[bluelf]

Quote:

 ..I can post some comparisons to the Audio-gd PCM1704 DAC's if folks are interested.

 
 
Hi! I am interested..
Do you care to offer more details about the sound signatures of its filters or its filterless - NOS - mode? How does it compare to the best dacs you've heard including Audio-GDs? What inputs do you prefer? Can the software be upgraded?
 
Thank you and congrats on your purchase!

 

[KingStyles]

You may want to look at the Ayon Skylla. It uses the 1704K chips.

 

[cooperpwc]

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[SoupRKnowva]

Do you have any more impressions of the Unimorph catfish? This thread and the thread for the hydra really got me interested in the Audiobyte/Rockna DACs

 

[catfish]

Quote:

Do you have any more impressions of the Unimorph catfish? This thread and the thread for the hydra really got me interested in the Audiobyte/Rockna DACs

 
 
Its doesn't measure that great I guess because of the true discrete output stage with no feedback.  The USB input works but shows a 10k hz spike (could be my measurement technique.)  But sound wise it is better than the Audio-GD's (I never thought I would say that.) 
The digital side (DSP/jitter reduction) has a whole lot more engineering than the Audiogd's the oversampling filter really surprised me with o harshness like the DSPv5.  Plus the built in Fifo Sis clock are state of the art. 
 
Buying the kit makes it tough because building a case for it is impossible without paying for FPE to make front and back panels.  The completed Audiobyte version may be work the extra $'s.
 
But all in all its far better than the Ref7.1 I owned,  really neutral but detailed sound.  The designer knows his stuff.
 
Only concern is will there be a Windows 8 USB driver ?  I emailed them last week haven't heard back.

 

[SoupRKnowva]

Hmm, are you sure it doesn't measure good? Because Audio-GD also doesn't use feedback and I think their stuff measures pretty well, though I guess I haven't seen any extensive measurements, just the stuff on the site.
 
Yeah it's mostly the digital input section that has be so pumped, along with all the upsampling stuff they are doing.
 
I'm not really looking at the kit at all, I'm not even really looking at the Unimorph at all really. I'm mostly looking at the Wavedream DAC using the MSB modules, though with a similar digital input section. Im trying to decide if getting the balanced version would be worth it...

 

[catfish]

Quote:

Hmm, are you sure it doesn't measure good? Because Audio-GD also doesn't use feedback and I think their stuff measures pretty well, though I guess I haven't seen any extensive measurements, just the stuff on the site.
 
Yeah it's mostly the digital input section that has be so pumped, along with all the upsampling stuff they are doing.
 
I'm not really looking at the kit at all, I'm not even really looking at the Unimorph at all really. I'm mostly looking at the Wavedream DAC using the MSB modules, though with a similar digital input section. Im trying to decide if getting the balanced version would be worth it...

 
The best AudioGD's are actually those with their diamond output and those have about 40dB' of NFB.  The other ones actually have feedback too, current feedback. So they measure better than a true open loop analog stage.
 
As far as the MSB module DAC's I don't see how you could go wrong,  those practically don't require anything from the analog stage.  As far as the digital section I wouldn't invest that much money if I was relying on USB 2.0 input,  it will be completely obsolete in a few years like an Xp computer.  If you are using i2s or AES/EBU the digital section is excellent.