[Lolito]

Certainly higher freq in the sample rate makes it sound better indeed, faster transient, more air, more instrument separation, when it's recorded well of course, otherwise...

 

[sajunky]

Certainly higher freq in the sample rate makes it sound better indeed, faster transient, more air, more instrument separation, when it's recorded well of course, otherwise...

I agree, it is better, up to the moment a jitter is increasing above the tolerated level, as is increasing proportionally. My Topping D30 by example could not play 192kHz without harshness, 96kHz was better. One thing I can't agree is faster transients, it is not true.

 

[Lolito]

I agree, it is better, up to the moment a jitter is increasing above the tolerated level, as is increasing proportionally. My Topping D30 by example could not play 192kHz without harshness, 96kHz was better. One thing I can't agree is faster transients, it is not true.

Obviously not faster, that makes no sense. Faster, much more acurate sounding. It does therefore sounds faster although is the exact same speed at any sample rate. Internet forums.

 

[cgb3]

Now, now, a drink can make a Saturday night listening session even more enjoyable!

Why stop with Saturday?

 

[TheRealDz]

@sajunky and @]eep, you two are both enablers and evil. Ie, I bought the Nobsound 8xTDA1387 off of ebay. Seems like a lot of musicality for $42. Of course I will need to plug it into my Etir and buy a dedicated linear power supply. If you could suggest any sub forums on tweaks, LPS selection, etc, I would appreciate it.

If nothing else, I really love my Ares and am totally sold on r2r DACs. The Nobsound should be a perfect DAC to run on a second system with my incoming Schiit Vali 2...

 

[sajunky]

@sajunky and @]eep, you two are both enablers and evil. Ie, I bought the Nobsound 8xTDA1387 off of ebay. Seems like a lot of musicality for $42. Of course I will need to plug it into my Etir and buy a dedicated linear power supply. If you could suggest any sub forums on tweaks, LPS selection, etc, I would appreciate it.

If nothing else, I really love my Ares and am totally sold on r2r DACs. The Nobsound should be a perfect second DAC to run with my incoming Schiit Vali 2...

Thank you. I found lot of information on the diyaudio forum. I don't recommend this site, as they decided to remove the entire thread regarding dual SMPS incorrect use in Topping A90 amp. However you can find some active projects and tweaks. For a Nobsound tweaks are limited in a limited space. I was going to do some, but in meantime I received Audio GD R2R-11. Nobsound is perfect when traveling, as it doesn't draw lot of power from a cellphone. For a price is difficult to beat.

 

[]eep]

@sajunky and @]eep, you two are both enablers and evil. Ie, I bought the Nobsound 8xTDA1387 off of ebay. Seems like a lot of musicality for $42. Of course I will need to plug it into my Etir and buy a dedicated linear power supply. If you could suggest any sub forums on tweaks, LPS selection, etc, I would appreciate it.

If nothing else, I really love my Ares and am totally sold on r2r DACs. The Nobsound should be a perfect DAC to run on a second system with my incoming Schiit Vali 2...

thanks for the compliment. Sorry I didn't reply yet. I haven't looked into the nobsound 1387 much so I can't say much helpful about it. Just that you might want to have a look at what comes after the chip. Often the filter is hardware limited to 20kHz 1st order that attenuates the high treble.
I've written plenty about it in several fora (headfi audiokarma, diyhifi). But that is specific to the Muse 4x1543 that isn't on the market anymore. The Teradak 8x1543 is a good alternative though. All you need to do there is take the output pins directly from the chip to the output, (bundle all leg 6 to left output, 8 to right) just short the output to ground with the right value R260 or R520 and bypass everything else. Pure and simple. The value depends on the number of chips but you can simply hear what it does, it doesnt break anything if you get it wrong. Higher sounds tight, lower sounds loose. Off the top of my head I used R460 for the 4x1543. (man, I'm lazy. Took me all of 30s to check that. it's 460)

Looked it up... inside the nobsound next to the 8 tda1387 are a couple of 10uF output caps, very detrimental to the sound (re)move, bypass or replace. The R220 are the output resistors(? not sure, or the 660) that is ok (easy to check on the output). The other tiny yellow and orange caps are the hard 20kHz filter.

 

[TheRealDz]

thanks for the compliment. Sorry I didn't reply yet. I haven't looked into the nobsound 1387 much so I can't say much helpful about it. Just that you might want to have a look at what comes after the chip. Often the filter is hardware limited to 20kHz 1st order that attenuates the high treble.
I've written plenty about it in several fora (headfi audiokarma, diyhifi). But that is specific to the Muse 4x1543 that isn't on the market anymore. The Teradak 8x1543 is a good alternative though. All you need to do there is take the output pins directly from the chip to the output, (bundle all leg 6 to left output, 8 to right) just short the output to ground with the right value R260 or R520 and bypass everything else. Pure and simple. The value depends on the number of chips but you can simply hear what it does, it doesnt break anything if you get it wrong. Higher sounds tight, lower sounds loose. Off the top of my head I used R460 for the 4x1543. (man, I'm lazy. Took me all of 30s to check that. it's 460)

Looked it up... inside the nobsound next to the 8 tda1387 are a couple of 10uF output caps, very detrimental to the sound (re)move, bypass or replace. The R220 are the output resistors(? not sure, or the 660) that is ok (easy to check on the output). The other tiny yellow and orange caps are the hard 20kHz filter.

Thanks for the follow up. So. Many. Dumb questions. But I will save them for a PM vs boring everyone on this thread...

 

[TheRealDz]

Hans is one the few people that have NOT sold out. He's very neutral and honest which is welcoming. Thomas and Stereo is another channel that is quite honest too.

Interesting you discuss "clean power". That is a topic I didn't want to get into too much as it's all dependent on the cleanliness of your local power grid, dedicated power line, power conditioning and connection of termination. Also a whole different topic on linear power supplies and manipulating frequency of the sine wave to modify tone........

As far as front end digital, it's rather simple. Eliminate EMI with galvanic isolation and take care of the x and y axis of the square wave signal. Stable amplitude of the wave form as well as taking care of the x axis (precision timing) so it will deliver music as intended by the artist. Also hitting the re-clocked signal with a redundant process to even do more cleanes. I know this works as I've performed daisychain re-clocking and so have others I know.

I'm not agains I2s. My concern is that Ares II DAC owners may get the impression that they are left out due to lack of I2S. Once I2S becomes a standard with identical pinouts I am not too excited about it. I've spent under 6 grand on DDC and audiograde ethernet switches. My DDC does not have I2S. When the time comes I'll dive into I2S when I find a worth DAC. I cannot limit myself in the Denafrips eco system to use proprietary pinouts and specific Denafrips DDC for I2S implementation.

I demand a world standard for the I2s pinout so I can use a re-clocking ddc for any dac with I2S. This moment in time there is no such thing.

75 ohm is not a limitation. I'll take a Tchernov Special coax and be floored in the cost/performance ratio. That cable alone runs lateral if not surpasses extremely expensive coax cables.

I'm a person that looks at specs but I use my ears more. Look at a Berkely audio design alpha 3 dac. Looks wonderful and costs an arm and a leg. Let your ears tell you if a cheaper Ares II is more musical and has a flow of holographic enjoyment.

If you have ever heard of a delta/sigma dac with cascaded re-clocking DDC, please inform us about the performance. I would take a 16/44.1 or 24/192 with re-clocked digital source than 32 bit. I2S has so much more bandwidth. If you buy into a Denafrips DDC and go with a Aqua dac or other I2S dacs the pinouts can be off and the Denafrips DDC is useless, however you can use the AES/toslink/coax iirc.

People are all different. Many high end system users will prefer 24 bit or even 16. If you hear the natural state of analog flow with insane holographic imaging the extra upsample will not give you more. Infact, I am testing Audirvana studio and the analog flow and ease is much more engaging 16 bit than upsampled 24 bit. Try testing Diana Krall's live "a case you".

One thing to consider is that you will not own a DAC forever. Limiting on yourself buying a $$$$ dac or DDC hoping I2S is the best is not versatile. I'd invest in a world standard or even older coax before I2S. That's my ears and experience with this stuff. In due time I'll spend a lot of money on I2S. That will be a no brainer but for now due to no standard.....no thank you

@AlanU, you, too, are an evil enabler; I bought a SingXer F-1. I will report back when I get it.

I checked out a bunch of other options, but ultimately, I think the F-1 is the perfect match for the Ares. At $200, the price ratio seems in line. The F-1 only has a coax output - which is all the Ares is capable of receiving (ie, no I2S, no clock input, etc). From what I can tell, with an outboard linear power supply (also on order), the F-1 is effectively a stripped down version of the highly regarded SingXer S-1 - with just the coax output the Ares needs.

I currently have an Etir, but will put that up for sale, since it is incompatible with the F-1. The Etir brings more clarity, but I don't hear more air, more dimensionality, or a more holographic presentation. I am eager to hear what the F-1 brings...

 

[AlanU]

@AlanU, you, too, are an evil enabler; I bought a SingXer F-1. I will report back when I get it.

I checked out a bunch of other options, but ultimately, I think the F-1 is the perfect match for the Ares. At $200, the price ratio seems in line. The F-1 only has a coax output - which is all the Ares is capable of receiving (ie, no I2S, no clock input, etc). From what I can tell, with an outboard linear power supply (also on order), the F-1 is effectively a stripped down version of the highly regarded SingXer S-1 - with just the coax output the Ares needs.

I currently have an Etir, but will put that up for sale, since it is incompatible with the F-1. The Etir brings more clarity, but I don't hear more air, more dimensionality, or a more holographic presentation. I am eager to hear what the F-1 brings...

Seems that there is an upgrade path by purchasing Ifi USB power. Since the F-1 uses USB port power, having the ifi USB power can give it an additional bump in SQ.

Another weakness is the quality of the coax cable. In due time you should hear some more micro details as the noise floor drops due to the re-clocked signal.

I'm hopeful the F1 is a sweet spot. You should immediately and instantly hear a more enjoyable and musical experience. Digital glare should be stripped from the music.

Just recently did a fun experiment. I blew the dust off of my abandoned Uptone USBregen (amber) and fed it to my first Mutec MC-3+ USB. This quick test seems to have changed the flow of the music. Still trying to pinpoint the changes but further relaxed the flow.

Mind you, I also have been testing the Audirvana Studio so this is a bit of a game changer for me. Speaking with others that have much more expensive rigs find "studio" as a nice improvement like purchasing a new audio component. Not bad for software.

This stuff gets rather silly and fun........

 

[iFi audio]

Seems that there is an upgrade path by purchasing Ifi USB power. Since the F-1 uses USB port power, having the ifi USB power can give it an additional bump in SQ.

Do you mean our USB reclockers like iUSB3.0?

 

[Lolito]

@AlanU, you, too, are an evil enabler; I bought a SingXer F-1. I will report back when I get it.

I checked out a bunch of other options, but ultimately, I think the F-1 is the perfect match for the Ares. At $200, the price ratio seems in line. The F-1 only has a coax output - which is all the Ares is capable of receiving (ie, no I2S, no clock input, etc). From what I can tell, with an outboard linear power supply (also on order), the F-1 is effectively a stripped down version of the highly regarded SingXer S-1 - with just the coax output the Ares needs.

I currently have an Etir, but will put that up for sale, since it is incompatible with the F-1. The Etir brings more clarity, but I don't hear more air, more dimensionality, or a more holographic presentation. I am eager to hear what the F-1 brings...

that thing costs 175$ it can not output in optical, or aes or i2s, for the future, it uses usb power only, if i am not mistaken, so not sure how you can get rid of noise in usb power without rejecting it, makes no sense, not a cheap device really. The chinese ones from audiophonics in France seems like a better deal. no?

 

[Lolito]

 

[TheRealDz]

that thing costs 175$ it can not output in optical, or aes or i2s, for the future, it uses usb power only, if i am not mistaken, so not sure how you can get rid of noise in usb power without rejecting it, makes no sense, not a cheap device really. The chinese ones from audiophonics in France seems like a better deal. no?

Hey hey hey, @Lolito just because you have one of the coolest avatar pics around, doesn't mean you get to go negative on us!

Given this is an Ares thread, I still stand by the F-1 being a good match for the Ares spec-wise - ie, I2S/AES connections are pointless.

As for the power, the F-1 has galvanic isolation, and I already bought a linear power supply plus power injector cable (that cuts power from USB connection and injects power from psu).

The F-1 is a simplified version of the S1, which seems to have gotten unequivocally good feedback. I will report back if the F-1's performance meets its expectations once I get the it in the next few days...

 

[Lolito]

not negetive brother, just trying to distinguish the good smoke from the bad one, the good snake oil from the not so good one. The cheap one from the expensive one. I am all about positivity, mindfullness, flower power and all in all positive vibes for all living creatures of this our lovely planet earth and mother nature. I send you and all the fellow head-fiers lot of love and hot kisses from me, with sugar on top.