[feelingears]

The rar file at the bottom of the directions page contains a word document showing a wire resolder for the Amanero module.

 
Well, thanks for going to the trouble of unwrapping an obscure file format to open a Word doc! Not sure if I should laugh or cry but regardless, disregard everything I wrote in the previous post #1610. This apparently isn't an update for the general public. (New buyers however, presumably may get the benefit. Presumably.)

 

[Hansotek]

Well, thanks for going to the trouble of unwrapping an obscure file format to open a Word doc! Not sure if I should laugh or cry but regardless, disregard everything I wrote in the previous post #1610. This apparently isn't an update for the general public. (New buyers however, presumably may get the benefit. Presumably.)

.rar isn't exactly an obscure format. That being said, a PDF would be more efficient.

 

[desik]

  PC is a top-of-the-line Win-7/64 machine I had built a couple years ago w/256GB SSD + 2TB HD, best Intel chip then available, pricey sound card I never use, etc. I spec'd the desktop's case for utter silence (Fractal Designs "Define R4")...a big, black obelisk, utterly quiet.
 
I listen to music all day long. 95% of it is classical music or jazz streamed from Europe, primarily the Netherlands--the highest bit-rates I can get. But this isn't top-notch audio quality, just background.
 
For heavier listening, I have dozens of CDs & CD compilations I made, ripped to the HD using JRiver's best settings; also many 100s of CDs. Haven't yet explored hi-rez files.
 
I have USB connected from the desktop PC via Belden Gold (soon to be replaced w/Supra 2.0 USB cable) to a Musical Fidelity USB/spdif converter, the 24 bit/192-bit V-Link. Connecting it to the NOS 19 is a Oyaide DB-DR 510 Digital Cable (really excellent--audibly better than the BJC it replaced).

Ok, so you are using a SPDIF transport after all. I'll have to check the offers then. I'm wondering what's the benefit of the expensive receiver chip inside the DAC-19, if low-jitter input signal is so important.

 

[Pharmaboy]

 
Ok, so you are using a SPDIF transport after all. I'll have to check the offers then. I'm wondering what's the benefit of the expensive receiver chip inside the DAC-19, if low-jitter input signal is so important.

 
I don't know much about the design/interior components of the DAC-19, or NOS 19, for that matter (just that the latter sounds pretty damned good).
 
By "expensive receiver chip," do you mean an SPDIF receiver--or USB receiver?
 
I've read various posts to this thread and another re the Singxer SU-1 converter boxes state that when that high-end converter is used to feed an I2S data stream to a compatible DAC, the DAC's SPDIF receiver should be bypass/disconnected for audible benefit, as the I2S data stream bypasses it.
 
Anyway, is that what you meant?
 
BTW, I got in the habit of using an SPDIF converter years ago, and now see its primary benefit not as jitter reduction (the NOS 19's amannero chip would take care of that just fine), but because it permits use of the Oyaide DB-DR 510 coax cable, which I've found to sound better (I've found that coax/digital signals in general sound better, and this cable in particular) than any USB implementation.

 

[desik]

   
I don't know much about the design/interior components of the DAC-19, or NOS 19, for that matter (just that the latter sounds pretty damned good).
 
By "expensive receiver chip," do you mean an SPDIF receiver--or USB receiver?
 
I've read various posts to this thread and another re the Singxer SU-1 converter boxes state that when that high-end converter is used to feed an I2S data stream to a compatible DAC, the DAC's SPDIF receiver should be bypass/disconnected for audible benefit, as the I2S data stream bypasses it.
 
Anyway, is that what you meant?
 
BTW, I got in the habit of using an SPDIF converter years ago, and now see its primary benefit not as jitter reduction (the NOS 19's amannero chip would take care of that just fine), but because it permits use of the Oyaide DB-DR 510 coax cable, which I've found to sound better (I've found that coax/digital signals in general sound better, and this cable in particular) than any USB implementation.

I meant spdif receiver. NOS/DAC-19 from what I know has a good SPDIF receiver and "just in case" USB one.
 
Your statement about coax sounding better than USB doesn't make sense. Except if your SPDIF transport+cable DOES in fact have lower jitter than ammanero USB. Digital audio signal = bits + their exact timing. Nothing else.

 

[Youth]

 

[Pharmaboy]

With all due respect, "Nothing else" is too absolute--too finite. At the risk of starting a subjectivity war, I must point out that I (and others) have heard differences between coax cables; SPDIF converters; USB cables; and so on. Jitter is a common factor in all 3, but many other factors, known & unknown, can figure into how a certain device "sounds."
 
I can't prove that coax is better, or demonstrate exactly why. It just sounds a little better to me (as it has on 2 previous DACs, including 1 whose asynchronous USB was "galvanically isolated" & did not audibly benefit from USB Regen), and that's all that matters.

 

[feelingears]

  With all due respect, "Nothing else" is too absolute--too finite. At the risk of starting a subjectivity war, I must point out that I (and others) have heard differences between coax cables; SPDIF converters; USB cables; and so on. Jitter is a common factor in all 3, but many other factors, known & unknown, can figure into how a certain device "sounds."
 
I can't prove that coax is better, or demonstrate exactly why. It just sounds a little better to me (as it has on 2 previous DACs, including 1 whose asynchronous USB was "galvanically isolated" & did not audibly benefit from USB Regen), and that's all that matters.

 
I suspect that what we're all living through is a shift, however small or large, in the understanding of what causes our systems to sound the way they do. There seems to be something to the idea that electricity isn't just ones and zeros (to oversimplify) and sine waves. There are grounding issues, the back-feeding noise that the new Uptone LPS-1 is designed to negate, and other stuff that even EE majors can't appreciate until they've experimented and listened (perhaps especially the latter) and tweaked. And so on.
 
I have both USB and coax into my DAC-19. One is better than the other by a small margin, and it's dependent on the power source. I have the iFi iPower and the LPS-1. The differences are there but subtle to the ears who care about such things. The average person probably wouldn't give a damn even after I pointed the difference out--they are close enough for most.
 
And all this to say these are fun times in audiophile-land! The cost of sonic improvement is way lower now than it used to be.

 

[pervysage]

  Here's another NOS 19 update. Still not entirely sure this is the right thread for it, but haven't seen any closer to it than this (w/various people talking about doing NOS mods to their DAC-19's, running their DAC-19's in NOS mode, etc.). So here goes:
 
Haven't really kept close track, but my NOS 19 is somewhere between 350-400 hrs, maybe a bit more. And it's really shocking how much the sound of it keeps changing, even this late in the lengthy burn-in phase:
 
-- Just a week or two back, it was suddenly sounding brighter than before (it had sounded terrific for awhile). I became concerned, starting messing w/the phase button. Things got better. But that's now seems like 10 years ago.
 
~10 days ago I installed a new sub, an SVS SB-1000. It's been burning in for ~100 hrs, so to check it out, I just listened to one of the best studio recordings around, Donald Fagen's MORPH THE CAT, on my speakers + sub.
 
DAMN! The sub sounds great, but what really shocked me is that the whole system sounds unbelievable. I'm hearing things from this recording I've never heard on this system: the center image utterly clear & defined; the different instruments & effects are extremely clear, but all this detail is non-fatiguing; the tonal quality is as close to analogue as digital can possibly get; and the mid-bass is rich, warm, wet--all those words that mean dimensionality + impact at the same time (most digital cannot do this). In short, the NOS 19 is lighting me up.
 
Then I plug in my favorite cheap-but-terrific 'phones, the Yenona Adapter-Free DJ headphones, just to see if I'm dreaming this. Nope. The NOS 19 is also nailing it via headphones.
 
I read in several threads on Head-Fi how long it took the DAC-19 to burn in, how much it changed over hundreds of hours (and by extension, this had to apply to the virtually identical NOS 19). Well, it's all true.
 
This is an amazing DAC. Listening to music through it, I go for long periods w/o thinking about equipment--just getting lost in sound. It's turning out to be an endgame component for me.

 
The SVS SB-1000 is indeed an awesome sub 

 
 
Nice sealed sub perfect for music.

 

[Pharmaboy]

   
The SVS SB-1000 is indeed an awesome sub 

 
 
Nice sealed sub perfect for music.

 
Yes, it sure is! And FYI, add this sub to the long list of "components that benefit from burn-in/break-in." It sounded different when I first hooked it up (somewhat closed-in & muted) compared to 100 hrs later, w/o a single change in settings, wiring or anything else since then. Now it just blooms, sounds like real-world bass. I don't even have this sub set up optimally: I set levels by ear (no meters) and I'm running my high-pass signal through the sub's built-in high-pass filter (12 dB/octave 80 Hz crossover of unknown quality--probably passive and not very expensive at that).
 
In a couple days I'll wire in a Marchand XM66 2-channel, adjustable electronic crossover, w/both the high-pass & low-pass slopes fixed @24 dB/octave. I'll set it to 80 Hz, at least to start with (for comparison purposes), crossing over to the Swan Audio M200 MKIII powered speakers. The system already sounds excellent, so any benefit I get from this upgrade will be strictly gravy IMO.

 

[feelingears]

The DAC-19 is a great sounding DAC I've owned for only about five months, and the inputs have unexpectedly been fabulous for experimenting with some different cables and inputs (USB vs. coax RCA vs. coax BNC) because for better or worse, I can hear differences in my system easily with the DAC-19.
 
Well, I've been feeding my DAC-19 via RCA coax with a Wireworld Starlight 7 coax RCA cable, and it's no slouch, but I felt like I just wasn't getting the upper frequency speed and transparency I've heard with other configurations in my system. Because someone here or at CA suggested silver BNC as superior to RCA (for at least the impedance matching of BNC over RCA), I found an Oyaide FTVS-510 5N silver coax BNC cable on eBay outta HK for $165 or so and it arrived today.
 
Chain is: Airport Express optical out via Analysis Plus optical cable to W4S Remedy (Uptone LPS-1 power), coax BNC out via Oyaide silver BNC cable to Audio GD DAC-19 coax BNC input.
 
Normally I burn things in before listening because I just don't like the early listen disappointment I've experienced in the past. And if I don't listen for a week, nobody (including myself) can accuse me of expectation bias or any other bias (except that humans are always biased, but I digress). Well, you know where this is going...
 
I gave it a spin to make sure the cable worked. WHOA! WOW. I guess the DAC-19 is just the kind of DAC that really shines with a good input, and as good as the Amanero is, BNC coax with silver may have USB beat (and I have a microRendu with the Sonore/Cardas adapter on USB, which should tell you something).
 
This is preliminary, but man if it's this good 100+ hours out, and if the bass and midrange hold up as well then this combo is a real winner (with iTunes, no less!).
 
Anyway, YMMV as usual. I just wanted to share the silver BNC love.

 

[nano35]

Hi all,
 
I am a new owner of NOS-19+C-2 (11th anniv.).
They shipped couple days after OCT 12 so I believe my components have the latest firmware.
I am new to hi end hifi like this so I don't have anything to compare with...maybe to my small DAP or my computer.
But I like the sound, smooth as silk.
And I start to understand the audiophile glossary terms better.
I will keep reading here to see what I can learn from it.
 
Next step maybe a budget tube amp like little dot 1+....

 

[Astral Abyss]

  Hi all,
 
I am a new owner of NOS-19+C-2 (11th anniv.).
They shipped couple days after OCT 12 so I believe my components have the latest firmware.
I am new to hi end hifi like this so I don't have anything to compare with...maybe to my small DAP or my computer.
But I like the sound, smooth as silk.
And I start to understand the audiophile glossary terms better.
I will keep reading here to see what I can learn from it.
 
Next step maybe a budget tube amp like little dot 1+....

 
Hello and welcome!  
 
That's a great setup you chose to start with.  I really love mine.  I'll tell you right now, you can spend a lot more money but you won't find a better price-to-performance ratio than what you have.  Are you connecting the NOS-19 and C-2 with the ACSS cable?  What headphones are you using?

 

[desik]

  The DAC-19 is a great sounding DAC I've owned for only about five months, and the inputs have unexpectedly been fabulous for experimenting with some different cables and inputs (USB vs. coax RCA vs. coax BNC) because for better or worse, I can hear differences in my system easily with the DAC-19.
 
Well, I've been feeding my DAC-19 via RCA coax with a Wireworld Starlight 7 coax RCA cable, and it's no slouch, but I felt like I just wasn't getting the upper frequency speed and transparency I've heard with other configurations in my system. Because someone here or at CA suggested silver BNC as superior to RCA (for at least the impedance matching of BNC over RCA), I found an Oyaide FTVS-510 5N silver coax BNC cable on eBay outta HK for $165 or so and it arrived today.
 
Chain is: Airport Express optical out via Analysis Plus optical cable to W4S Remedy (Uptone LPS-1 power), coax BNC out via Oyaide silver BNC cable to Audio GD DAC-19 coax BNC input.
 
Normally I burn things in before listening because I just don't like the early listen disappointment I've experienced in the past. And if I don't listen for a week, nobody (including myself) can accuse me of expectation bias or any other bias (except that humans are always biased, but I digress). Well, you know where this is going...
 
I gave it a spin to make sure the cable worked. WHOA! WOW. I guess the DAC-19 is just the kind of DAC that really shines with a good input, and as good as the Amanero is, BNC coax with silver may have USB beat (and I have a microRendu with the Sonore/Cardas adapter on USB, which should tell you something).
 
This is preliminary, but man if it's this good 100+ hours out, and if the bass and midrange hold up as well then this combo is a real winner (with iTunes, no less!).
 
Anyway, YMMV as usual. I just wanted to share the silver BNC love.

What is cables length?

 

[Bombik]

Sidenote..Those of you guys using acss I highly suggest make yourself better acss interconnect. I made cables from better meterware and hearing difference..
Agd gear is very very sensitive to surrounding components from my experience.