[Argo Duck]

LOL indeed. I think Prep's back-up back-up back-up rig could be my end-game

 

[preproman]

Ha ha ha..   Yea right guys.    It's my bedroom rig..

 It should be hear soon..

 

[Clemmaster]

Quote:

Ha ha ha..   Yea right guys.    It's my bedroom rig..

 It should be hear soon..

And you will probably enjoy it... but not with the MDs 

Do you have a need for closed headphones in your bed-rig?
I can recommand one of the most overlooked pair of cans ever: Hifiman HE-4!
 
Have you heard of it? 

 

[preproman]

Quote:

And you will probably enjoy it... but not with the MDs 

Do you have a need for closed headphones in your bed-rig?
I can recommand one of the most overlooked pair of cans ever: Hifiman HE-4!
 
Have you heard of it? 

 
MD for the bed room "rocks" man..  
 
Yes - I think I've heard them once or twice..

 

[Clemmaster]

I mean the pairing might not be to your liking, in tonality.
the Ciunas is rather warm overall and, IMO, the MDs work well with a brighter source ala Eximus or Metrum.
Again, I have warmish amps, so YMMV

 

[preproman]

Quote:

I mean the pairing might not be to your liking, in tonality.
the Ciunas is rather warm overall and, IMO, the MDs work well with a brighter source ala Eximus or Metrum.
Again, I have warmish amps, so YMMV

 
Exactly - the a-100 is a bit forward or may be on the bright side.
 
The Metrum bright?

 

[Clemmaster]

Quote:

 
Exactly - the a-100 is a bit forward or may be on the bright side.
 
The Metrum bright?

 
No, I said brighter 

 
The Metrum is my definition of neutral (and transparent, too).
The slight bloom in the mid bass makes it a very slightly warmish DAC, but it is neutral nonetheless.
By comparison, the Ciunas is more like a NFB-3.
 
That's my first impression, so take it with a grain of salt 

 

[preproman]

Quote:

 
No, I said brighter 

 
The Metrum is my definition of neutral (and transparent, too).
The slight bloom in the mid bass makes it a very slightly warmish DAC, but it is neutral nonetheless.
By comparison, the Ciunas is more like a NFB-3.
 
That's my first impression, so take it with a grain of salt 

 
This is what I took away from my audition as well.

 

[highstream]

I don't find the Ciunas lacks of details and dynamics as well.  
I can hear tons of details and atmosphere, even with a 2 meter long USB cable.

I found no way to place the RCA cable if I use the USB adapter between my laptop and Ciunas, so have to use USB cables. 
I am still waiting for a 20cm USB cable to arrive.  I have tried 4 different kinds USB cables, all sound with significant differences.
 

I use a duel boot system on my laptop, the Win XP sounds less sheen than the Win 8,both using foobar1.1.11 or JPLAY./quote]

Depends on the RCAs, but you need two to clear many and these are the two I use and sound great. The first is recommended by John. I sent him the second link, but don't know if he got around to trying it out. The clearance is just enough for my RCAs out the back of my computer, though I have to remember to check every few days that the computer side hasn't worked loose (wish I could figure out a way to keep the connector firmly in).

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002B9AR8I/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 (see dac instructions onlin for UK model's link)
http://dx.com/p/usb-male-to-female-adapter-converter-28990

You had any trouble with Win 8, foobar and JPlay? With the ASIO/JPlay device setting, I ran into skips early on CDs unless the buffer was set high and, more annoyingly, some computer freezes, especially using Ultrastream engine, but really all (I live River the best - more natural, less processed sound). Over at the foobar forum, they're really hostile to JPlay, so it's hard to get any help there.

 

[Audioexcels]

Quote:

 
You had me agreeing until you went the cable route.  Source changes are more subtle than amp or headphone changes but cables?  Digital cable ceiling is in around the $50 range.  Length is more important than anything else in spdif cables.  If you spend more than what a WireWorld UV USB costs on USB you need to read up on how USB audio streams work, throw your palm into your face and accept you got robbed

 
I never thought cables made any difference.  I tried 5 different cables both as digital and as analog, all 4 failed terribly, but the one that still remains sounds phenomenal.  Have I bought anything since then thinking this great difference merits any value in seeing just how good a sound I can get with different cables?...no...I won't change my cables, end of story.  I certainly would have no problems trying any cables at any price and provide precisely the sound I hear.
 
I have never experimented with USB cables because just as I was skeptical about digital+analog cables, I don't see how a simple decent diy cable that cuts power off at the hub and runs a 5V linear supply can somehow sound better if it says Wireworld or Belkin on it.
 
My order of importance:
 
Recording 
Room-Acoustical Environment
Speaker and how it interacts with the room
 
The Rest is all 1%.  Sure, it makes a difference, even a clearly night/day difference in many components especially with a pre-dac and then the amp, etc...but it's still 1% IMHO vs. the three listed things.

 

[Solude]

Any impressions on the Ciunas SPDIF converter yet?  Torn between the JK, AP2 and iUSB into the PWD2.  Primary concern is cutting the ground loop/pc noise that comes in through the USB so most likely just go iUSB but if I can fix a problem and get some gains... bonus.

 

[zilch0md]

PC noise from USB?  
 
You could try the iFi iUSBPower.
 
 
Or something like this:
 

 
 

 
 
 

 
10,000 mAH Anker Astro3 battery pack
 
The DAC gets nothing but data from the PC.
 
Mike

 

[preproman]

The Ciunas DAC arrived.  Well it's at the post office. I will pick it up in the am.

   That was a long ass wait. 
 
Also got the Hydra-X in.  I can't get it to work in Windows 8.  If it fails, I will return it and get the Ciunas converter as well.
 
Does anyone know how long can you go with a Coax S/PDIF cable?

 

[jsgraha]

A friend forward me this paper
 
http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue14/spdif.htm
 
I use 1.23 m black volace and 1.5 m Audioquest, and prefer Audioquest.
Not sure whether its the length or the material though.
Hope it help.

 

[nick_charles]

Quote:

A friend forward me this paper
 
http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue14/spdif.htm
 
I use 1.23 m black volace and 1.5 m Audioquest, and prefer Audioquest.
Not sure whether its the length or the material though.
Hope it help.

 
I'd hesitate to take that as gospel,  you might also want to read a critique of that "paper" at ProSoundWeb -http://repforums.prosoundweb.com/index.php/topic,13518.0/wap2.html