fjrabon
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2009
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so, I did a LOT of listening to the filters over the weekend, and made some notes:
The filters are very subtle, so it took quite a while for me to suss out their effects. They don't so much change the frequency response much, their primary effect is in how they handle the delicate balance of rich, absolute timbral/time accuracy and maximum clarity. I don't think people realize that this is often a tradeoff, as super compressed music with lots of treble can often cause aliasing distortion with ultra-high-quality DACs. I think this is a lot of the phenomenon people notice when they say certain top-shelf DACs are "very harsh to bad sources." Sometimes it's almost like people here relish a DAC that makes pop music sound like crap, as if that's a badge of pride. Grace, however, decided to give you the option for a more detailed DAC and a more forgiving DAC (to simplify things greatly).
F1: This is given the default spot as the filter, and I think for good reason. It's the setting that will probably sound best, for most people and how they use the m9XX and the music they'll most use for it. This is the best setting to use if the Grace is both your DAC and your amp and you're listening to compressed music (here I mean a compressed mastering, not as in bitrate, don't take this to be about lossless vs mp3, it's about how it was mastered). There are two aspects to this setting (like all the settings): fast roll-off and in phase modulation. The first essentially cuts down on aliasing distortion issues that can happen in highly compressed music with lots of high frequency content. The second keeps a linear phase response, for maximum preservation of the source signal. The latter can be bad if you're using an amp that isn't the Grace, ie using the RCA outputs to feed an amp or powered speakers. Something about how they built the amp section of the Grace seems to do away with the intermodulation issues that can happen with a linear phase. This intermodulation effect seems to be especially problematic with tubes, which can have microphonic tendencies. I honestly couldn't tell much difference between F1 and F3, until I put the m9XX in front of my SSHM hybrid tube amp, and there the F3 setting sounded much cleaner than F1.
TL
R: if you're listening to typical pop/rock music that is loud with a lot of treble, and you're not using an amp after the Grace, this is probably your best setting.
F2: This is probably the most accurate filter, and what would probably measure the best in objective testing. It is susceptible to aliasing issues with highly compressed, treble music. ie pop music will sound somewhat harsher with it. It can also theoretically have intermodulation issues if it's being used with an external amp. But when using it with well-recorded, non treble-heavy material, and the Grace as an amp, it provides the ultimate in transparency.
TL;DR: if you're listening to well recorded and mastered music and not using an external amp, this is your no-compromise absolute transparency setting.
F3: This setting is the ultimate "fix problems" setting, everything will sound good out of this setting, regardless of what is going through it, and you'll never have to worry about problems. It sacrifices a bit of complete transparency to cut down as much as possible on aliasing distortion and intermodulation distortion.
TL;DR: use this if you're listening to highly compressed music with very loud treble and using an external amp out of it (especially at tube amp), or if you're experiencing distortion issues and you're not sure what part of the chain they may be coming from.
F4: This is probably the filter that can, theoretically, get the absolute best sound out of the m9XX's DAC section. It produces the full, rich tone, without giving worry to aliasing issues in high treble energy music, but shifts the ringing to reduce any intermodulation effects that might happen with an external amp (especially a tube amp)
TL;DR: use this if you primarily listen to exceptionally well recorded music and are using an amp (especially tubes) after the m9XX.
The filters are very subtle, so it took quite a while for me to suss out their effects. They don't so much change the frequency response much, their primary effect is in how they handle the delicate balance of rich, absolute timbral/time accuracy and maximum clarity. I don't think people realize that this is often a tradeoff, as super compressed music with lots of treble can often cause aliasing distortion with ultra-high-quality DACs. I think this is a lot of the phenomenon people notice when they say certain top-shelf DACs are "very harsh to bad sources." Sometimes it's almost like people here relish a DAC that makes pop music sound like crap, as if that's a badge of pride. Grace, however, decided to give you the option for a more detailed DAC and a more forgiving DAC (to simplify things greatly).
F1: This is given the default spot as the filter, and I think for good reason. It's the setting that will probably sound best, for most people and how they use the m9XX and the music they'll most use for it. This is the best setting to use if the Grace is both your DAC and your amp and you're listening to compressed music (here I mean a compressed mastering, not as in bitrate, don't take this to be about lossless vs mp3, it's about how it was mastered). There are two aspects to this setting (like all the settings): fast roll-off and in phase modulation. The first essentially cuts down on aliasing distortion issues that can happen in highly compressed music with lots of high frequency content. The second keeps a linear phase response, for maximum preservation of the source signal. The latter can be bad if you're using an amp that isn't the Grace, ie using the RCA outputs to feed an amp or powered speakers. Something about how they built the amp section of the Grace seems to do away with the intermodulation issues that can happen with a linear phase. This intermodulation effect seems to be especially problematic with tubes, which can have microphonic tendencies. I honestly couldn't tell much difference between F1 and F3, until I put the m9XX in front of my SSHM hybrid tube amp, and there the F3 setting sounded much cleaner than F1.
TL
R: if you're listening to typical pop/rock music that is loud with a lot of treble, and you're not using an amp after the Grace, this is probably your best setting. F2: This is probably the most accurate filter, and what would probably measure the best in objective testing. It is susceptible to aliasing issues with highly compressed, treble music. ie pop music will sound somewhat harsher with it. It can also theoretically have intermodulation issues if it's being used with an external amp. But when using it with well-recorded, non treble-heavy material, and the Grace as an amp, it provides the ultimate in transparency.
TL;DR: if you're listening to well recorded and mastered music and not using an external amp, this is your no-compromise absolute transparency setting.
F3: This setting is the ultimate "fix problems" setting, everything will sound good out of this setting, regardless of what is going through it, and you'll never have to worry about problems. It sacrifices a bit of complete transparency to cut down as much as possible on aliasing distortion and intermodulation distortion.
TL;DR: use this if you're listening to highly compressed music with very loud treble and using an external amp out of it (especially at tube amp), or if you're experiencing distortion issues and you're not sure what part of the chain they may be coming from.
F4: This is probably the filter that can, theoretically, get the absolute best sound out of the m9XX's DAC section. It produces the full, rich tone, without giving worry to aliasing issues in high treble energy music, but shifts the ringing to reduce any intermodulation effects that might happen with an external amp (especially a tube amp)
TL;DR: use this if you primarily listen to exceptionally well recorded music and are using an amp (especially tubes) after the m9XX.
