geoffalter11
Headphoneus Supremus
Thanks for the impressions. I would love to hear a Fidelice. I am also coming to the point where my midrange dac and amp might not be enough. I just demoed a TT2 and had the same type experience as you with the Fidelice. I need to hear the Fidelice before pulling the trigger on something else.So I've been listening to the RNDAC for about a day now and wanted to give my impressions here as well. I should also mention that the pre-order is now live here, and I'm told it should be releasing sometime soon next week.
I'm always trying to do my best to pay attention to the assumption that something might be better because it costs a lot more, but with the RNDAC I'm starting to feel like the difference is so substantial that second guessing myself in this case is a bit pointless. I was admittedly skeptical that a DAC improvement would make much of a difference, so this has been a bit of a learning process for me. Anyways, it's a very obvious change when comparing it directly to my existing entry to mid level DACs. Just for reference I've been mainly using it with the ZMF Verite (open) and the Focal Elegia. Probably the most obvious improvement over my go-to source (Cayin IHA-6) is an improvement in structural definition and clarity for the images. It feels weird to say that because I remember first having that experience going from entry level equipment like the Magni 2 to the IHA-6 and being moderately to significantly impressed with the difference for my (at the time) low sensitivity planars. Going from that to the Rupert Neve DAC is an even bigger jump, at least as long as my expectation bias isn't doing me any serious psychological harm here. Nonetheless, it sounds to me, at least with the Verite, that the RNDAC improves the technical performance dramatically, whether it's detail retrieval, speed, sense of engagement, depth of stage (not just in front of me but all around as well). And that's not to say my other source gear is bad by any means, I'm just getting a strong sense that the "good enough" DACs I've been using for years simply won't be after this, and I'm likely going to have to invest in one, or something like it in the near future. I've also been pairing it up with some discrete amps like the iCAN Pro as well to see where the benefits of the DAC show up, and it's clear there's a noticeable difference there as well (rather than driving it from my iDSD Micro BL for example), but the degree to which it's the DAC that's doing the work or how important the amp component is I'm not yet sure. For those wondering, I believe this uses some form of AK4497, but don't quote me on that. Anyways there's still lots to test out with this unit, with many more headphones. Feel free to ask me any questions about how it sounds and I'll do my best to answer. Unfortunately I'm not a source gear measurements guy yet, merely experience and comparison-based impressions for now.
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