[Honeypot]

Oh man, in the battle of the previous gen DACs, the Spring 2 KTE may be losing out. Finally fired up the DS DAC mk1 after a long break and for some time now the poor spring has sat there with "UNLOCK" on its screen.

When I got the Spring it made me realize how multibit tends to have a certain character, especially in the bass, that I was kind of missing. But now that I'm running Ian Canada HATs on a raspberry pi 5 and feeding the DS DAC i2s, it feels like a game changer. The bass feels much fuller now. What a difference a source makes!

It's interesting to me how much s**t the DS DAC tends to get. People mod it saying that the xformers were incorrectly selected as well as changing out other components. And people complained about what apparently was extremely low-level xformer hum in the mk2 (you have to get your ear right next to the chasis in near silence to hear it I believe), as well as (IIRC) some ugly-looking frequency plots in the ultrasonic range.

Almost seems like Paul McGowan and Ted Smith, the DACs designer, just let their forums go in all directions, not trying to control the narrative or correct people, and this whole community of modders sprung up and the perception of flawed designs took hold. I actually kind of admire their laissez faire approach, and hey, you can get a DS DAC mk1 for a steal on the used market if you keep your eyes peeled.

Don't believe the haters, this is a fantastic DAC if your taste is anything like mine! May be a spring 1 or 2 KTE in the classifieds soon Just gotta decide which one I'll use in the studio for DSD mastering. /endrant

What is that rpi stack you got on the right side? Thx!

 

[Roasty]

never imagined I'd have a vivaldi apex dac sitting on my rack! what a massive piece; almost killed my back carrying it. dwarfs everything else on the rack!

and no, I didn't buy it, mainly because I can't imagine spending that amount on a single audio component. a friend is going on holiday for a couple of weeks and is letting me use it whilst he is away. looking forward to trying it with all my amps and headphones! good times ahead, I hope!

 

[fidgeraldo]

I've seen & heard this amp at several shows. It was everywhere in CanJam/NYC a couple weeks ago. IMO it looks and sounds beautiful.

Hmm...are you sure? This is a discontinued model Auris HA-2 SF (I have one).
They have a new model (Auris Audio HA2-SE+), instead, and there is no wood or leather anymore.
It's all black and metal.

But it is the truth...it's an amazing amp

Cheers!

 

[jonathan c]

never imagined I'd have a vivaldi apex dac sitting on my rack! what a massive piece; almost killed my back carrying it. dwarfs everything else on the rack!

and no, I didn't buy it, mainly because I can't imagine spending that amount on a single audio component. a friend is going on holiday for a couple of weeks and is letting me use it whilst he is away. looking forward to trying it with all my amps and headphones! good times ahead, I hope!

... will you spray-paint vivaldi apex black while in your tenure ...?

 

[theeclone]

What is that rpi stack you got on the right side? Thx!

Other than the rpi 5 all of the boards are from Ian Canada: https://iancanada.ca/

Starting from the bottom there is a rechargeable battery power supply for the HATs, an ultracapacitor power supply for the pi (both fed by an allo shanti linear power supply), the pi 5, a FIFO/reclocker HAT, an i2s transmitter HAT, and a "MonitorPi" controller/display.

 

[TheAbyss2022]

never imagined I'd have a vivaldi apex dac sitting on my rack! what a massive piece; almost killed my back carrying it. dwarfs everything else on the rack!

and no, I didn't buy it, mainly because I can't imagine spending that amount on a single audio component. a friend is going on holiday for a couple of weeks and is letting me use it whilst he is away. looking forward to trying it with all my amps and headphones! good times ahead, I hope!

No Vivaldi Master Clock? Is your friend broke?

 

[shwnwllms]

Newest addition to the rack - Cen.Grand 9i-906 "Silver Fox"

 

[Conan1974]

I can see that the ZMF headphones, are very populaire among the forum members.
Pity that they are quite costly. Otherwise I would check them out.
Are they better than the Hifiman HE 1000 stealth? Or just different? At least the ZMF up to 2000 $.
The electronics as well, like the Grand Silver Fox. I have never seen that brand Ver nice.

 

[skhan007]

I can see that the ZMF headphones, are very populaire among the forum members.
Pity that they are quite costly. Otherwise I would check them out.
Are they better than the Hifiman HE 1000 stealth? Or just different? At least the ZMF up to 2000 $.
The electronics as well, like the Grand Silver Fox. I have never seen that brand Ver nice.

You can buy used and save quite a bit. Excellent headphones, for sure.

 

[Conan1974]

Did already looked in NL but nothing right now.

 

[stuck limo]

I flip between the LH Pulse Blue and the iFi Zen One Signature DACs according to mood. The Hifiman HE-6 adapter supplies the power for my big headphones. I should have done the HE-6 adapter years ago. The Senn 800 comes alive with the extra power. The Marantz PM-8004 powers the headphones. I did have the NAD as a pre-amp but eventually decided I didn't like the sound, so I removed it from the equation for headphones.

 

[ApertureSilence]

I'm basically running two stacks in one: a Spring 3/Bliss stack and a Spring 3/ZMF OTL stack. I also occasionally slot the OTL in between the two Holos as a pre-amp.

 

[Pharmaboy]

I'm basically running two stacks in one: a Spring 3/Bliss stack and a Spring 3/ZMF OTL stack. I also occasionally slot the OTL in between the two Holos as a pre-amp.

Neumann KH 120-A's!

 

[jonathan c]

@Pharmaboy!, you surprised me: I thought that you would 'latch onto' the Psycho collection in @ApertureSilence's photo .

 

[Pharmaboy]

@Pharmaboy!, you surprised me: I thought that you would 'latch onto' the Psycho collection in @ApertureSilence's photo .

That's funny! I didn't even notice that ... too busy eyeballing the DAC & speakers.

But since you mention this, I was unaware there were other PSYCHO films beyond Hitchcock's. Maybe because I want to be unaware of that.