I do not like the DAC1. To my ears it sounds unnatural and unbalanced. My comments are from using it as source and headamp in my various systems on headphones and speakers.
Frequency spectrum. It seems a bit tipped up toward the treble. First because the highs want a bit of attention. I also think it's a bit grainy. Second because the bass is light in quantity. So where does this leave the mids? Let's move to the next area.
Dynamics. This is where this excels vs. cheaper sources and it's noteworthy. This is a rather edgy source to me and it helps delineate things. High notes are crisp the bass is taut. The problem with this is the midrange. The highs and lows are rather "exciting" but I think it leaves the midrange bland. Coupled with my experience with the frequency spectrum above, it equates to being slighly recessed. This is one of the reasons why I think it's unbalanced.
Detail. Most of it is in the attack brought upon by the edginess. The true detail is in the slow, soft, trailing parts. It's just ok to me. My definition of a high end source is well roundedness. Here I find the detail mostly in the midrange. Certainly that's a good thing since that's where much of the music is at. But in my quest, I'm all for making the frequency extremes the best they can be and this DAC doesn't have the finesse in the bass nor the treble. Lower level detail leads to the next thing.
Soundstage/imaging. More detail especially in the treble should help with spaciality. Unfortunately, I didn't find much love here. There's something nice about having a big wide soundstage but this was so wide to me, there was a gap in the middle of the sound. I would prefer a narrow soundstage if it meant more seamlessness in pans.
As a studio piece and analytical tool, this is highly effective IMO. You know exactly where pieces of sound are. In our systems, it depends on your system. This is not where I would want my sound to go.
I already heard and disliked this DAC from the start. That didn't discourage me to try though. I actually bought one to fool around with to further enhance my experience in this hobby. I make my own cables, have an AC regenerator which is modded with better parts, and I took the time to also mod the DAC1. I don't regret buying it as I was able to further train my ears. You have to verify what you like and don't like with more exposure.
thomaspf, I experienced that asynchronous chip has a heavy hand in the sound signature. One of the major sonic improvements was enhancing the bypass cap to that chip.
