[Newk Yuler]

Very interesting to see that chip on A-GD PCB.
 
http://www.audio-gd.com/Pro/dac/NFB-1/ESS5.jpg
 
That Kingwa fella is good with pleasant surprises.

 

[cheaphifi]

I think it'll be an interesting comparison to make betwenn ESS5 and the R2R "King of the Hill" PCM1704UK
 
But i'm very very very VERY satisfied with the sound gently blowed by my DAC-19 DSP...

 

[regal]

Quote:

I think it'll be an interesting comparison to make betwenn ESS5 and the R2R "King of the Hill" PCM1704UK
 
But i'm very very very VERY satisfied with the sound gently blowed by my DAC-19 DSP...

The king of the hill R2R was the Analog Devices 1862 followed by the Burr Brown PCM63K,  the PCM1704K is third place.

 

[FauDrei]

Did not know about AD R2R chip. Thanks.

 

[Pacha]

I've received my DAC19DSP/C2 combo a few days ago and I am so far very pleased with it. It sounds exactly how it sounded at slim.a's place, hence really really good. Really better than my FUN, especially the dynamics which are superb and far better than on the FUN.
Bass impact was a bit weak at first but after a few days of burn-in it has gotten better, closer to what I heard on slim.a's one.
Volume seems to be higher also now, I was a bit suprised because I asked Kingwa +3dB on the C2 in high gain mode to match better with my T1, and I couldn't see it, but it seems it has gotten louder as it should. I need to check that with other CDs though.
I've shut PLL on the new programmed DSP-1 chip with jumpers, I didn't took time to compare with and without PLL thus far but shutting PLL down doesn't seem to impact soundstage a lot, in ACSS with my T1 the soundstage is already crazily huge, around like what I heard on slim.a setup, better than on the FUN anyway, and 3D and imaging is incredible also. Clarity, details and speed is a real step up over the FUN too.
No more ear compression like sometimes on the AD1852 of the FUN, you can hear loud passages without any need to lower the volume, no kind of pain, it is a real pleasure.
I'm using Audio-gd Exclusive power cables for each, full ACSS mode so opamps bypass in the C2.
 
Packing was perfect in terms of wrapping and protection as usual and delivery was very quick, thanks a lot to Kingwa for quick replies and follow-up also.
 
I'm going with ALO recabling on my T1 now, as soon as I'll have enough money to go for it, and I think I'll be done with upgrading for a while. RE-1 and Phoenix is the next step ahead, but too pricey for me at the moment.

 

[regal]

I find it interesting that folks are bypassing the PLL,  understand that this is the feature which was supposed to reduce incoming jitter.  I didn't buy the sales pitch and stuck with the PMD100 DAC19mk3. 
 
I am curious if anyone has compared the DAC19-DSP vs DAC19MK3(PMD100) using a good transport like the Jkeny Hiface?   Reason being is I am coming across more and more 24/96 material and the PMD100 has to be dithered to 20/88.2 to play that material which is a slight inconvenience.

 

[Pacha]

I have jkeny modified HiFace so maybe bypassing PLL is not an issue regarding jitter with the modded HiFace.

 

[tink97]

Hey everyone!  Just wanted to say that I order myself a dac19dsp + c2 combo and its in the mail as we speak.  I read all the pages and you guys helped sell me on the products.  I cant wait, I am new to head fi less than a year and I have to say i am hooked.  I have an Audio Fun and I do enjoy it but found that I wanted an upgrade heh. Have fun listening to the music everyone. 
 
tink97

 

[Pacha]

Nice that you upgraded, you won't regret it

 
Go with ACSS connection preferably to get the perfect sound directly and for cheap, or RCA if you have some VERY good interconnects already with two Earth HDAMs in the C2 instead of the stock OPAs.
 
What cans are you using?

 

[fromatoz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pacha /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
... or RCA if you have some VERY good interconnects already with two Earth HDAMs in the C2 instead of the stock OPAs.

 
out of the box i preferred acss over rca, but now i am using inexpensive gotham interconnects (gac-2111) paired with audio-gd earth / burson opas and i like the music much more ... more body, more soul (listening with grado 225i/325i). what i mean: even with *okay* interconnects it already sounds nicer than acss. well, that's just me.
 
and since they are pretty cheap, i would recommend to buy the whole opa set (earth, moon, sun) along with the dac19/c2 combo. it's fun to listen to the different flavours. it's like different flavours of cheese or chocolate or miso soup, hehe.

 

[Pacha]

Flavour is different for sure. My conclusions were the same at first at slim.a's place, I preferred RCA over ACSS finding RCA to have more impact, more body, and a sound closer to what I'm used to. But after having gotten used to ACSS sound for a few minutes, you find it to be more natural, live sounding, and cleaner than RCA. And this was comparing very good RCA interconnects to ACSS ones at $20. Using less high end interconnects for RCA, the difference was no more a matter of sound flavour but a matter of definition, RCA was lacking definition and clarity a lot against ACSS.
 
But even after having listened to ACSS for a while and compared carefully with RCA, you may prefer a more impactful sound with more body as you described, this is all a matter of taste of course.

 

[tink97]

Hey pacha,
 
I just got my markl modded la2000 denon last week so burning in these bad boys while I wait for the dac and amp fro Audio gd. I will be using Acss cable connection and if I really feel the need I will get some high end rca cables, but from what it seems people are saying i prob wont be doing that heh.  I would rather start saving some money to get a pair of Beyer Dt880 manufaktor 600ohm headphones, though thats prob next years big purchase heh  
 

 

[hahahigh]

Back when I first received my DAC19 + C2 combo, I remember being under the distinct impression that the outputted sound was far too clean - the clarity was such that it bordered on sterile. After several weeks, I eventually adjusted and began developing a deep appreciation for the faithful, pure reproduction. The C2 came with two Earth opamps installed - I'll have to try that sometime in the near future. I am also very interested in trying either both the Sun and Moon, but am rather paranoid that I'll end up installing the components wrong and fry everything.

 

[Pacha]

Quote:

Hey pacha,
 
I just got my markl modded la2000 denon last week so burning in these bad boys while I wait for the dac and amp fro Audio gd. I will be using Acss cable connection and if I really feel the need I will get some high end rca cables, but from what it seems people are saying i prob wont be doing that heh.  I would rather start saving some money to get a pair of Beyer Dt880 manufaktor 600ohm headphones, though thats prob next years big purchase heh  
 

If you feel like buying a DT 880 I have a 32 ohms pair which I'll end up selling someday. I am too satisfied and used to the T1 to go backwards now.
Glad you are also going with DAC19DSP/C2 as well

 

[slim.a]

Quote:

I find it interesting that folks are bypassing the PLL,  understand that this is the feature which was supposed to reduce incoming jitter.  I didn't buy the sales pitch and stuck with the PMD100 DAC19mk3. 
 
I am curious if anyone has compared the DAC19-DSP vs DAC19MK3(PMD100) using a good transport like the Jkeny Hiface?   Reason being is I am coming across more and more 24/96 material and the PMD100 has to be dithered to 20/88.2 to play that material which is a slight inconvenience.

After a few weeks of testing, I finally returned to the stock settings (PLL on). I don't think that the DSP-1 was meant to be run with the PLL off: you gain in apparent details but there is a loss of overall coherency. So back to the PLL on for me.

Regarding the dac19dsp vs. dac19mk3(PMD100), I don't think that they are on the same level (at all). The PMD100 did improve when using better transports (I used it with different usb converters and a Cambridge CD Player) but at the same time it was less sensitive to the quality of the transport in comparison with the DF1704 which could sound worse or better than the PMD100 depending on the transport.
One of the least competent transports I have tried on my system is the Musiland Monitor 01 USD. But even with the Musiland converter, I get much better results than anything I had tried with the dac19mk3 (PMD100) regardless of the transport.
On HDCD material, the dac19mk3 will "naturally" have an edge but on anything else (regular CDs, High Rez...) the dac19dsp is much better (more detailed, clearer sounding, bigger soundstage...).
 
When people (including Kingwa) say that the DSP-1 sound well even with poor transports, it doesn't mean that the DSP-1 doesn't scale well with better transports. I would personally rate the sensitivity to the transport to something similar to the PMD100 and far less than the DF1704.
In my opinion, the improvement in sound is probably due to the excellent filtering. I tried different jumper settings (oversampling, passband,...) and I always find myself returning to the stock settings on the long term.