Sage Encore
100+ Head-Fier
I'm leaning towards the Tubulus Argentus though the Phasure as recommended does look pretty darn good as well. Anyone using the Tubulus? Thank you guys.
Sage.. Have you noticed any changes in the sound with more hours on the Gaia?You are in for a treat John Z.
Hi John,Sage.. Have you noticed any changes in the sound with more hours on the Gaia?
My Gaia arrived a couple days ago, so it is not even close to being fully burned in and sounding its best, but I will just make a few preliminary comments about what I am hearing. First, if there is a better D/D converter on the planet, I'd sure like to hear it. If anyone is thinking this is just a box to convert one digital format to another, that couldn't be further from reality. You need to think of it as a sonic enhancer.
I am floored by the improvements the Gaia is making to a Chord Qutest and I have a decent amount of prior experience with other very top of the line D/D converters. The improvements to the sound stage and transparency are huge. Holographic for days. I'm in heaven.
More thoughts after my Gaia burns in and my Terminator Plus arrives.
If I missed it, could u share again what other dd converters u have used? Thanks!
See my Post #198 in the "15 USB/SPDIF converters shootout" thread on AS (formerly CA)- can't post links here on Head-Fi. Those are some I've owned.
To be clear, before anyone attacks, I am not declaring this to be the best D/D converter in the world (who could say?), I am just having a hard time believing anything else out there surpasses the Gaia, IMHO. Perhaps something does, but this Gaia is significantly better than any other D/D converter I've owned.
P.S. Further edit- my comments are based on my speaker setup, in a dedicated audio room with lots of acoustic room treatments, ideal speaker positioning, etc. I'm not sure if the sound staging improvements would be adequately revealed with headphones only, but the improvements to transparency sure would.