MarkMDR
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Sep 10, 2009
- Posts
- 7
- Likes
- 10
Quote:
I spent much of my early life around music instruments, so am very picky about dynamics and natural textures of acoustic instruments, voices. Imaging, soundstage, can be sacrificed if need be. But bloom anywhere drives me nuts, have heard it in lots of good equipment when the components didn't play well, part of why I'm a minimalist - if I didn't have the ATCs might look at the new DSP powered speakers with digital input. As much as I like my ATCs, I loved loved loved the Mastering Labs old monitors, 2 JBL or Altec horns (I forget now) on top with something like 15"ers for bass and mid bass. tweaked to high heaven. I can still remember Sax playing a cut that had someone with a gourd in the background, it sounded so...organic with so much detail and texture. We remember the weirdest stuff. One of the guys who worked on his tweak tube stuff lived up near fresno, had this set up that was the closest thing to live I've every heard on a playback system, you could be on the front porch and swear there was a grand piano or Harry James in the house, the dynamics were just stunning.
Sorry for all the rambling. I've been away from audio for a while.
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Thanks for the reminder of the used market. I'm a little gun shy with older gear given the issue I just went through with not being able to get drivers for my RME pci card. My only concern with the DAC1 is it's the darling du jour and when the next wunderkind comes out, it'll be mud and the value will tumble....and will it be supported in Windows 9. I guess I should decide if my concern is long term support or resale value. After being out of the audio market for 10-15 years to come back and hear people tweaking USB cables, oh brother, things never change.
After a brief survey it looks like the audition group is something like DAC1 (spdif or USB), Apogee mini-dac (spdif or firewire), RME 9632 internal PCI, Cambridge DACMagic, EMU 0404.
Would love to hear from anyone who's A/B'ed any of these. Many thanks to all for the input, it's very helpful.
| Originally Posted by Shadorne /img/forum/go_quote.gif As far as I know Doug uses uses custom Meitner for A/D and standard Benchmark DAC1s for D/A - all hooked up to his brother's proprietary tube EQ setup and ATC's all round. This DAC seems to be a good match with ATC (the clean thin sounding lower mids are just awesome with the forward ATC sound - great on male vocals - a very articulate sound with nothing artificial such as increased sibilance. Imaging is very tight - a narrow soundstage that some people don't like - I recall reading a report that the Lavry D10 throws a wider soundstage). |
I spent much of my early life around music instruments, so am very picky about dynamics and natural textures of acoustic instruments, voices. Imaging, soundstage, can be sacrificed if need be. But bloom anywhere drives me nuts, have heard it in lots of good equipment when the components didn't play well, part of why I'm a minimalist - if I didn't have the ATCs might look at the new DSP powered speakers with digital input. As much as I like my ATCs, I loved loved loved the Mastering Labs old monitors, 2 JBL or Altec horns (I forget now) on top with something like 15"ers for bass and mid bass. tweaked to high heaven. I can still remember Sax playing a cut that had someone with a gourd in the background, it sounded so...organic with so much detail and texture. We remember the weirdest stuff. One of the guys who worked on his tweak tube stuff lived up near fresno, had this set up that was the closest thing to live I've every heard on a playback system, you could be on the front porch and swear there was a grand piano or Harry James in the house, the dynamics were just stunning.
Sorry for all the rambling. I've been away from audio for a while.
Quote:
| Originally Posted by Shadorne /img/forum/go_quote.gif Have you considered used? You can sometimes find a used DAC1 on Audiogon for as little as $650 to $800, as everybody now wants the newer models. However, for a second hand DAC the price still holds up very well compared to most others. I guess it is similar to how a used Toyota holds up well in price compared to a used Ford. |
Thanks for the reminder of the used market. I'm a little gun shy with older gear given the issue I just went through with not being able to get drivers for my RME pci card. My only concern with the DAC1 is it's the darling du jour and when the next wunderkind comes out, it'll be mud and the value will tumble....and will it be supported in Windows 9. I guess I should decide if my concern is long term support or resale value. After being out of the audio market for 10-15 years to come back and hear people tweaking USB cables, oh brother, things never change.
After a brief survey it looks like the audition group is something like DAC1 (spdif or USB), Apogee mini-dac (spdif or firewire), RME 9632 internal PCI, Cambridge DACMagic, EMU 0404.
Would love to hear from anyone who's A/B'ed any of these. Many thanks to all for the input, it's very helpful.
