option. Since the drawbacks for using Grace M902 as a DAC is that I won't be able to take advantage of Sony SuperAudio feature. Or this only results in By Passing and therefore degrades the sound quality?

At the moment, I really love the sound of earmax pro. I'm trying to get a bit more soundstage and perhaps using the crossfeed features, hopefully to improve the sound quality? I love how tube sounds so I thought by combining both grace and earmax, I may be able to enjoy the best from both world? Solid States combined with Tubes? Or Grace M902 is overpriced for the sound quality it produced, there are other better alternatives?

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Thank you in advance

I think the M902 would be a waste of money for your intended use if I understand what you are trying to accomplish correctly. I suggest that if you want to try crossfeed, buy the Corda Cross-1 for under $200. It has selectable amounts of crossfeed and you can connect it between the Sony and the Earmax Pro. At a street price of $1595 new, the 902 is an expensive cross feed processor.

I used to own the Grace 901 and it's headphone amp section is similiar to the 902's amp. The 902 has preamp capabilities that the 901 did not have but their sound quality is suppose to be similiar. While I owned the 901, I thought it was a decent headphone amp. The Grace as a headphone amp is relatively cool sonically compared to my Raptor. I think the Grace mates best with a warm headphone such as the HD650 and a warm musical source.

PLEASE HELP WITH JUSTIFICATION!!

I tested M902 using the headphone out, the sound is too analytical for me. I still prefer the sound coming from Supermacro LE which is a lot more musical. The DAC is also nothing special

BUT

When I plugged in
1. Sony SCD-XA333ES -> analog out into Grace(Pre-Amp) -> analog out into Earmax Pro(Amp) -> GS1000 -> VERY 3D SOUNDING, Floates, WITH DEPTH, HIHGLY REFINED.

2. Sony SCD-XA333ES -> Earmax Pro -> GS1000 -> more 2Dimensional, harsher, grainier!

How could this be possible? Is this normal? I almost return M902 back to the store! But with configuration number one, it's highly addictive! what should I do? M902 is an expensive equipment for doing only as Pre-Amp. It doesn't seem to justify the cost? Any possible alternative for me? Now it seems that I need a Pre-Amplifier?

I don't use the Corssfeed option anymore.

I'm guessing here that the signal gain provided by the Grace M902 is making the Earmax Pro's job of amplification easier. Perhaps when driven hard by the Grado GS1000's low impedance, the Earmax has a hard time providing the current required but with a little help from the Grace, it does fine. Just a guess.