[Spamateur]

Here's a picture of the new setup, minus the LCD-X which are on my head, of course.
 

 

[evillamer]

Congrats, saw your longer more descriptive post on reddit. Give your dac19 more burn in time. There's much more room for improvement in the sound.

 

[Spamateur]

  Congrats, saw your longer more descriptive post on reddit. Give your dac19 more burn in time. There's much more room for improvement in the sound.

Thanks! Yeah I'm definitely going to leave it burning in overnight and while I'm at work the next few days.

 

[zach915m]

  Here's a picture of the new setup, minus the LCD-X which are on my head, of course.
 

Great Set-up, I have the REF 10.32 and the V281.  They are very natural and engaging when paired together.  Nice!

 

[Spamateur]

 
Great Set-up, I have the REF 10.32 and the V281.  They are very natural and engaging when paired together.  Nice!

Thanks, Zach! It's almost like I have the baby version of your setup. I wanted to grab the Reference 10 for the balanced outs, but couldn't justify the price since I wanted to finally get around to trying a Violectric as well.
 
That reminds me... I need to get around to ordering a pair of Blackwoods from you in the near future. Have you listened to them on your Ref 10/V281 setup? I can imagine the pairing is fantastic from what I've heard about the Blackwoods' sound signature.

 

[zach915m]

  Thanks, Zach! It's almost like I have the baby version of your setup. I wanted to grab the Reference 10 for the balanced outs, but couldn't justify the price since I wanted to finally get around to trying a Violectric as well.
 
That reminds me... I need to get around to ordering a pair of Blackwoods from you in the near future. Have you listened to them on your Ref 10/V281 setup? I can imagine the pairing is fantastic from what I've heard about the Blackwoods' sound signature.

Honestly, your set-up is probably 99% of what I have for quite a bit less.  Both Kingwa and Arthur at Violectric have told me that the extra $ into their stuff doesn't nearly equal the same % in quality.  This combo of the 1704 chip and the Violectric produces great punchy lifelike tones not only with my stuff but my HE500 and anything else I've put on it.  You can probably figure from my taste in DAC's and amps that I like the R2R thing a lot, so my headphones definitely get tested on this stuff all the time and ofcourse it suites my taste well! So yeah, I would say the Blackwoods/ZMF's are "optimized" for the Violectric/Audio GD combo, as I have been using Kingwa's stuff for a long time now.

 

[sypderman88]

Mine still keep improving after 2 weeks.. It is best bang for the bucks now for a new r2r... I jus pull trigger for an uptone regen Amber version to further improves it on the usb section

 

[zach915m]

Mine still keep improving after 2 weeks.. It is best bang for the bucks now for a new r2r... I jus pull trigger for an uptone regen Amber version to further improves it on the usb section

Yeah it's pretty much this or a Vintage R2R dac right now, are there any other options below 1K?

 

[lukeap69]

MHDT Havana? DAC Lite63?

 

[Stillhart]

MHDT Havana? DAC Lite63?

 
The Havana is a NOS tube DAC so not quite the same thing.  I'm definitely curious to hear one some day, tho.  I expect that a filterless R2R DAC is going to sound much different.
 
What's the DAC Lite63?  I couldn't find anything about it on Google.  Is that the one that makes new DAC's with reused old PCM63 chips?

 

[lukeap69]

it should be Lite DAC60. apologies, too early.

 

[snip3r77]

Yeah it's pretty much this or a Vintage R2R dac right now, are there any other options below 1K?

Teradak has one using PCM63K x 4.
I can't find any reviews though

http://www.teradak.com/products/21.html

(1) DIR9001+DF1700+PCM63P-K*2 + BUF03+OPA627+AD797
Paypal price $400 USD
(2) DIR9001+DF1700+PCM63P-K*4 + BUF03+OPA627+AD797
Paypal price $460 USD
(3) DIR9001+DF1700+PCM63P-K2*2 + BUF03+OPA627+AD797
Paypal price $460 USD
(4) DIR9001+DF1700+PCM63P-K2*4 + BUF03+OPA627+AD797
Paypal price $517 USD

 

[uncola]

I wish someone would take one for the team and order this and compare it to some other stuff

 

[evillamer]

One adjustment I will make to the Audiogd DSP is to switch off PLL. It is more transparent without it. Recommend trying out on your new DAC-19 guys, can be reversed back if you don't like the effect..

 

[sypderman88]

Hi Evilamer,
 
Can share what is the impact switching off PLL in terms of SQ  ?