[Disiskurt]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fr_eak Is that you want a comparison of 1212M alone with 1212M + VDA-1 but NO VAC-1? wanna make sure first before I answer, pls excuse me for my poor understanding in English

Yeah, the 1212m vs. the VDA-1 (without the VAC-1.)

 

[Fr_eak]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Disiskurt Yeah, the 1212m vs. the VDA-1 (without the VAC-1.)

is that you doubt if there is any major improvement in sound?

cuz you can't really compare them alone, the VDA-1 needs the 1212M anyway.

But I can tell u the answer, the upgrade is worthwhile

How?

The first thing I would say is musicality. 1212M is too dry and cold for me. The DAC add some warmth and layer to the song which makes them MUCH MORE musical.

Needless to say, more detail, better soundstage and better layering.

With the VAC-1 added, the soundstage widen, with the 2 extremes more extended, details are even more prominent.

 

[Disiskurt]

Thanks, Fr_eak. I didn't doubt that it wasn't better, but I had no basis for knowing whether the VDA-1 needed the VAC-1 to sound better than the 1212m or not. I'd be much more likely to spend $350 on a DAC rather than $510. I'm sure many others are as well, so I thought that the comparison without the VAC-1 would be more relevent in terms of the "next step" from the 1212m.

 

[Fr_eak]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Disiskurt Thanks, Fr_eak. I didn't doubt that it wasn't better, but I had no basis for knowing whether the VDA-1 needed the VAC-1 to sound better than the 1212m or not. I'd be much more likely to spend $350 on a DAC rather than $510. I'm sure many others are as well, so I thought that the comparison without the VAC-1 would be more relevent in terms of the "next step" from the 1212m.

but the VAC-1 worths getting it, as power supply is important to the performance of DAC. It helps to squeeze all the juice from the DAC.

but for sure, you can upgrade the PSU later for whatever reason, but i personally strongly recommend to get it along with the DAC.

and one thing curious, why you think the VDA-1 may not sound better than 1212M? 1212M is a nice card, but then it's not that top of the range, plus from the price value, the VDA-1 costs more than the 1212M already. While the 1212M has alot more function like AD/DA, multi-stream recording, etc, the DAC just simply serves D/A conversion. It is quite obvious that the VDA-1 will sound better.

Just my 2 cents, I'm open for discussion

 

[MikoLayer]

thanks for an interesting read. I have guessed an external dac would sound slightly better, which is what you have concluded in your review. the only thing that remains unclear to me is how a fully modded EMU card fare against the dac; my 1212M sounds vastly different to what it used to be like before the modding process. Perhaps it might be somewhat even, who knows

 

[Fr_eak]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MikoLayer thanks for an interesting read. I have guessed an external dac would sound slightly better, which is what you have concluded in your review. the only thing that remains unclear to me is how a fully modded EMU card fare against the dac; my 1212M sounds vastly different to what it used to be like before the modding process. Perhaps it might be somewhat even, who knows

my own opinion would be the sound is ALOT better rather than SLIGHTLY better

and it would be interesting to compare the modded 1212M with a 1212M + suitable DAC like the CIA VDA-1 (but w/ or w/o the VAC-1

)

 

[Asmo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MikoLayer thanks for an interesting read. I have guessed an external dac would sound slightly better, which is what you have concluded in your review. the only thing that remains unclear to me is how a fully modded EMU card fare against the dac; my 1212M sounds vastly different to what it used to be like before the modding process. Perhaps it might be somewhat even, who knows

Yah, I'd like to hear a modded one, I was also planning to get the modwright mods done to my VDA. To mod the 1212m, you only mod the card that does the analoug output correct?

 

[Fr_eak]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Asmo Yah, I'd like to hear a modded one, I was also planning to get the modwright mods done to my VDA. To mod the 1212m, you only mod the card that does the analoug output correct?

the power supply caps and those around the clock can be modded too.

My fd told me that the ordinary caps are quite crappy for power supply, and suggest me to change it to some Os-Cons

 

[elmoe]

In my personal experience, an external DAC always brought alot of improvements in comparison to modding a soundcard (modded emu 0404 vs benchmark DAC-1).

I dont know how the VDA-1/VAC-1 combo would fare VS the DAC-1 having not heard the combo itself, but if the comparison is this close to an emu 1212m then I can say with certainty that the DAC-1 brings much more improvement in terms of speed, detail, and instrument separation.

 

[J-Pak]

I'm thinking I'm going to demo the VDA-1 against Headroom's Micro DAC and keep which ever one I like more. I won't be getting the VAC-1, I guess I'll leave that for a future upgrade. I'll write up a comparison sometime.