Hey all,
Here's a quick summary of the November Blind Listening Event.
We actually had very good turnout for the event, enough so that I bowed out of the listening room. So these aren't my impressions, but rather the impressions of the group, as related (mainly) by Marv and Mike for the cartridge test, and Mike for the DAC test.
For cartridge listening, the turntable was completely obscured, so the only person who knew what the cartridges were was Tony, who was swapping the arms. No attempt was made to level match, except by ear, because the cartridges had different output levels. So this is technically only single blind, but anyone who knows Tony knows that he doesn't really have a horse in the race. He's pretty stoic when it comes to these kind of comparisons (and likes to joke, "and they were all Modi 3!" at the end of multiple DAC listening sessions.)
We had 5 cartridges to compare, from three different manufacturers. This is more than the three from one manufacturer I thought we'd be doing. Each was setup to manufacturer specs on an individual tonearm so we could easily swap them. All tonearms were the new "longer headshell" version that will be shipping with Sol when we're out of beta. Cartridges ranged from about $100 to $350, and they were all current production and new.
Not surprisingly, the most expensive cartridge won. But, surprisingly, there were no super terrible options. I know people get into fisticuffs about different cartridges, but depending on the system, probably any of them could be excellent.
Here's how it came out:
#1: Grado Reference Platinum2
#2: Grado Prestige Red2
#3: Depended on who you asked, either Ortofon Red or Nagaoka MP110
So, don't be surprised if the Grado Reference Platinum2 ends up as an option on Sol, and the Nagaoka doesn't (they are impossible to get, we literally went to Japan, they pointed us at their distribution, and their US distributor won't talk to us.) I'm happy if we end up pairing a US cartridge with a US turntable!
For DAC listening, this time we brought an Avermetrics analyzer for level matching. We level matched at the preamp output, using a passive attenuator on the "hot" DAC of each pair (a Sys for the Modi Multibit and an old passive based on a Noble black potentiometer I made a billion years ago for the Gungnir 4399. Yes, the Multibit Modi was slightly hotter than the Modi 3, and the delta-digma Gungnir was slighter hotter than the Gungnir Multibit. Both of the hot DACs needed only mild trimming--in the range of 0.2-0.4dB--to bring them within 0.02dB at the preamp outputs.
Aside: yeah, I know, there's a pot in the signal path of one DAC and not another, but one's in a delta-sigma DAC, and one's in a Multibit DAC, so let's call it fair. Plus it's just a pot, and plus, it's just a tiny, tiny tweak in terms of output level.
From there, we did an A/B of Modi Multibit vs Modi 3 (like last time) and another A/B of Gungnir Multibit vs Gungnir 4399, switching with a Freya S. (We couldn't do A/B/C/D due to different output levels of the balanced DACs vs the single-ended DACs--trimming 6dB out would be pretty extreme.)
Aaaannnnd...delta-sigma won both rounds!
Yeah, I know. Quite a surprise. Also good news for anyone looking for inexpensive DAC performance. But does this invalidate our True Multibit approach? I'd say not so fast. Modi 3 is much newer than Modi Multibit, and we do learn things that we apply to new products. However, Gungnir 4399 is an almost forgotten product, based on a D/A converter you can't even buy anymore. A lot of people liked the AK4399. Maybe that's part of it. Or maybe we're looking at system synergy.
In any case, I think you can expect us to keep making both True Multibit and delta-sigma DACs, and trying to advance each approach. (And I'd really like a rematch with, say, Bifrost 2 in the mix, because that has all our latest stuff in it...maybe we'll set that up in the future.)
And we'll definitely keep doing more of this blind listening, because it's really, really illuminating!
All the best,
Jason
