[Sharppain]

I switched up a little bit. I purchased a decent quality spdif coaxial to go from the a6 and feed the ef499 and have decent quality cables from 499 to the Nitsch Maximus (RCA) and xlr to the Schiit Midgard.

I disconnected the Amazon Music in hires and switched to Tidal since it is the same price now.

Ripped CD’s sound comparable to MQA but with this setup if I listen to a MQA song and the same album song (sure I don’t know some stuff) but I can hear the singer breathing now.

The Spdif I caved and purchased is an audio quest black carbon .75 meter..

I can hear a difference with usb and spdif. Spdif sounds better and I am still not sold audio quest black carbon has more magical power than another 75 ohm cable but it looks good. that was a splurge though.

Hi, very interesting set-up, esthetics as well - bravo! How would you describe the ef499. I am highly interested on its technicalities like resolution and soundstage width and depth. Would you be kind to share some comparison with smth popular or, let's say vs the A6 dac.

 

[tylerindianapolis]

Hi, very interesting set-up, esthetics as well - bravo! How would you describe the ef499. I am highly interested on its technicalities like resolution and soundstage width and depth. Would you be kind to share some comparison with smth popular or, let's say vs the A6 dac.

I am using 2 Schiit Amps (Midgard and Maximus). I believe Schiit makes their Amps to favor R2R dacs somehow in their mathematical algorithm.

With that using the ef499 as a dac and using the a6 as the source with Ayra Organic Headphones I believe that are also engineered to be used with r2r type dacs. I can play almost anything and I don’t get the fatigue as I do when I use the a6 dac.

To explain it is like being stabbed over and over in the head. For awhile it is fine but something in the delivery of the sound becomes torturous.

Using as I am makes it more like a thing I can fall asleep to while wearing headphones. I get plenty of treble still but not the harshness. I also like good bass and I get that too and I believe that is the key. It cancels out the pitch fork treble.

Bow I also have 660s2 and it is enjoyable too but much more recessed than the clarity of the Ayra. For fun I also pulled out the Phillips Fidelio and those are too boomy.

Also to add I also believe the ef499 has a better spdif coax input or the a6 has a better coax output.

I wish someone that has more experience than I do had this setup because I think it is great but another with more experience might say otherwise. What I do know is I have always got ess or AKM all in one dacs before this setup and I have had higher end stuff and none of that compares to this.

Now I want to try the Bitcrost because that is r2r’ish

 

[Sharppain]

thanks for insights

 

[PrTv]

I switched up a little bit. I purchased a decent quality spdif coaxial to go from the a6 and feed the ef499 and have decent quality cables from 499 to the Nitsch Maximus (RCA) and xlr to the Schiit Midgard.

I disconnected the Amazon Music in hires and switched to Tidal since it is the same price now.

Ripped CD’s sound comparable to MQA but with this setup if I listen to a MQA song and the same album song (sure I don’t know some stuff) but I can hear the singer breathing now.

The Spdif I caved and purchased is an audio quest black carbon .75 meter..

I can hear a difference with usb and spdif. Spdif sounds better and I am still not sold audio quest black carbon has more magical power than another 75 ohm cable but it looks good. that was a splurge though.

That's possible, as, with SPDIF, clock generator in the streamer dictates the timing of the digital output, whilst for USB, the DAC will rely on DAC's internal clock. As your unit is A6ME, I think clock inside should be superior to those in the EF499.

In my case, with the DDC and Terminator Plus DAC, that equip with far superior clock than the A6ME, using USB yields better result.

 

[tylerindianapolis]

That's possible, as, with SPDIF, clock generator in the streamer dictates the timing of the digital output, whilst for USB, the DAC will rely on DAC's internal clock. As your unit is A6ME, I think clock inside should be superior to those in the EF499.

In my case, with the DDC and Terminator Plus DAC, that equip with far superior clock than the A6ME, using USB yields better result.

Nice. That makes sense. Thank you.

 

[tylerindianapolis]

That's possible, as, with SPDIF, clock generator in the streamer dictates the timing of the digital output, whilst for USB, the DAC will rely on DAC's internal clock. As your unit is A6ME, I think clock inside should be superior to those in the EF499.

In my case, with the DDC and Terminator Plus DAC, that equip with far superior clock than the A6ME, using USB yields better result.

I am waiting on a Denafrips DDS ires and a Denafrips Ares 12-1. The terminator would be awesome though along with the clocking. If I ever move to wanting full size speakers and I can afford that in the future.

However for now I am using a Modi mb2 with coaxial in and once my brain adjusted to the modi or I broke in the mb2 a little if I move to the small po100 pro with usb and spdif coax out to the MB2 or to the ef499 it sounds super flat. The mb2 with the ever stream a6 master on spif is pretty good.

Do you think the denafrips will improve the sound using usb to the ddc (via A6Mme) and i2s to the ares 12-1? Going to also use the spdif coax to the modi.

On the balanced out of the ARES 12-1 it will feed to a schiit Midgard (I know the Midgard is not true balanced) and the modi will feed the Nitche Maximus.

This way I can have one of the kids or someone else listen to the same thing I am.

I am always all over the place I will sell things later for a loss of course but I am wanting to keep the denafrips, a6, and the Nitsch Maximus.

 

[PrTv]

I am waiting on a Denafrips DDS ires and a Denafrips Ares 12-1. The terminator would be awesome though along with the clocking. If I ever move to wanting full size speakers and I can afford that in the future.

However for now I am using a Modi mb2 with coaxial in and once my brain adjusted to the modi or I broke in the mb2 a little if I move to the small po100 pro with usb and spdif coax out to the MB2 or to the ef499 it sounds super flat. The mb2 with the ever stream a6 master on spif is pretty good.

Do you think the denafrips will improve the sound using usb to the ddc (via A6Mme) and i2s to the ares 12-1? Going to also use the spdif coax to the modi.

On the balanced out of the ARES 12-1 it will feed to a schiit Midgard (I know the Midgard is not true balanced) and the modi will feed the Nitche Maximus.

This way I can have one of the kids or someone else listen to the same thing I am.

I am always all over the place I will sell things later for a loss of course but I am wanting to keep the denafrips, a6, and the Nitsch Maximus.

DDC can actually improve sound quality. Take a look at Goldensound’s video here.


Although Ires + Ares is a nice combo, if you can swing it, I recommend opting for Hermes DDC due to its superior clock. With the Ires, I’m unsure whether its clock would outperform the clock inside your A6 ME. With my Hermes + Termy Plus, the improvement is “not” night and day when comparison is made between A6ME’s clock and Hermes’ clock.

So as the price difference in DDC is not that much, getting the Hermes can better accommodate your future upgrade if you wanna get a new dac.

In any case, Denafrips DACs seem to like I2S most (sound better) so I think you can get a very good sound with this setup (A6 ME > Iris > Ares). For I2S cable, just choose the shortest one. I use this (0.5m length) https://www.tubulus.net/product/tubulus-concentus-i2s-cable/

You can use any standard/ properly shielded cable but pick the shortest that can reach your components (I2S is not meant for inter-device communication).

 

[evanft]

Hey everyone. Quick question.

Does the parametric EQ apply to all inputs/outputs if I want? Basically, I want to use it as a DAC with PEQ. Is that possible?

 

[jjazzy]

Hey everyone. Quick question.

Does the parametric EQ apply to all inputs/outputs if I want? Basically, I want to use it as a DAC with PEQ. Is that possible?

Has one down site, everything is converted to 48khz no highres with peq

 

[martas38]

Has one down site, everything is converted to 48khz no highres with peq

But the output to the DAC is not 48kHz.

 

[skhan007]

I'm confused. If I'm playing a high-res file and want to use Eversolo's PEQ, it will be downsampled to 48kHz?

 

[martas38]

It won't, there is no oversampling. If it plays 24/192, the DAC will go 24/192 even when using PEQ. I use Eversolo via USB to Chord Qutest, I have PEQ and it plays with the correct samplerate.

 

[jjazzy]

It won't, there is no oversampling. If it plays 24/192, the DAC will go 24/192 even when using PEQ. I use Eversolo via USB to Chord Qutest, I have PEQ and it plays with the correct samplerate.

Than it’s my mistake, I never use peq or eq, I thought I read it somewhere, my bad

 

[fofocho]

It won't, there is no oversampling. If it plays 24/192, the DAC will go 24/192 even when using PEQ. I use Eversolo via USB to Chord Qutest, I have PEQ and it plays with the correct samplerate.

Are you sure of that? I read somewhere that using PEQ would downsample to 48khz (like Dirac or Audyssey do)