[2222440]

the DACs i tried, Eastern Electronics plus, cambridge DAC magic, Beresford Caiman, and a denmark lable name forgotten.

 

[highstream]

by the way, i used this system setup accompanied with different DACs, the Audinst was the least punchy one, but Audinst is a lot punchier than Ciunas.

Well then, you've got punchiness independent of the dac What exactly is your complaint? Like I say, if you want punchiness, a sub might be the quickest way there. I've been working through a similar problem with slight brightness, which I don't want (!), something the Ciunas really exposed. In experimenting, I have found it to be a combination of ICs, speaker fuses, speaker height/tilt and speaker directionality (degree off axis relative to my computing position).

Without having read the reviews of your other equipment, I'd start with speaker positioning and then the cables, including power, as the easiest to experiment with. With speaker position, work both in-out and vertical. What's your set up? As an example, for the latter I was using some wood blocks totalling 8", with a 15 degree Audioengine stand and everything facing me directly (on axis), which wasn't bad with Emotiva airmotive 4 speakers (among others). Then I switched to the isoAcoustics stands, four legs ~9" up on top of the 4" wood blocks with very little tilt, took the speakers out to 15 and then 20 degrees off axis. That cleared up the sound, making it "thinner" and lowered the pitch, tho not quite enough, leading me to try different ICs. As for fuses, the Acme Audio ($16 each) and the German HiFi Tuning Supreme fuses ($60 each) are both very good, very noticeably improving (and changing) tonality and staging in all directions. I've been breaking in the Acme (takes at least 75-100 hrs), so haven't gotten around to a direct comparison yet, but I could probably live with either. Fuses can also be changed to sonic advantage in other components as well.

So, what I'm saying is that getting the sound you want is usually a lot more complicated than merely switching in and out dacs.

 

[Argo Duck]

Continuing the discussion of how ciunas compares to dacs like the PWD mk2, and to make up for my daft response to M13's post, this is the one review I found detailed and informative concerning the jkdac32, by Bruce Brown of Puget sound studios. High praise and useful. If ciunas is only slightly better that's saying a lot.

The thread got hijacked right after IIRC, so I don't think the 32 versus mytek shoot out got reported. I doubt it matters.

Ps: used to own the first Matrix version of the B&W 801. Exceptional all-round performers, made piano sound natural, and so undistorted they could sound a bit polite with neutral gear. I suspect I'd still own them now and/or would've realized their full potential had I not decided to change country.

 

[M-13]

Quote:

Continuing the discussion of how ciunas compares to dacs like the PWD mk2, and to make up for my daft response to M13's post, this is the one review I found detailed and informative concerning the jkdac32, by Bruce Brown of Puget sound studios. High praise and useful. If ciunas is only slightly better that's saying a lot.
 

This man spent 100k on DACs? And his conclusion is that the JKenny is as good as anything under $5000?
 

 
This insane man lives right near too... perhaps I should "visit" his studio and have a life changing experience. LOL.

 

[highstream]

This man spent 100k on DACs? And his conclusion is that the JKenny is as good as anything under $5000?

This insane man lives right near too... perhaps I should "visit" his studio and have a life changing experience. LOL.

He says that he *invested* $100k on D to A and A to D (whatever all that includes). My reading is that he has an audio business, not that he's tested $100k of different dacs.

 

[Argo Duck]

Correct. I wasn't impressed by those numbers, which I guess merely means he has an adequately (? or well?) equipped studio.

Rather that he bothered to go into some detail - more than most - about what he heard and how it compared to recordings his studio mastered.

I was going to google him to find out 'who' he is. Then I remembered this is head-fi. Who is anyone?

Another consideration is he arguably looks for different qualities than your typical audiophile, assuming such a beast exists. This might dilute the value of his impressions as he might not be familiar with the usual home-audiophile dac.

 

[M-13]

Quote:

He says that he *invested* $100k on D to A and A to D (whatever all that includes). My reading is that he has an audio business, not that he's tested $100k of different dacs.

I can read English. I may even be a native speaker.

Quote:

Correct. I wasn't impressed by those numbers, which I guess merely means he has an adequately (? or well?) equipped studio.

Rather that he bothered to go into some detail - more than most - about what he heard and how it compared to recordings his studio mastered.

I was going to google him to find out 'who' he is. Then I remembered this is head-fi. Who is anyone?

Another consideration is he arguably looks for different qualities than your typical audiophile, assuming such a beast exists. This might dilute the value of his impressions as he might not be familiar with the usual home-audiophile dac.

I liked how he got into specifics. He obviously knows what he's looking for when evaluating DACs. He's basically doing what I do, but he seems to have more experience doing it. His site says that he's been a mastering engineer for twenty years, and also has a complete list of professional clients/record labels he works with, so I think he's pretty legit. Isn't that Mytek he wants to A/B considered rubbish?

 

[Argo Duck]

Yes indeed M13. Another site I'm forbidden to mention on headfi thought it very much rubbish IIRC! I think that speaks to him not necessarily being up with what's considered good and bad in audiophile land...but as you say it's more important he knows what a dac should do.

Thanks for checking out his site.

 

[2222440]

highstream,
I have no bias to Ciunas, i hope it can do all the jobs.
It does have lots advantages, but it just let the orchestral force sounds so soft and weak, I am wonderring if anyone here find the same. The reason I doubt the DAC is, under the same setting, none of the DACs I tried had this problem, so do CD players.

i m quite happy with my current settings, especially the loudspeakers. The speakers seems not exist when playing good recordings, as if the music instruments are just before you, sound so live.
I am just annoyed by the unstable AC power, so I think the Ciunas using a battery is good design.

Again, sound energy is not just a subwoofer, or speaker positioning can do, it is certainly the source.

You can find the reviews of my other gears. I am confident with them, I did lots of research before buying them.

The B&W801 has been used as studio monitors for millions of recording hours by recording companies.
The Cardas gold reference cable is widely used by studios as well. They works well with my CD players.

The Audinst is not high end class for its price, but was well accepted, it won the 2010 Japan AV award,dac section. Its sound is said to be neutral, uncolorred by reviewers.

 

[2222440]

All my complaints about ciunas now gone!

When the burnt in was up to around 60hrs this morning, the turning point came, in a minute, the magic happened.

None setting changed.

interestingly, the Audinst achives a similar level.

 

[2222440]

The Ciunas sounds like another device in a sudden, no settings were changed, except the burnt in time.

Now the symphonies sound so powerful and punchy.

natural, organic, refreshed, detailed.

the KS, DSOUND, ASIO outputs clearer sound than DS.

 

[Turn&cough]

I was feeling the same as you at first. It really does take a while to come alive.
 
Could be the batteries but I had never experienced burn in as much as with the Ciunas.

 

[Happy Camper]

The Ciunas sounds like another device in a sudden, no settings were changed, except the burnt in time.

Now the symphonies sound so powerful and punchy.

natural, organic, refreshed, detailed.

the KS, DSOUND, ASIO outputs clearer sound than DS.

This comment will be debated and so take with the usual. Capacitors need time to get to their optimum performance. This being the reserve power source, it has an impact on the sound. Uncle Erik would tell you that a capacitor is formed in it's first charge. But I've read on capacitors by Black Gate and they said it take hundreds of hours to get fully formed and conducting to design. My experience is the same. It takes several hundred hours to get the stability needed. TVs are something that is a good case in point. I bought a new plasma last year. I purchased an ISF calibration with it. They told me to run the tv for at least 8 hours a day for 30 days and then they would come out. The reasoning is all the electronics will be stable and the calibration will hold. Being new, the burn in will have an impact on the calibration.

 

[preproman]

Yea - but a night and day difference in sound

 
I experienced this with the Master 7.  But only in the lower end Bass region. 

 

[SoupRKnowva]

This comment will be debated and so take with the usual. Capacitors need time to get to their optimum performance. This being the reserve power source, it has an impact on the sound. Uncle Erik would tell you that a capacitor is formed in it's first charge. But I've read on capacitors by Black Gate and they said it take hundreds of hours to get fully formed and conducting to design. My experience is the same. It takes several hundred hours to get the stability needed. TVs are something that is a good case in point. I bought a new plasma last year. I purchased an ISF calibration with it. They told me to run the tv for at least 8 hours a day for 30 days and then they would come out. The reasoning is all the electronics will be stable and the calibration will hold. Being new, the burn in will have an impact on the calibration.

Waiting for the calibration on a plasma tv is different though HC. It has to do with the wear life characteristics of the actual phosphors making the light. One of the colors intensity drops off very quickly in it's first 50 or so hours and then levels off, so you have to wait for that to happen or your calibration will be bad shortly there after

Not that I don't believe equipment gets better over time...though I think the vast majority if the changes happen in the first 10 or so hours