mwilson
Ants in my Stax
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2009
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I wasn't sure whether to post this under "Headphone Amps" or "Source Components", but seeing how the DAC-2 is more at home in this forum, I decided to post here. Mods feel free to move as appropriate.
This review doesn't take into consideration the actual DAC aspect of the W4S DAC-2; said topic has been covered in many other reviews to very positive conclusions and there's no need for a rehash. Rather, given the decent voltage through the XLR outputs I got intrigued by just how might the LCD-2 sound if connected directly. Directly is actually incorrect, as one will need an adapter cable.
I contacted Steve Eddy over at Q, and he was happy to oblige. Three days later, with USPS freshly rested after a mail holiday, I received the following:
Just in case it's hard to determine from the photo, the cable is brown, and the connectors are high quality Neutrik (dual 3-pin female to singe 4-pin female).
Having connected my LCD-2, I changed the level from fixed (I keep it at 68) to variable (0-70) for this test. I also confirmed with Wyred 4 Sound that connecting a low impedance headphone to the 100-ohm outputs would pose no problem (other than sound quality - more on this later).
Setup was as follows: Olive O4HD music server (16/44 FLAC) > Wireworld Supernova 6 TOSlink > W4S DAC-2 > Q Audio adapter > Q Audio cable > LCD-2 Rev. 2. Power cables were Shunyata Research Venom 3 (I myself am not a big power cable believer, but for those of you who are, I wanted to add context)
Volume level for this test has been set to 60 - not too loud, not too low. First thing I noticed was a complete lack of noise. Pitch black as far as that was concerned, expectedly so - these outputs were designed to feed amplifiers.
Regardless of the recording quality, I noticed that the bass, while decent in both quantity and quality, was rolled off at the low end. Mids were a bit bloated around their respective lows, but otherwise they sounded rather pleasant. Highs were a bit rolled off, not as noticeable as the bass, but most importantly there was not a single hint of shrill. They were rendered rather pleasantly as well.
Soundstage was a bit narrowed, but the biggest drawback was a pronounced lack of layering, especially on busy parts. So yes, it's decently wide, but nowhere as deep as I'd have liked. Given that the DAC-2 is not designed to operate as a headphone amp, it didn't bother me as much if this had been an actual amp.
Below are a few material-specific notes:
Domnerus Group - Jazz at the Pawnshop - Immersive experience, reduced soundstage notwithstanding. This is more a testimonial to the impeccable recording quality, though, in my opinion. Nevertheless, it sounded amazing for what it was. Details such as fingerboard taps on the bass were effortlessly detected.
Diana Krall - All For You - Decent presentation, a bit distant at first but her voice still retained the intimate tones evident on a good amp.
Bombay Dub Orchestra - Rare Earth - the male vocal intro was pleasant, if a bit on the cool side, but the bass entrance was vibrant and deep. For a moment it had made me forget I was plugged into something else than an amp.
Peter Gabriel - Steam (Slow Steam, more precisely) from Secret World Live CD1. Kicks were deep and reverberant, with no loss of detail. Vocals were again cool, but once the intro had played and the proper song started, the loss of instrument separation became noticeable.
In the end, for what this setup was, I think the end results exceeded my expectations. Context, again, is imperative - even a couple hundred dollar amp will most likely sound better than the DAC-2 when used in this fashion. However, the whole experiment had actually extended my curiosity in finding a way to match the impedances and have another try at it.
Cheers,
Nick
This review doesn't take into consideration the actual DAC aspect of the W4S DAC-2; said topic has been covered in many other reviews to very positive conclusions and there's no need for a rehash. Rather, given the decent voltage through the XLR outputs I got intrigued by just how might the LCD-2 sound if connected directly. Directly is actually incorrect, as one will need an adapter cable.
I contacted Steve Eddy over at Q, and he was happy to oblige. Three days later, with USPS freshly rested after a mail holiday, I received the following:
Just in case it's hard to determine from the photo, the cable is brown, and the connectors are high quality Neutrik (dual 3-pin female to singe 4-pin female).
Having connected my LCD-2, I changed the level from fixed (I keep it at 68) to variable (0-70) for this test. I also confirmed with Wyred 4 Sound that connecting a low impedance headphone to the 100-ohm outputs would pose no problem (other than sound quality - more on this later).
Setup was as follows: Olive O4HD music server (16/44 FLAC) > Wireworld Supernova 6 TOSlink > W4S DAC-2 > Q Audio adapter > Q Audio cable > LCD-2 Rev. 2. Power cables were Shunyata Research Venom 3 (I myself am not a big power cable believer, but for those of you who are, I wanted to add context)
Volume level for this test has been set to 60 - not too loud, not too low. First thing I noticed was a complete lack of noise. Pitch black as far as that was concerned, expectedly so - these outputs were designed to feed amplifiers.
Regardless of the recording quality, I noticed that the bass, while decent in both quantity and quality, was rolled off at the low end. Mids were a bit bloated around their respective lows, but otherwise they sounded rather pleasant. Highs were a bit rolled off, not as noticeable as the bass, but most importantly there was not a single hint of shrill. They were rendered rather pleasantly as well.
Soundstage was a bit narrowed, but the biggest drawback was a pronounced lack of layering, especially on busy parts. So yes, it's decently wide, but nowhere as deep as I'd have liked. Given that the DAC-2 is not designed to operate as a headphone amp, it didn't bother me as much if this had been an actual amp.
Below are a few material-specific notes:
Domnerus Group - Jazz at the Pawnshop - Immersive experience, reduced soundstage notwithstanding. This is more a testimonial to the impeccable recording quality, though, in my opinion. Nevertheless, it sounded amazing for what it was. Details such as fingerboard taps on the bass were effortlessly detected.
Diana Krall - All For You - Decent presentation, a bit distant at first but her voice still retained the intimate tones evident on a good amp.
Bombay Dub Orchestra - Rare Earth - the male vocal intro was pleasant, if a bit on the cool side, but the bass entrance was vibrant and deep. For a moment it had made me forget I was plugged into something else than an amp.
Peter Gabriel - Steam (Slow Steam, more precisely) from Secret World Live CD1. Kicks were deep and reverberant, with no loss of detail. Vocals were again cool, but once the intro had played and the proper song started, the loss of instrument separation became noticeable.
In the end, for what this setup was, I think the end results exceeded my expectations. Context, again, is imperative - even a couple hundred dollar amp will most likely sound better than the DAC-2 when used in this fashion. However, the whole experiment had actually extended my curiosity in finding a way to match the impedances and have another try at it.
Cheers,
Nick
