It’s a clock for the clock and not a 10mhz clock for the dac, correct? Man we are getting into the weeds here. My point was that the supposed “dCS dealer” who claimed to use a 10mhz clock with Bartok (pre APEX) was full of 💩

I think we are in agreement. I don’t think dCS can use 10mhz clock. You need a clock that can output both 44.1 and 48 clocks at the same time. I honestly have never ever seen dCS paired with non dCS clock at any dCS dealer or any show.

Yes, I understand dCS only accepts word clock, you need both clocks hooked up otherwise you get an error message. Someone correct me if I am wrong. I played around with them but don’t own dCS.

Bartok without APEX sounds different from APEX and Bartok 2.0 wasn’t all that great. So I find his comment of APEX not worthwhile to be odd especially coming from a dCS dealer. I am also skeptical about the clock given Rossini clock looks to be better built. In any case I think external clock is...

The only con (or is it pro?) of MPD8 is there is almost no second hand sale and even if there were one you would be getting 2-3k off MSRP at the most. So if you are buying MPD8 it’s pretty much new only with 0 discount.

What’s the name of this dealer? I find their view hard to believe.

How do they differ from Pietus max?

Just run your dac on a separate switch (dlink, tplink whatever). If you are OCD add a linear PSU to the switch. Ethernet is inherently transformer coupled (that means galvanic isolated) and the signals are fully balanced.

MSB had their thing going for them when R2R architecture with FPGA code was close source. Since everything got “open sourced” a few years back it was pretty much over for MSB from a pure tech point of view. IMO they are now competing on build quality, brand and service. To be fair they have...

You know all he has to do is to run a loaner program and people can make up their own mind. I can’t speak for others but most of the gear I hear today are not all that exciting to me especially in the headphone category. The last time I raised an eyebrow was when I first hear Aperio, the time...

PBD MPD8 will convert PCM to DSD128 using dynamic filter and then that interim DSD will then be upsampled to DSD512 for processing. I didn’t know they then down sample that to DSD128 but I don’t think it matters TBH given the a simple LPF will be sufficient in either case. Anyway, would be...

Do you know if DA2 does 1 step conversion or they also use an interim DSD encoding and then feed they into a separate DSD upsampling algorithm? I am using Shanling ET3 - I liked it better than NS1 🤣

Yes. IMO APEX is quite a bit better - across the model range. Clock is also necessary for dCS - only for dCS because they designed their dacs this way - bad design but that’s neither here nor there. The difference with and without external clock is also easily heard and sound with clock will be...

800S can sound just as dense and meaty as 007 on T2 with the right amp and dac. Aperio is my fav estat and 007 and T2 would be my second favorite. Composer has a lot of potential - I don’t know how high those will scale but they were a pleasant surprise at both ends. Although for mid heavy music...

Easy but counterintuitive. I vaguely remember I read somewhere that MPD8 converts all PCM to an intermediate DSD as a first step and then upsample to 50mhz (45.2mhz to be exact). But at the time I never understood why the initial PCM to some version of DSD conversion mattered. I still don’t...

Easy. Run 800S balanced out of CFA3 and source with good vinyl or musical dac.

Besides cold hard cash and free gear, there are other ways to comp reviewers include “long term loan” or “industry accommodation price”. They think we are dumb just because they tell us they “bought” the gear… sure :rolling_eyes:

I thought I knew what I was doing after all these years and all the time spent learning this stuff but I learned something new today about PBD and Emm Labs. The best way to actually use these native DSD dac is to feed it DSD whether native or converted. But not any DSD. DSD64 doesn’t quite cover...

Fixed that for you :beerchug:

That’s just being intellectually dishonest. TAS is one of the two largest hifi publications in the US, and Tom is one of the key persons at TAS. If all he has to do is to use “IMO”, “what I have heard”, “in my system”, “in my room”, “with my gear” “with my music collection” “based on my...

Tom also said this about Benchmark headphone amp: thought the HPA4 sounded as good as any headphone amp I’ve heard for dynamic headphones, and it might be the best of the lot depending on your circumstances. 🤦 Really, Tom?

When did TAS review something from an advertiser and not give high marks? :rolling_eyes:

Well, not trying to be hypocritical, but I did buy not one but two Utopias. Are those 5-7x better than NDH30 from a sound perspective? No:sweat_smile: However, what I was able to achieve was this sense of listening to near field speakers. NDH30 does that to a certain extent but Utopias do the...

Slightly used G cushion. Bought them as a backup to PS500, which I have sold a while back. I thought I would use them again, but they have ended up sitting on my shelf. I thought someone else here could make better use of these. Buyer pays actual shipping. PayPal only and I only ship to CONUS...