[Gwarlek]

Quote:

Another update from Kingwa.
 
He says the stepped attenuator that he's getting for the custom job is a Goldpoint, the one he lost the link for.
 
Kingwa's spec on a stepped attenuator referring to a replacement Goldpoint:
 
C2 need a two floors , 20K, type A characteristic.
 
That would be 20K audio taper but what does "need a two floors" mean?  2 grounds?  The pot gets 2 wires from each channel.

By floors, he is most likely meant "decks" where two make it stereo. You can see it on the site.
 

 

[Gwarlek]

Quote:

Another update from Kingwa.
 
He says the stepped attenuator that he's getting for the custom job is a Goldpoint, the one he lost the link for.
 
Kingwa's spec on a stepped attenuator referring to a replacement Goldpoint:
 
C2 need a two floors , 20K, type A characteristic.
 
That would be 20K audio taper but what does "need a two floors" mean?  2 grounds?  The pot gets 2 wires from each channel.

Floors are probaly "decks" as described on Goldpoint's site. Each deck is responsible for one channel, which means one deck = mono, two = stereo and so on.
 

 

[Gwarlek]

Floors, probably mean 'decks'. Each deck is responsible for one channel, which makes two deck pot stereo.

 

[Black Stuart]

Hi Slim,
I don't know why you hav'nt received the package already. Posting to the UK or the Netherlands is normally 3 days. and we are talking Aveyron - Paris, go figure.
 
Re. the Alps pot - I used to use a shunted Seidon att. with the Welwyn mil. spec resistors, now I would never go down that road again. An Alps Blue shunted with naked Vishay Z foil 0.01 resistors floats my boat and always will. So easy to implement and buying the Z foils from the very helpful Texas Components, total cost - $35-40. This will give you a clear neutral sound. Yes shunting means a 6dB drop but that's not a problem.
 
Re. the ACSS plugs - why ever did Kingwa use them, apart from cheapness. The 4 x solder points are long, thin and not very sturdy and very close together. I use after much experimentation, multiple conductors, OK whatever type of plug I use requires careful time consuming soldering skills here but as only 3 solder points are required why not mini XLRs, they are a natural choice.
 
For those that don't know, once you have screwed the two pieces of the ACSS  plug together that's it - you cannot undo them! Which means of course that you cannot experiment with different wires/gauges or designs  and because the body of the plug is so short you cannot introduce the body of the dialectric so the clamps go directly onto whatever the wires are sheathed by - I do not like this at all. It also means that you are restricted to what material you can use as i/cs.
 
Slim told me that Kingwa did a lot of experiments before deciding on using SPC internally, I would agree with him entirely on that. This may upset a lot of died in the wool silver fans but having experimented with OHNO silver wire and silver/plated OFHC copper for me and my ears, it is no contest.
 
As I  don't have any ACSS plugs on my equipment I could'nt test the ACSS set I made for Slim and that bugs me because I like to test everything before it leaves my hands.
 
All you Audio-gd fans should convince the man to use mini XLRs
 

 

[haloxt]

Really only 3 conductors for ACSS? I have two different brands of mini-xlr, the switchcraft one is expensive and pretty crappy looking (but it is copper alloy/silver-plated contacts, which is the important thing), the noname ebay one is like 3-4x cheaper and brass/gold flashed (means super thin gold, pretty but worthless) contacts but can't say I'm fond of the fact they didn't make a hole to insert wires into, just a half circle length to solder onto. 24 awg stranded per contact is the max with mini-xlr. If you guys don't mind these problems then mini-xlr would work for you, but if you know a good quality, cheap mini-xlr let me know ^^.

 

[slim.a]

Quote:

Hi Slim,
I don't know why you hav'nt received the package already. Posting to the UK or the Netherlands is normally 3 days. and we are talking Aveyron - Paris, go figure.
 
Re. the Alps pot - I used to use a shunted Seidon att. with the Welwyn mil. spec resistors, now I would never go down that road again. An Alps Blue shunted with naked Vishay Z foil 0.01 resistors floats my boat and always will. So easy to implement and buying the Z foils from the very helpful Texas Components, total cost - $35-40. This will give you a clear neutral sound. Yes shunting means a 6dB drop but that's not a problem.
 
Re. the ACSS plugs - why ever did Kingwa use them, apart from cheapness. The 4 x solder points are long, thin and not very sturdy and very close together. I use after much experimentation, multiple conductors, OK whatever type of plug I use requires careful time consuming soldering skills here but as only 3 solder points are required why not mini XLRs, they are a natural choice.
 
For those that don't know, once you have screwed the two pieces of the ACSS  plug together that's it - you cannot undo them! Which means of course that you cannot experiment with different wires/gauges or designs  and because the body of the plug is so short you cannot introduce the body of the dialectric so the clamps go directly onto whatever the wires are sheathed by - I do not like this at all. It also means that you are restricted to what material you can use as i/cs.
 
Slim told me that Kingwa did a lot of experiments before deciding on using SPC internally, I would agree with him entirely on that. This may upset a lot of died in the wool silver fans but having experimented with OHNO silver wire and silver/plated OFHC copper for me and my ears, it is no contest.
 
As I  don't have any ACSS plugs on my equipment I could'nt test the ACSS set I made for Slim and that bugs me because I like to test everything before it leaves my hands.
 
All you Audio-gd fans should convince the man to use mini XLRs
 

Hi Black Stuart,
 
I still haven't received yet the cables you sent me. The post office is awfully slow these days.
I am also waiting for jkeny's modified hiface (he sent it from Ireland last thursday) ... and all this wait is killing me

 
I will let you know how your custom ACSS cables sound in comparison with the stock ACSS Sharkwire as soon as I get them. However, since you are using better dielectrics and shielding, there is a high probability that it will sound better than the stock ones.

 
Quote:

Really only 3 conductors for ACSS? I have two different brands of mini-xlr, the switchcraft one is expensive and pretty crappy looking (but it is copper alloy/silver-plated contacts, which is the important thing), the noname ebay one is like 3-4x cheaper and brass/gold flashed (means super thin gold, pretty but worthless) contacts but can't say I'm fond of the fact they didn't make a hole to insert wires into, just a half circle length to solder onto. 24 awg stranded per contact is the max with mini-xlr. If you guys don't mind these problems then mini-xlr would work for you, but if you know a good quality, cheap mini-xlr let me know ^^.

 
Yes only 3 conductors are used for the "single ended" ACSS. According to Kingwa, below is the pinout:
"About the single ended ACSS cables:
Pins 1 and 4 is connect ground
Pins 3 is connect signal
Pins 2 is connect nothing."

 

 

[slim.a]

Quote:

hi,

i am a proud new owner of the dac-19 dsp / c-2 combo.

i came to head-fi because i was looking for some solid audio gear, so I was cruising around the forums here for a few weeks and finally decided to go with audio-gd.

i do not regret.

sound through acss is ... i do not know how to say ...  a revelation? i did not expect that. wonderful.

this combo will stay with me for many years to come (i hope).

thank you head-fiers for opening a new world to me.

Hi fromatoz,
 
Glad to know that you enjoy the dac19 dsp / c2 combo.
 
By the way, what headphones are you using with the combo?

 

[Newk Yuler]

Quote:

For those that don't know, once you have screwed the two pieces of the ACSS  plug together that's it - you cannot undo them! Which means of course that you cannot experiment with different wires/gauges or designs  and because the body of the plug is so short you cannot introduce the body of the dialectric so the clamps go directly onto whatever the wires are sheathed by - I do not like this at all. It also means that you are restricted to what material you can use as i/cs.
 
All you Audio-gd fans should convince the man to use mini XLRs

The Audio-gd designs are nothing short of brilliant, so why would Kingwa design the ACSS interconnects as they are?  Changing formats would have to be an option for compatibility.  It's going to be a bit inconvenient to have the DAC19 and C2 joined at the hip.

 
How are slim.a's new ICs going to replace the Shark ACSS when they're a permanent connection?

 

[MadMan007]

I'm pretty sure he means that once ACSS cables are assembled from bare connectors that it is not easy to remove the connectors to try a different cable. They surely must still be easy to remove from the equipment by unscrewing them.

 

[slim.a]

Quote:

Quote:

The Audio-gd designs are nothing short of brilliant, so why would Kingwa design the ACSS interconnects as they are?  Changing formats would have to be an option for compatibility.  It's going to be a bit inconvenient to have the DAC19 and C2 joined at the hip.

 
How are slim.a's new ICs going to replace the Shark ACSS when they're a permanent connection?

I think that one of the reasons they are using those 4 pin connectors might be to avoid connection a current source with a regular voltage amp?
 
The ACSS cables do not make the connection permanent
I think that what Black Stuart was referring to was the ACSS connectors on the cable itself: once you make an ACSS cable, you cannot re-open the connectors to replace/resolder the wires. For example, if I want to try another type of wire (let's say Mundorf) later, I will have to provide him with another set of ACSS connectors as he won't be able to re-open and  desolder the ones he already made me.

 

[slim.a]

Quote:

I'm pretty sure he means that once ACSS cables are assembled from bare connectors that it is not easy to remove the connectors to try a different cable. They surely must still be easy to remove from the equipment by unscrewing them.

That is exactly what I was thinking, you beat me to the answer

 

[Newk Yuler]

Quote:

I'm pretty sure he means that once ACSS cables are assembled from bare connectors that it is not easy to remove the connectors to try a different cable. They surely must still be easy to remove from the equipment by unscrewing them.

Heh..

That makes better sense.  It's not hard to envision an odd feature like permanently attached ICs to some of the Chinese audiophile equipment.  Strange things can happen when there's no standard.  Connections for I2S between components is a good example.

 

[fromatoz]

Quote:

Hi fromatoz,
 
Glad to know that you enjoy the dac19 dsp / c2 combo.
 
By the way, what headphones are you using with the combo?

i like grados. there are other brands with more soundstage, i know, but i love the "airy" (not sure how to name it) sound of my sr321i. unfortunately no money for even more expensive / exciting stuff ... (well, my grados are good enough for me anyway, no reason to complain.)

question: there is a rca-acss button on the dac, right? while the sound changes (improves) *a lot* when i switch the c2 amp from rca to acss, there is almost no difference when switching the d19 dac from rca to acss. on the audio-gd website it says that it makes a different sound colour, but to my ears sound is almost the same. (my hearing shouldn't be sooo bad?)

what's your experience, slim.a? (i think you didn't mention this in your review, or i must have missed it, sorry.)

 

[Newk Yuler]

FYI, getting the Alps swapped for the standard stepped attenuator in the C-2 cost me +20USD.  Not sure if that's just a labor charge but they're having to pull one and install the other.  If you request it when you place an order it might not cost extra.  If someone does that, please let us know.

 

[slim.a]

Quote:

FYI, getting the Alps swapped for the standard stepped attenuator in the C-2 cost me +20USD.  Not sure if that's just a labor charge but they're having to pull one and install the other.  If you request it when you place an order it might not cost extra.  If someone does that, please let us know.

Back when the C2-C was sold with the stepped attenuator as an option, I think they charged $30 for it (if my memory is correct).
So I guess you got a pretty good deal