[rangerid]

Sorry to hear how disappointed you are with the DAC. Since a DAC is a low power device you don’t need to spend on a large current design, but do want a cord with noice reduction. A friend of mine reached out to Shunyata and the actually talked him out of a very expensive cord and into this one Venom NR V12 Power Cord. I have one on my DAC. Having said that, this will not fix the DAC. First of all, do you have 400 hours playing It? Most take at least 150 - 200 hours before they sound anything like natural. 400 hour minimum to de considered broken in. What you describes sounds like a non-broken in DAC.
if it is broken In, let me see if I can figure out what the rest of your system is. So the source is your Sony 1Z? That could be a limiter. The streamer makes a big difference,

I have about ~150hrs burnt in along with my Bakoon when I first got it. I was hoping I'd hear more differences than my 1Z but they are so similar a lot of things might even just be placebo. It was a very different experience than when listening to a new headphone or amp, where at first, it might not sound as good because my brain hasn't adjusted to the sound signature yet, but I can immediately notice the differences. I've already ordered some new power cords since I need them for some other components anyways, if it helps great, if not, whatever.

My system I was testing with was Morpheus -> Bakoon -> Susvara with both local flac files and streaming Tidal hifi/master. I've tried Roon/audirvana before and I couldn't hear any differences whatsoever either.

Yesterday, after I got tired of the Morpheus, I hooked up my Manley Absolute as a preamp between the 1Z and Bakoon. This was the first time I've ever tried adding in a preamp and holy crap, I was not expecting what I heard at all. It took the Bakoon to a whole new level, it was as big of a jump in SQ as upgrading to the Bakoon.... one of the biggest immediate improvement I've heard, pretty insane.

It got me thinking, I wonder how the Morpheus sounds with the Manley as preamp. I can't test this out yet because I actually don't got another pair of RCA-RCA, but got some on the way this week. I am wondering the reason I don't find the Morpheus good is a matter of system synergy. The Bakoon I find is very smooth & warm already, then throw in the equally smooth & laid back Morpheus. I like that sound signature but it's almost like too much of a good thing? I almost feel I should have gone with a more analytical dac to "balance" things out. The Manley's got 2 topologies, Single Ended and Push Pull. SE is relaxed and smooth where as PP is more forward & dynamic, so I am thinking the Morpheus into Manley PP mode -> Bakoon might actually make sense? Just a theory, I will test it out once my stuff arrives, but right now I am really enjoying the 1Z->Manley Pre->Bakoon combo.

 

[kumar402]

Also use anything but USB on Morpheus.
Since its NOS so it will be dense and warm and hence you have to pair it accordingly.

 

[rangerid]

Also use anything but USB on Morpheus.
Since its NOS so it will be dense and warm and hence you have to pair it accordingly.

Unfortunately USB is the only thing I got. Dense and warm seems accurate to what I am hearing. I def have to see how adding the Manley in the mix affect things

 

[kumar402]

Unfortunately USB is the only thing I got. Dense and warm seems accurate to what I am hearing. I def have to see how adding the Manley in the mix affect things

Since you are in journey of DAC, I feel you should look for option of adding Digital transport in your chain as well. Some of these high end DAC perform well with BNC/AES/RCA Spdif /I2S input and you can easily get high quality HAT for pi to make a clean digital source and get away from USB

 

[JDFlood]

I have about ~150hrs burnt in along with my Bakoon when I first got it. I was hoping I'd hear more differences than my 1Z but they are so similar a lot of things might even just be placebo. It was a very different experience than when listening to a new headphone or amp, where at first, it might not sound as good because my brain hasn't adjusted to the sound signature yet, but I can immediately notice the differences. I've already ordered some new power cords since I need them for some other components anyways, if it helps great, if not, whatever.

My system I was testing with was Morpheus -> Bakoon -> Susvara with both local flac files and streaming Tidal hifi/master. I've tried Roon/audirvana before and I couldn't hear any differences whatsoever either.

Yesterday, after I got tired of the Morpheus, I hooked up my Manley Absolute as a preamp between the 1Z and Bakoon. This was the first time I've ever tried adding in a preamp and holy ***, I was not expecting what I heard at all. It took the Bakoon to a whole new level, it was as big of a jump in SQ as upgrading to the Bakoon.... one of the biggest immediate improvement I've heard, pretty insane.

It got me thinking, I wonder how the Morpheus sounds with the Manley as preamp. I can't test this out yet because I actually don't got another pair of RCA-RCA, but got some on the way this week. I am wondering the reason I don't find the Morpheus good is a matter of system synergy. The Bakoon I find is very smooth & warm already, then throw in the equally smooth & laid back Morpheus. I like that sound signature but it's almost like too much of a good thing? I almost feel I should have gone with a more analytical dac to "balance" things out. The Manley's got 2 topologies, Single Ended and Push Pull. SE is relaxed and smooth where as PP is more forward & dynamic, so I am thinking the Morpheus into Manley PP mode -> Bakoon might actually make sense? Just a theory, I will test it out once my stuff arrives, but right now I am really enjoying the 1Z->Manley Pre->Bakoon combo.

Sounds like you really have a challenge... sounds like the components may not be synergistic as you said. I would like to suggest that when possible to acquire a good streamer. I highly recommend an Aurender. I own a couple... I used to own an Auralic Aries G2. while this is easier to advise than do. It is best to start at the beginning... the streamer. I started with a PC and also with an iPod a long time ago and upgraded incremental for 15 years.. i kept thinking the streamer was not important since it was just sending bits, which were retimed and assembled in the DAC. But the streamer matters big time. I would look at a Aurender N100 or one of the other half sized ones. The difference between that and the Sony is likely to be very larger. Then you know you have a good clean source. If you then stepwise work down the signal chain. After experiencing several streamers in the $5K range and doing a lot of reading I held my breath and bought an Aurender WE20se... $22K. I took less than 10 seconds of listening to realize how thankful I was to made the choice and not got the intermediate one. I just had refused to believe the streamer could make that much difference... it does. Unless you start with a quiet, noice free source... then you are forming and amplifieing a less that perfect signal.

Given where you are, I would recommend returning the New DAC and acquire a top notch music server. You do want to use a good preamp. volume control in the digital realm is very difficult. It can only be done well only with extremely compatible gear. My Auender N100 is wonderful with my headphone system. Then you can methodically work your down the signal chain. i would be careful of matching overly warm with analytical... you can end up having both be filters and while you may get the right tonal balance out the end, you will be loosing a lot of detail. Ideally you want each device of the same overall character so what you want comes out the other end. There are many choices of components, I also recommend staying as mainstream as possible... this makes compatibility more likely. I have zeroed in the companies you see on my signature line, obviously there are many good choices..

 

[sajunky]

Since you are in journey of DAC, I feel you should look for option of adding Digital transport in your chain as well. Some of these high end DAC perform well with BNC/AES/RCA Spdif /I2S input and you can easily get high quality HAT for pi to make a clean digital source and get away from USB

I agree, or DDC. Audio GD DI-20HE is one of the best device of this kind, if not the best. You can't find anything with regenerative power supply for $1000.

 

[silversurfer616]

Also use anything but USB on Morpheus.
Since its NOS so it will be dense and warm and hence you have to pair it accordingly.

Had Octave, Hex and Pavane and it was always USB which as a let down, so not really surprised that this goes on with the Morpheus.

 

[JDFlood]

Whether to use USB or AES/ SPDIF varies from system to system. Since USB has the DAC re-time the bitstream and the others use the bitstream as it comes from the streamer, the component with a better clock (over Simplified I am sure) is likely to sound better. For instance my Aurender WE20se AES sounds a bit better than the USB connection to my Audio Research CD9se... but just a tiny bit. It is going to depend on the quality of your streamer versus DAC.

 

[kumar402]

Whether to use USB or AES/ SPDIF varies from system to system. Since USB has the DAC re-time the bitstream and the others use the bitstream as it comes from the streamer, the component with a better clock (over Simplified I am sure) is likely to sound better. For instance my Aurender WE20se AES sounds a bit better than the USB connection to my Audio Research CD9se... but just a tiny bit. It is going to depend on the quality of your streamer versus DAC.

Agree but not true all the time as Metrum and Sonnet DAC sounds good with I2S that also need DAC to have a better clock but not with USB.

 

[sajunky]

Agree but not true all the time as Metrum and Sonnet DAC sounds good with I2S that also need DAC to have a better clock but not with USB.

Not exactly. I2S sounds better in most of cases, but it fully depends on the clock quality of your I2S source. I2S is a feed forward technology passing a clock parallel with data. Similar to S/PDIF, but S/PDIF provide embedded clock, it requires reclocking. Such operation never recovers a clock with 100% accuracy under normal conditions. I2S do not require reclocking, if it is in place, a quality of the clock deteriorate. It means that with I2S a quality depends on the I2S source clock, not a local clock that is typically disabled. It is a different situation from S/PDIF where both a digital source and a DAC must have a quality clock for the best performance.

USB sounds frequently not good, but it is because USB interface is not isolated. Any attempts to isolate USB fails due to the complication of the USB protocol which require DC line levels for handshaking. A solution is to leave USB receiver on a dirty side and isolate all output lines --- which is --- I2S. Many brands do this, but isolation is typically feed-forward, which means that quality of the clock depends on the clock quality of the USB receiver, but a clock device is left on the dirty side! It is why there is an additional reclocking step between galvanic isolator and I2S output.

In a final result (even with galvanic isolation) USB performance is brought to the S/PDIF level and under several conditions can be inferior. It is a wasted opportunity for the best SQ, as USB allows for asynchronous transfers where incoming packets are synchronised with a fixed frequency local clock, USB interface is not adding any jitter!

These all conditions created a need for a separate device that isolate all digital sources from a DAC. It is called DDC. A device I refered to before brings regenerative power supply down to a price level $1K and has also one innovative feature. It has a bi-directional USB isolator. In this design USB receiver is on the dirty side (the same as in most of implementations), but its clock is fed through the isolator back from a main high quality clock. In a final result USB transfers are fully synchronised with the internal clock and no additional reclocking is done, the ideal situation. A less expensive version (sans regenerative power supply), with all other features cost just $450.

 

[kumar402]

Not exactly. I2S sounds better in most of cases, but it fully depends on the clock quality of your I2S source. I2S is a feed forward technology passing a clock parallel with data. Similar to S/PDIF, but S/PDIF provide embedded clock, it requires reclocking. Such operation never recovers a clock with 100% accuracy under normal conditions. I2S do not require reclocking, if it is in place, a quality of the clock deteriorate. It means that with I2S a quality depends on the I2S source clock, not a local clock that is typically disabled. It is a different situation from S/PDIF where both a digital source and a DAC must have a quality clock for the best performance.

USB sounds frequently not good, but it is because USB interface is not isolated. Any attempts to isolate USB fails due to the complication of the USB protocol which require DC line levels for handshaking. A solution is to leave USB receiver on a dirty side and isolate all output lines --- which is --- I2S. Many brands do this, but isolation is typically feed-forward, which means that quality of the clock depends on the clock quality of the USB receiver, but a clock device is left on the dirty side! It is why there is an additional reclocking step between galvanic isolator and I2S output.

In a final result (even with galvanic isolation) USB performance is brought to the S/PDIF level and under several conditions can be inferior. It is a wasted opportunity for the best SQ, as USB allows for asynchronous transfers where incoming packets are synchronised with a fixed frequency local clock, USB interface is not adding any jitter!

These all conditions created a need for a separate device that isolate all digital sources from a DAC. It is called DDC. A device I refered to before brings regenerative power supply down to a price level $1K and has also one innovative feature. It has a bi-directional USB isolator. In this design USB receiver is on the dirty side (the same as in most of implementations), but its clock is fed through the isolator back from a main high quality clock. In a final result USB transfers are fully synchronised with the internal clock and no additional reclocking is done, the ideal situation. A less expensive version (sans regenerative power supply), with all other features cost just $450.

Thanks for letting me know..I was under different impression

 

[rangerid]

Mysteries of the Morpheus DAC solved!

My RCA cables arrived today and I immediately connected Morpheus > Manley Absolute Pre > Bakoon. This morning I was listening to 1Z > Manley > Bakoon so it would be fresh in my mind. With the 1Z I had the Manley in PushPull mode. When I connected the Morpheus directly the Bakoon my main issues was that it sounded too soft/laid back and lacked resolution compared to my 1Z. The Manley in PP Mode has an aggressive, forward sound which I though would curb the Morpheus issues for me. Manley in SinglEnded mode on the other hand is also relaxed, smooth, and more "musical". To my surprise, I found the Morpheus into Manley in SE mode to be better than PP.

I've only listened to the Morpheus in this set up for about 30 minutes and I am already noticing very positive improvements over the 1Z. Running through my usual test tracks, the first thing I noticed is soundstage improvement, it is quite a bit wider and deeper, the left/right imaging is more precise. Texturing of notes and vocals seem more realistic and less "digital" sounding than the 1Z. The overall tonality is a bit thicker than the 1Z, giving everything a more full bodied and richer sound, but, without sacrificing resolution now. I am still using that crappy stock power cable that came with the DAC and one improvement I've noticed in the past is resolution improvement when I upgrade the power cord so I am hopeful there when my better cables arrive. It is also more detailed, I am noticing this mainly in texturing of notes.

I am sure as I listen more over the next few days and I get more acclimated to the new DAC I will notice more things.

I read everyone's reply above and there's been quite a few mention of streamers. I don't have any experience with those at all so I will need to research them. For now I think I've spent and bought enough gear to play around with for a bit and I am very satisfied.

 

[JDFlood]

Agree but not true all the time as Metrum and Sonnet DAC sounds good with I2S that also need DAC to have a better clock but not with USB.

Yes, definitely, it is complicated. The implementation in each device matters as well as the interactions. While I don’t know... since you would have to have long-term experience with many devices. It’s just a generalization intended to help simplify the world. Ultimately you have to listen. But the generalization has been helpful in my limited experience.

 

[JDFlood]

Mysteries of the Morpheus DAC solved!

My RCA cables arrived today and I immediately connected Morpheus > Manley Absolute Pre > Bakoon. This morning I was listening to 1Z > Manley > Bakoon so it would be fresh in my mind. With the 1Z I had the Manley in PushPull mode. When I connected the Morpheus directly the Bakoon my main issues was that it sounded too soft/laid back and lacked resolution compared to my 1Z. The Manley in PP Mode has an aggressive, forward sound which I though would curb the Morpheus issues for me. Manley in SinglEnded mode on the other hand is also relaxed, smooth, and more "musical". To my surprise, I found the Morpheus into Manley in SE mode to be better than PP.

I've only listened to the Morpheus in this set up for about 30 minutes and I am already noticing very positive improvements over the 1Z. Running through my usual test tracks, the first thing I noticed is soundstage improvement, it is quite a bit wider and deeper, the left/right imaging is more precise. Texturing of notes and vocals seem more realistic and less "digital" sounding than the 1Z. The overall tonality is a bit thicker than the 1Z, giving everything a more full bodied and richer sound, but, without sacrificing resolution now. I am still using that crappy stock power cable that came with the DAC and one improvement I've noticed in the past is resolution improvement when I upgrade the power cord so I am hopeful there when my better cables arrive. It is also more detailed, I am noticing this mainly in texturing of notes.

I am sure as I listen more over the next few days and I get more acclimated to the new DAC I will notice more things.

I read everyone's reply above and there's been quite a few mention of streamers. I don't have any experience with those at all so I will need to research them. For now I think I've spent and bought enough gear to play around with for a bit and I am very satisfied.

Glad to hear things are improving. It is very frustrating to spend money and not get a positive experience. With something that sounds good now hopefully you can forget about equipment for a while and just enjoy your system. You have some good equipment there.

 

[539465]

@rangerid
Do not spend over 1K on a DAC! All that nonsense Totaldac and Dave are useless!
Get a balance $500 dac and your done! Anything, example, topping D90 and call it quits. If you want a R2R dac get Schiit Bifrost and that's it

if disagree and want to burn money, fine - https://www.msbtechnology.com/dacs/reference-features/
its only 100K, I think its a bargain of the century. The sound it produce will reach you to nirvana and right to the stars of Neptune, with a 360 backflip to planet Pluto. It puts the Dave to shame because I heard the drummer cough in the background in my music I didn't hear before.

lol'ed hard