[johnwillmclean]

I was not a dac believer but I am now, and my brain is itching for a scientific explanation.

This would be easy to validate in a controlled test if you still have the RME. It does sound like you took a leap of faith and a huge gamble that the holo would outperform the RME. There’s a lot of emotions riding with that - the ear is easily deceived.

 

[plumpudding2]

This would be easy to validate in a controlled test if you still have the RME. It does sound like you took a leap of faith and a huge gamble that the holo would outperform the RME. There’s a lot of emotions riding with that - the ear is easily deceived.

You are completely right. Once I feel brave enough for the possibility of everything being placebo I'll ask my girlfriend to help setup a blind volume matched ABX test. In the meantime I'm enjoying my setup more than ever so that alone is value for money too!

 

[plumpudding2]

Enjoy your new toy! DAC function alone is a solved problem even with much cheaper devices and the idea is basically create a signal as close as possible to the original signal and even the simplest ESS DACs out there does it very well - beyond the limits of human hearing well. But of course the full pakage itself might be doing some additional DSP and tuning that makes it more preferable. It might be playing with timings / phase, frequency response, distortion, other effects etc. It is not an issue to tweak the size /depth of the sound to make it more voluminous.

RME might be too transparent, too unaltered that might take away the fun for some. I personally prefer the ADI-2 over anything else especially for that but I guess that is for someone that listens to not-too-processed instruments. I also wouldn't recommend it if you are not into tweaking the sound. You might find cheaper options for the DAC function alone if you want a super clean and transparent sound.

I am a huge fan of ADI-2 that I even got the newest ADI-2 Pro 2/4. Of course it is still the same unaltered sound with slightly more power, DSP power and other ADC improvements. Frankly I got it only to have the latest and greatest one in the family, otherwise there is not much added value for HP listening only.

I'm starting to understand that audiophile enjoyment might sometimes not be about being true to the source but being better than the source (for example tube amps).

Perfectly true to the source sounds like what one would want, but that is in a perfect world where every recording was made with a state of the art ADC and not brickwalled in post-production

 

[YungOmbat]

I'll buy my next audio setup, I'm thinking about this combo, what do you think about it? I already bought stealth, need only dac/amp combo to pair with Stealth.

Gustard R26 > Ferrum Oor/Hypsos > DCA Stealth.

sounds pretty solid

 

[801evan]

Goldensound's impressions on the hm1. Funnily he said the Stealth was undynamic on it.

 

[DarginMahkum]

Goldensound's impressions on the hm1. Funnily he said the Stealth was undynamic on it.

Well, that is why I am done with this hobby. I am done making circles around the same subjects, beefed up with greasy audiophile language that tells in the end just nothing at all. This is one of them.

 

[MarkParity]

Well, that is why I am done with this hobby. I am done making circles around the same subjects, beefed up with greasy audiophile language that tells in the end just nothing at all. This is one of them.

1000th post I've been here for a while as have you.

Filter out the "greasy audiophile" lingo and the posts saying stuff that *you* know is not to be believed and be happy.

That's what I do and perhaps I will make my 5,540th useful post as you have done.

 

[alxw0w]

Well, that is why I am done with this hobby. I am done making circles around the same subjects, beefed up with greasy audiophile language that tells in the end just nothing at all. This is one of them.

Ha exactly. There is always something new, something THE BEST or the best that I have ever heard etc.

Kinda like uroboros, never ending story.

 

[801evan]

Ha exactly. There is always something new, something THE BEST or the best that I have ever heard etc.

Kinda like uroboros, never ending story.

At least the new narrative is that susvara only needs 2w and there's a lot of headroom in that 2w. . Last season it was do or die with a minimum of 12w.

 

[Nomax]

The Susvara is to my ears probably the most undynamic of all models in the high price segment....for me to fall asleep

NOMAX

PS.lol

 

[brianfromspace]

The Susvara is to my ears probably the most undynamic of all models in the high price segment....for me to fall asleep

NOMAX

PS.lol

How do you like the Stealth on CMA 15?

 

[ra990]

How do you like the Stealth on CMA 15?

Stealth is awesome on the CMA 15. It really breathed new life into it. @Nomax convinced me to try it and I had no regrets. I thought it would have similar synergy with the Expanse, but that turned out to be a bad match for it.

 

[DuncanDirkDick]

Well, that is why I am done with this hobby. I am done making circles around the same subjects, beefed up with greasy audiophile language that tells in the end just nothing at all. This is one of them.

I'll never get the amount of fascination regarding analog EQ instead of DSP with the community btw..

 

[FangJoker]

Well, that is why I am done with this hobby. I am done making circles around the same subjects, beefed up with greasy audiophile language that tells in the end just nothing at all. This is one of them.

I hate the word "sublime" because of reviews

 

[JLoud]

I'll never get the amount of fascination regarding analog EQ instead of DSP with the community btw..

I personally use DSP in my main rig but my speaker setup doesn’t have a way to do that. Analog is the only option. I think a fair amount of people on the forum aren’t computer based. Or even digital for that matter. My speaker rig is all physical media.