[HeadphoneAddict]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ironmine /img/forum/go_quote.gif Dukja, Do you mean to say that Stello DA100 sounds better than DL III - or vice versa?

I'll jump in and say this - in a side by side comparison of a used Stello DA100 signature with up-sampling on and my new PS Audio DLIII set for 96Khz up-sampling (with 20 hours on it), the two sounded almost indistinguishable. With the PS Audio set at 192 Khz up-sampling the PS Audio became slightly brighter and more spacious.

Blutarsky was offering me one or the other in a trade for my APS modified Koss ESP-950 stats, and I chose the PS Audio because it worked with my dark sounding Stax O2 Mk1 on the GES better when in 192 Khz mode.

This fits perfectly with what dukja has said.

 

[AmanGeorge]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HeadphoneAddict /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'll jump in and say this - in a side by side comparison of a used Stello DA100 signature with up-sampling on and my new PS Audio DLIII set for 96Khz up-sampling (with 20 hours on it), the two sounded almost indistinguishable. With the PS Audio set at 192 Khz up-sampling the PS Audio became slightly brighter and more spacious.

Larry - is this another stock DLIII?

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AmanGeorge /img/forum/go_quote.gif Larry - is this another stock DLIII?

It's the same stock PS Audio DLIII that sounded great with ZDT and GES at RMAF but was overdriving the eXStatA's inputs with 5v XLR output at 60 Hz.

 

[dukja]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HeadphoneAddict /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'll jump in and say this - in a side by side comparison of a used Stello DA100 signature with up-sampling on and my new PS Audio DLIII set for 96Khz up-sampling (with 20 hours on it), the two sounded almost indistinguishable. With the PS Audio set at 192 Khz up-sampling the PS Audio became slightly brighter and more spacious. Blutarsky was offering me one or the other in a trade for my APS modified Koss ESP-950 stats, and I chose the PS Audio because it worked with my dark sounding Stax O2 Mk1 on the GES better when in 192 Khz mode. This fits perfectly with what dukja has said.

Thank you for your observation, which brings some comfort that my ear isn't too old to hear right.

Just some clarification, my DA100 is just the vanilla one and I have always listened with the non-upsampling setting.

Due to some EMI issue with my furnace, I switched to USB input to DA100 at home for a few days, which eliminates the noise issue. Later, I switched back to coax and was amazed the difference between them. Coax definitely sounds better, which I read a lot here and hence always try to use coax. Now I definitely need to get some USB->coax converter to try that on DLIII at my office (I was too lazy to try it before).

I believed I was using coax when I compare DLIII and DA100.

 

[myk7000]

my sole wish is that the pico dac perform almost as well as the ps audio

 

[dallan]

^^I have both, good luck with that wish.

 

[myk7000]

Haha, dallan you coming to the LA meet coming up soon? Maybe I can have a listen and judge for myself with ur beautiful ZD

 

[dallan]

I'll have to look in the meets section, I remember something brewing but never kept up with it, though I subscribed but maybe it didn't go thru, I'll check now.

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dukja /img/forum/go_quote.gif Thank you for your observation, which brings some comfort that my ear isn't too old to hear right. Just some clarification, my DA100 is just the vanilla one and I have always listened with the non-upsampling setting. Due to some EMI issue with my furnace, I switched to USB input to DA100 at home for a few days, which eliminates the noise issue. Later, I switched back to coax and was amazed the difference between them. Coax definitely sounds better, which I read a lot here and hence always try to use coax. Now I definitely need to get some USB->coax converter to try that on DLIII at my office (I was too lazy to try it before). I believed I was using coax when I compare DLIII and DA100.

The DA100 and SA100 Signature sounded the same to me when we compared them at the time (Blutarsky owned both).

Also, to my ears the DA100 via USB sounds better with the up-sampling turned on, and very close to the optical. With optical the up-sampling didn't make a big difference. I never tried the DA100 via coax.

 

[dukja]

Interesting. I have never use optical with DA100. I'll try USB with upsampling tonight to see about it.

The change from USB to Coax is quite large to me. USB is too smooth. Coax show better definition and contrast. I actually just get Taralink-x on my way to see if it will solve the EMI issue while keep the freshness of coax input.

And I'll try it on DLIII for sure since it is DLIII thread anyway.

 

[darkhalo]

Could anyone post some photos of the RAM modified Jensen 4-pole capacitor jumper cable configuration? I'd like to see how they configured it from the underside.

I mean, you know, if you just happened to have some laying around on your hard drive.

 

[mmwwhats]

Does anyone know if the PS Audio DLIII will accept and process 24bit/192kHz data through the coax input. For example, will it play recordings from HDx and Linn Records at full resolution?

 

[Bones13]

I can confirm that it plays the 24 bit x 96 Khz files from https://www.hdtracks.com/ that I have downloaded.

Can't confirm the 192, as I have not tried any of those.

The hi rez stuff is simply amazing in my balanced apache rig.

 

[mmwwhats]

I emailed Rick of Cullen Circuits to find out; he should know. I'm really hoping it does play 24/192, though, because after looking at a number of options this is the DAC I want, and I really don't feel like to having to find something else. Thanks for any help.

 

[mmwwhats]

For Anyone who's interested, I confirmed with Rick Cullen and PS Audio that the DLIII does natively play files up to 24/192, but only through coax. It seems USB or Toslink are limited to (I think the number is) 24/96.