At least for the moment I consider the Dac2 to be the best purchase I’ve made and in particular appreciate the plethora of inputs. However, I haven’t quite decided whether I consider this thread more informative or more corrupting. I have learned a tremendous amount from the considered, and differing opinions of people I’ve come to respect. But on the flip side there’s the corruption.
With the Venom 3 held in such high regard by many of those who’ve contributed to this thread, I thought, "What the hell, why not give it a shot?" I was frankly amazed that, real or not, I could hear a marked difference. Which needless to say led to, well if I’m getting Decware’s silver interconnects with the amps, why not try a Signal silver reference coax from the Marantz to the Dac2? And that may lead to begging on the street in order to afford Ramen.
The path to an emptier wallet became steeper when I A/B’d a couple CDs using the Signal coax against the flac files from my computer over toslink. My impression (real or imagined) was the sound from my computer was veiled, a touch warm, a bit less detailed compared to the CD. Excellent mind, but not the same, and I preferred the sound from the Marantz. You can see where this is heading. Ordered Signal RCA interconnects for the analog out of the Marantz to connect to the HT. At which point it was like why not give a Cardas clear usb a shot?
The second set of Signals won’t arrive until this weekend, but the Cardas arrived Wednesday. I added it in, leaving the toslink in place. Real or imagined the result was the same as with the Signal cable. With it I’m not hearing much if any difference between the CD over the Signal and flac over the Cardas. However, I also A/B’d toslink vs USB, and it confirmed, for me, there’s is a difference. Though obviously not so extreme, it’s not unlike the toslink is LCD-2 and the Cardas is HD800. I do hear some harshness in the treble with the HD800s on some tracks using the Cardas, but I’ll see if the either the cable or my ears adjust over time. A plus is it also makes me think there’s hope for the LCD 2s.* The difference for the LCD-2s was all positive, at least a bit more of everything I feel they’re lacking. At least I can now listen to them for more than 45 minutes without feeling like I’m punishing myself.
Much as I would like to curse all of you, I really think I owe you thanks. Just for the record, NO I’m not buying the Audeophilleo2 (at least not yet); I’m too busy trying to talk myself out of calling Decware and upgrading the interconnects to the Xhadow Precision RCA jacks.
*I like detail, instrument separation, clarity, and sound stage. I’ve found, so far, the LCD-2 (r.2) to be lacking in detail, a bit too much bass, too “warm”, and compared to the HD800 I don’t even need to mention the sound stage. Obviously this is just my preference on what I like to hear. However the Cardas seems to refine the bass and extend and clarify the treble, and I think there’s more detail.
I tried to find a setup menu preference for it but came to the same conclusion. However, I don't feel this was done intentionally to prevent a loud source. There is no way to adjust the volume while the front panel is off, nor select the input while the W4S is off at the front panel. Once you select the input with the remote from the front panel standby mode, the DAC-2 becomes "un-muted." So the same 'loud source' issue would potentially exist whether there is 1 or 10 power on buttons. Also, when I set COAX to 'variable' (I typically run it in 'fixed' mode), the DAC-2 does not remember the last volume level set after a hardwire power off/on, and defaults to "0" so the loud source issue would be moot in this scenario. I suspect this was just a decision made upon other criteria, hopefully not an oversight. My best guess is that during testing, W4S simulated a power outage where the rear panel is on, power is lost at the AC receptacle and then is restored. Perhaps having the DAC-2 remain on after an outage was deemed worse than having to initailly power on twice.
