[schneller]

So it seems we have some consensus for Sunday, December 18,at noon? Who can come and bring what? The Spring Holo will already be there.

 

[doukhobar]

I will come and bring one component and some cabling. Question: What will be the source? This will be my first DAC shootout. Looking forward. I just received a new LessLoss DFCP power cord to try if you're interested.

 

[willsw]

So it seems we have some consensus for Sunday, December 18,at noon? Who can come and bring what? The Spring Holo will already be there.

 
Let's mark it, dude: Sunday at noon. The main DACs several people were interested in comparing: The Spring, the Yggy, and the Codex will be there, but if you have a DAC you'd like to throw in to the mix, bring it, I suppose. We'll have to organize some sort of grouping and order once we get there and see what we have. Or bring your ears. 
 

I will come and bring one component and some cabling. Question: What will be the source? This will be my first DAC shootout. Looking forward. I just received a new LessLoss DFCP power cord to try if you're interested.

 
It doesn't look like our server will arrive in time, so source is likely going to be my Macbook Pro with Jriver and a Schiit Wyrd. If you'd like to come early and set up your server to use as the consistent source, you're welcome to. 

 

[SuperDuke]

Hope you guys have fun.  I'll be home w/ family I've not seen for several weeks.
 
Looking forward to another meet sometime.  I have the new COS Amp/DAC on order.  We'll see how it plays w/ the Utopias.
 
cheers

 

[willsw]

The MHDT Labs Pagoda arrived, so we can add that to the list of potential entrants. Given the lack of a switch box suitable for this, I'm thinking that we'll just have to listen to a track (or 1 or 2 minutes of a track), switch DACs, and listen again. We should probably make groups of three DACs to do at a time, and possibly make the order of playing: ABCACB. 
 
Unrelated to DACs, but perhaps something to play with if there's no room in front of the speakers: the entire line of Mitchell & Johnson Electrostatz headphones arrived, from their $200 model to their $600 model. 

 

[sheldaze]

I've never had trouble with SYS. It would at least allow for two DACs at the same time.
 
However you still need suitable length RCA to connect from the two DACs to the SYS, and probably the same kind of RCA. I also thought many of the DACs were going to be tested through an XLR/RCA conversion. I assumed there was only the one XLR/RCA converter box? Regardless, if the SYS is helpful, it's there for the use!
 
I have been reading in the Holo thread, and think I'd like to hear the Wyrd into the SU-1. But that is a personal request - off on the side, between speaker listening, with headphones. I heard something in the SU-1, which I disliked. I read that a Wyrd in the chain will fix the issue.

 

[willsw]

  I've never had trouble with SYS. It would at least allow for two DACs at the same time.
 
However you still need suitable length RCA to connect from the two DACs to the SYS, and probably the same kind of RCA. I also thought many of the DACs were going to be tested through an XLR/RCA conversion. I assumed there was only the one XLR/RCA converter box? Regardless, if the SYS is helpful, it's there for the use!
 
I have been reading in the Holo thread, and think I'd like to hear the Wyrd into the SU-1. But that is a personal request - off on the side, between speaker listening, with headphones. I heard something in the SU-1, which I disliked. I read that a Wyrd in the chain will fix the issue.

 
We actually have an RCA switchbox we made, and we'll be using a MZ2-S as a preamp and could have up to three inputs, but the main problem I was seeing was the source. We have three sort of equivalent laptops, and if other people brought their Wyrds we could have three sources that could be considered equivalent, and could be rotated as well. 
 
Since we'll probably want to use the Ayre, Yggy, and Spring out of their balanced outs, we'd have to have a balanced switchbox, which isn't hard but I don't think we have the stuff to make it by Sunday. It can be a pretty quick change, though, to unplug from one DAC and plug into another. 

 

[kendavis]

Didn't someone have a optical splitter? If not, you can have one from Amazon by Sunday for $20 or $30. Might be a good investment. I'll be bringing a CD player with optical output.

 

[willsw]

  Didn't someone have a optical splitter? If not, you can have one from Amazon by Sunday for $20 or $30. Might be a good investment. I'll be bringing a CD player with optical output.

 
Investment made! If we run everything single-ended, we're good to go. If someone wants to bring a balanced preamp (with single-ended output) with multiple balanced inputs, we'd be golden. The splitter even comes with a remote. 

 

[doukhobar]

I was thinking of bring the Bryston BDP-1 as a source and just assumed one could change the digital cable over from one DAC to the next. I'm bringing the Synergistic Research Tesla AES cable with it. Perhaps all these DAC's have AES input? Would be cool to compare to the CDP of @kendavis and various USB/SPDIF converters.
Regarding listening, if we could do one track and compare between all DAC's that is good idea since audio memory is short, but also maybe a 3 track longer set to compare that would be good as well to give a different perspective, one which gives a better 'feel'. Just an idea. 

 

[doukhobar]

I think also that if there is a DAC with balanced output that we will be listening to using the Jensen balanced->SE converter, perhaps we should consider listening to the SE output of that DAC to compare SE/balanced and to be fair to the DACs with only SE output. However, level matching may be problematic. 
Do all of the DACs up for testing have balanced output? How many DACs are there overall? Thanks everybody for making this happen!
Is there any way I could personally participate as a blind participant when listening to the different sources? I am okay with knowing which DAC is which, but perhaps someone else may want to listen to them blind?

 

[sheldaze]

  Didn't someone have a optical splitter? If not, you can have one from Amazon by Sunday for $20 or $30. Might be a good investment. I'll be bringing a CD player with optical output.

 
Investment made! If we run everything single-ended, we're good to go. If someone wants to bring a balanced preamp (with single-ended output) with multiple balanced inputs, we'd be golden. The splitter even comes with a remote. 

Sorry...was offline. I do have an optical splitter, but I have not tested the sound.
 
I was thinking the base setup for Sunday would be, laptop into SU-1, which itself has multiple digital outputs:
 

1. I2S output goes to Holo
2. AES/EBU  XLR into the Yggy
3. Optical into the Codex

 
These are each the best available digital inputs for the three DACs. No splitter 

 

 

[jp11801]

  Sorry...was offline. I do have an optical splitter, but I have not tested the sound.
 
I was thinking the base setup for Sunday would be, laptop into SU-1, which itself has multiple digital outputs:
 

1. I2S output goes to Holo
2. AES/EBU  XLR into the Yggy
3. Optical into the Codex

 
These are each the best available digital inputs for the three DACs. No splitter 

 

I would second this suggestion as I have heard from an owner of the Holo that it is good from USB or spdif but it is great from i2s

 

[yage]

I think USB into Codex makes the most sense if you want to hear it at its best, but it's definitely easier to manage everything through the SU-1.

 

[sheldaze]

It might be interesting to compare how well the Ayre Codex does at handling poor USB versus the Chord 2Qute, which is supposed to provide galvanic isolation too...