uofmtiger
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jul 8, 2006
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I have had the Entech for several days now and it should be broken in good enough to conduct an informal test. First, I know this is not an ABX formal test with results from several people in a pristine environment. Therefore, if you are a Hydrogen Forum alumni
, you may want to skip over this informal test result.
The purpose of this test was to determine if I wanted to keep the Number Cruncher 203.2 in my main system or the SRC2496. The "loser" will go to my bedroom.
First off, I decided the music I wanted to use for the test. It consisted of Norah Jones "Come Away with Me" (mainly for female vocals in a mid-tempo setting), Pink Floyd "Comfortably Numb" (for guitar, ambiance, etc..), Soundgarden "Black Hole Sun" (bass and male vocals), and Van Morrison (Horns, vocals, and ambiance). After my personal tests, I picked a song that I thought would bring out a big difference in the performance in these DACs), Bob Dylan "Standing In The Doorway".
For the test, I used my Sony Vaio WMC PC with Sigma Tel soundcard. The digital optical out feeds the SRC2496 and the digital coax output feeds the Entech. I have switched them around and I could not make out any difference. The SRC 2496 has XLRs. Therefore, I used adapters to connect them to the analog inputs on my Denon AVR3300 receiver. I fed the RCA analog outputs on the Entech to my receiver. The RCA cables were the same brand (AR).
I used all WMA Lossless files out of Foobar2000 at 44.1Khz.
My girlfriend was not around during my earlier tests, but when she arrived, I had the following list for her to know what I was looking for:
1. Separation of instruments - I explained that I was looking for an idea of which "A" or "B" sounded more open, less noise floor, with more room for each instrument to breathe.
2. Sounds truer to the sound of the instrument - A piano should sound like a piano, etc..
3. Imaging - did the speakers disappear? Was it like a band in the room or did it sound more like two speakers where she could pinpoint the exact location of the speaker when hearing the music?
4. More detailed bass - punch, does it sound muffled, etc..
5. Vocals - do they sound true?
6. Musical - which is a better presentation with all of the above combined - which sounds better in the bigger picture?
These choices were my own invention and are in no way scientific. However, I knew what I wanted answered by her more technical ear (she plays several instruments ranging from the piano to the drums). I did not tell her what I was testing, but that it did not matter which one she chose because it was a "win-win" situation regardless of her decision.
I set up an SPL meter before she got there to determine if there was a difference in the volume. There was, so I adjusted to the correct volume before switching. In other words, I would put the receiver on a "dead" input to adjust volume so one would not stick out based on it being louder.
In nearly every case, the Behringer was better overall. The one exception was with the Norah Jones track which actually worked better overall with the Entech.
My girlfriend had the exact same results, for the same reasons, that I had. The Entech seems to really pull out the vocals. However, it does so with the loss of ambiance. The reason I added the Dylan tune was because it has a lot of ambiance in the background and with the Entech it was buried too deeply behind the vocals. This was also the case with all of the other tracks (other than Norah).
For me, once again, the Behringer was the clear all around winner. The Entech still sounded good and I feel that I got my money's worth ($50), but it will be heading to my bedroom to be played in my other system (which is still pretty good and now because of the Entech will be even better).
Added later : The Behringer costs $129 compared to the $50 or so for the Entech (however, the Entech debuted at much more). The Behringer has a lot more options that I think explain the difference in price. It has the ability to accept several sources and upsample to several different choices. It also has ADC and can be used to carry a coax signal into an optical source and visa vera... There is also an led array and a headphone output. I think the $80 difference can easily be explained by all the extras you get with the Behringer. Therefore, I tested them on their merits of sound quality alone. I have no knowledge of other DACs, so if anyone wants to write about how it compares to the 205.2 or anything else, feel free. Like I mentioned, I have these two DACs and this was a comparison of sound quality only. Price was irrelevant to my comparison because the Berhinger is much more sophisticated in every single way.
The purpose of this test was to determine if I wanted to keep the Number Cruncher 203.2 in my main system or the SRC2496. The "loser" will go to my bedroom.
First off, I decided the music I wanted to use for the test. It consisted of Norah Jones "Come Away with Me" (mainly for female vocals in a mid-tempo setting), Pink Floyd "Comfortably Numb" (for guitar, ambiance, etc..), Soundgarden "Black Hole Sun" (bass and male vocals), and Van Morrison (Horns, vocals, and ambiance). After my personal tests, I picked a song that I thought would bring out a big difference in the performance in these DACs), Bob Dylan "Standing In The Doorway".
For the test, I used my Sony Vaio WMC PC with Sigma Tel soundcard. The digital optical out feeds the SRC2496 and the digital coax output feeds the Entech. I have switched them around and I could not make out any difference. The SRC 2496 has XLRs. Therefore, I used adapters to connect them to the analog inputs on my Denon AVR3300 receiver. I fed the RCA analog outputs on the Entech to my receiver. The RCA cables were the same brand (AR).
I used all WMA Lossless files out of Foobar2000 at 44.1Khz.
My girlfriend was not around during my earlier tests, but when she arrived, I had the following list for her to know what I was looking for:
1. Separation of instruments - I explained that I was looking for an idea of which "A" or "B" sounded more open, less noise floor, with more room for each instrument to breathe.
2. Sounds truer to the sound of the instrument - A piano should sound like a piano, etc..
3. Imaging - did the speakers disappear? Was it like a band in the room or did it sound more like two speakers where she could pinpoint the exact location of the speaker when hearing the music?
4. More detailed bass - punch, does it sound muffled, etc..
5. Vocals - do they sound true?
6. Musical - which is a better presentation with all of the above combined - which sounds better in the bigger picture?
These choices were my own invention and are in no way scientific. However, I knew what I wanted answered by her more technical ear (she plays several instruments ranging from the piano to the drums). I did not tell her what I was testing, but that it did not matter which one she chose because it was a "win-win" situation regardless of her decision.
I set up an SPL meter before she got there to determine if there was a difference in the volume. There was, so I adjusted to the correct volume before switching. In other words, I would put the receiver on a "dead" input to adjust volume so one would not stick out based on it being louder.
In nearly every case, the Behringer was better overall. The one exception was with the Norah Jones track which actually worked better overall with the Entech.
My girlfriend had the exact same results, for the same reasons, that I had. The Entech seems to really pull out the vocals. However, it does so with the loss of ambiance. The reason I added the Dylan tune was because it has a lot of ambiance in the background and with the Entech it was buried too deeply behind the vocals. This was also the case with all of the other tracks (other than Norah).
For me, once again, the Behringer was the clear all around winner. The Entech still sounded good and I feel that I got my money's worth ($50), but it will be heading to my bedroom to be played in my other system (which is still pretty good and now because of the Entech will be even better).
Added later : The Behringer costs $129 compared to the $50 or so for the Entech (however, the Entech debuted at much more). The Behringer has a lot more options that I think explain the difference in price. It has the ability to accept several sources and upsample to several different choices. It also has ADC and can be used to carry a coax signal into an optical source and visa vera... There is also an led array and a headphone output. I think the $80 difference can easily be explained by all the extras you get with the Behringer. Therefore, I tested them on their merits of sound quality alone. I have no knowledge of other DACs, so if anyone wants to write about how it compares to the 205.2 or anything else, feel free. Like I mentioned, I have these two DACs and this was a comparison of sound quality only. Price was irrelevant to my comparison because the Berhinger is much more sophisticated in every single way.
