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Marantz HD-DAC1
Dec 9, 2014 at 3:57 PM Post #46 of 1,283
djd828 said:
  Mojo....would appreciate your impressions of the Marantz.  I have my choices down to the Marantz or the Oppo HA-1 and there aren't many reviews yet for the Marantz although the little I have seen has been positive.  I will be using the DAC/AMP with a pair of Fostex TH900's.  Thanks in advance for your help.
 
Dave
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Yeah for sure. The Marantz and Oppo are both of my finalists too. It arrives today and I'll provide initial impressions shortly. I am familiar with their "house" sound having had the PM and CD products before. I hope this is something more. 
 
Dec 9, 2014 at 4:02 PM Post #47 of 1,283
frankrondaniel said:
  I've had my HD-DAC1 now since last Friday.  My motivation for getting it was to try a relatively inexpensive alternative to my Sabre-based DAC.  I'm finding that I'm becoming allergic to "digititus", especially to the digital "glare" that's often attributed to the Sabre chips.  My initial impression of the HD-DAC1, used as both DAC and headphone amp with my HD-800s, is that the amp seems to have plenty of power to drive the 800's and it does smooth out the sound - less fatiguing than the Sabre to me.  However, it seems to be too much of a good thing.  The sound seems overly smoothed to the point of being a little bit glassy?  Also, it doesn't strike me as the most resolving - detail retrieval could be better, especially with classical music.  I'm curious to see if these impressions will change with further burn-in.  Also, I eventually want to try it as DAC-only feeding other amps.
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Funny that was what I was NOT hoping for. Same can be said of their SACD or CD players. I was hoping for more.
 
How is it with hi-rez?
 
Dec 9, 2014 at 6:30 PM Post #49 of 1,283
I suspect its more down to the head out than the dac section, once you get to try it with a stand alone amp you might be able to confirm this. At least that's how I find my Marantz network player which is the NA7004. There is a lot of micro detail lost through the head out. Its actually not to bad a head out if your running mid fi phones as they don't dig as deep as the totl cans do so you don't really notice the short comings. With the dac feeding my Bottlehead Sex amp its a different story lots of detail and textures to instruments and voices good density of tone etc etc.  I brought the NA7004 specifically because its dac section was said to be out of the Marantz KI Pearl a £2400 reference CD player which had some great reviews at the time. I would expect the dac section in the HD-DAC1 to be of a higher ability compared to the older NA7004 . 
 
Looking forward to further views
 
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Dec 9, 2014 at 7:44 PM Post #50 of 1,283
djd828 said:
  Mojo....would appreciate your impressions of the Marantz.  I have my choices down to the Marantz or the Oppo HA-1 and there aren't many reviews yet for the Marantz although the little I have seen has been positive.  I will be using the DAC/AMP with a pair of Fostex TH900's.  Thanks in advance for your help.
 
Dave
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Go for Marantz.  Don't waste money on Oppo.
 
Dec 10, 2014 at 3:42 AM Post #54 of 1,283
Good, good, I can't lust for one since it doesn't match my Marantz 2245
 
Dec 11, 2014 at 1:00 PM Post #55 of 1,283
Well I received I received the DAC-1 yesterday and initial impressions are good.
 
Build quality is superb, heavy, sturdy, really a nice piece visually.
 
The USB DAC section is a huge improvement over the Schiit Modi that it is replacing. Bigger soundstage, better separation, vocals (especially female) are clearer. 99% of my music is CD-lossless rips, some HD Tracks,  and I stream from Tidal (which is fantastic by the way), so I have just begun downloading some sample DSD files and enjoyed that for the first time last night. Not that I want to start spending money on that....but I will be selective in which albums to download.
 
The good but not great. HP OUT: While my selection of headphones are modest I felt right away that while there was improvement over the integrated amp, NAD C375,  but I did not really think it was a giant leap forward in sound quality or power.  HE-400 in high gain mode had plenty of power. I would say marginal improvement. I am still burning it in and will hold final impressions to a later date. 
 
The okay: Playing CD's through my Marantz CD6004 via RCA to the IA and via Coax the DAC-1. No discernible difference. Sounded exactly the same. I almost suspected that as the CD6004 has many of the same internals as the DAC-1 but frankly I wished for more (or new). Definitely the Marantz "house" sound. Smooth and musical.
 
The bad: I thought I'd give the preamp section a try and plugged the DAC-1 into the main in on the integrated amp. Right away everything felt short, volume control needed to go to 12 to 2 just to get to a reasonable volume level and even then it did not sound as good as the IA by itself.
 
I'll update this post over the weekend when I have more time with it. 
 
I also ordered the OPPO HA-1 which should arrive tomorrow ( i hope ) so it will be interesting comparing the two over the weekend.
 

 

 
Dec 11, 2014 at 2:31 PM Post #57 of 1,283
jmsaxon69 said:
  Thanks for the info Mojo777! 
 
Can't decide between this and a Schiit Audio Bifrost/Uber and Asgard 2.
 
Tough choice....
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Me too! I like Schiit a lot...  but I thought if I was going to spend the dough why not get a DSD DAC/amp combo.
 
Dec 11, 2014 at 2:41 PM Post #58 of 1,283
mojo777 said:
 
Me too! I like Schiit a lot...  but I thought if I was going to spend the dough why not get a DSD DAC/amp combo.
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Yeah, but a 2 chassis rig is a plus for me, Schiit has upgraded the Bifrost once already.  I've had a chance to hear the Bifrost Uber and it sounds fantastic! 
 
I have no DSD files (so far). the Asgard 2 is a Class A amplifier.  I don't know, its a tough call...
 
Dec 11, 2014 at 3:06 PM Post #59 of 1,283
I have tested the DAC 1 with many phones and liked it to sound best with HD-800.The iPod connection is very good sounding open and musical .The display lights should be turned off it affects the sound quality.The iPod connection does accept AAC files other connections not.Somehow i like the iPod connection to be the best  
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 and the headphone section needs definitely at least 50hours to open up
 
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