[Ferbose]

Today is a lot of fun. Compared to the last So-Cal meet, hi-end Senns are disappearing and hi-end Grados are popping up. DynaXXX family of amps seem to be the new hot thing. We had very good setups to compare many DACs in a well-controlled fashion.

The raffle was definitely the highlight of the night. Everyone wanted to win the cute little amps. I want to thank our wonderful host 909 and all the people who donated the raffle prizes.

 

[RnB180]

I left early before the raffle. but left my ticket numbers

Did I win the Hornet or gimore lite?

did I win anything?

the meet was a blast, I look forward to the pics from the meet.

Justins GS-X was great!
and had a few people listen to the modded hd600's

, Though not something I would wear out in public, definately my favorite headphone of my collection.

It was fun meeting you guys in person.

met a lot of new faces today, along with the familiar like LFF, Edwood, Borat, and Ray Samuels from last year. I hope to see all you guys next So Cal meet.

Of course Ray had some stellar gear at his table and several demo hornets to listen too. Hornet is an absolute winner IMO. Running that thing out of the meridian was a pleasure to listen too.

Got to get a little chit chat in with the big guy Grover himself, and another cable assembler, with some really impressive sounding interconnects.

This meet was pretty huge, and there were so many high end set ups there.

Headphile work was abundant! Ive never seen so many woodied headphones before. Larrys work was everywhere at the meet, and only further enforced his solid reputation.

I got to check out the GS-X, which was a big reason why I went. Im glad to have an oppurtunity to meet Justin in person.

Great Day.

Thanks 909 and company for setting this up. The meet was fantastic.

 

[Ferbose]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RnB180 I left early before the raffle. but left my ticket numbers Did I win the Hornet or gimore lite? did I win anything?

I recall you won one prize, but not the Hornet or Gilmore.

 

[grandenigma1]

there better be pics and impressions galore on the GS-X

 

[PFKMan23]

I want pics of Ray and Myo.

 

[Borat]

Three words...

My. Little. Pony.

 

[gpalmer]

Oh my God! Where are the pictures? Where are the posts? Come on guys are you letting that sleep thing get in the way again?

 

[Ferbose]

DAC Shoot-Out

One of the best comparisons we made today was between DACs. It occurred on many tables and many people participated, so I will just describe what I heard personally. At Iron_Dreamer's table, we were blessed to have Edwood's optical distribution amplifier to split Toslink signal into four. Four DACs with preamp out were level matched and fed into Iron_Dreamer's Dynahi with four inputs. Power cords and interconnects were all identical. First we did Benchmark DAC1, Lavry Black, AQVOX USB2 and a highly modded Bel Canto DAC2. They all sound quite similar, so I had to work hard to catch the last 5% difference. Several people including myself thought modded Bel Canto is the weakest. I think it is laid back and does not show any particular strength, though I can't really find any fault either. The other three sounded equally good to my ears, although with AQVOX it is a bit tricky. AQVOX lets the user control upsampling and filtering via buttons at the front, and there is only one optimal setting that makes it sound as good as Lavry and DAC1. The three DACs still voice a bit differently, but I really could not tell which is more enjoyable.

In the second round we took out the Bel Canto and put in PreSonus Central Station. It sounds very similar to the other three except for a slight sibilance in the upper midrange. Since Central Station is significantly cheaper at $500, its performance is in fact more than admirable.


Almarro A205A

We had an Almarro single-ended tube amp using EL84 tubes. It is a really sweet amp to drive K1000, sweeter than my Cayin HA-1A, which also uses EL84 in single-ended topology. Maybe the difference is due to the NOS Brimar tubes used in the Almarro, versus my modern tubes. Almarro is sweet and detailed at the same time, which kind of surprised me.


PreSonus Central Station

Virtually unknown on head-fi, PreSonus Central Station is a very versatile unit that contains a passive preamp, an active preamp, a DAC and two headphone amps, for just $500. Since it is my newest toy, I spent quite some time today comparing its DAC and headphone amp sections to other gears, and was surprised by its sound quality at every turn.

For the headphone amp comparisons, I have to thank Edwood for his switch box, copied after Ray's. This allows for volume matching and instant switching. Between Central Station's amp and Grace m902, both driven by Esoteric DV50, another headfier and I had a hard time hearing any noticeable difference. Compared to Hornet in battery mode, the Hornet sounds a bit sweeter but Central Station a bit bigger, so it's a tie. The Daynahi, on the other hand, does sound more refined than Central Station's amp and the Hornet. Since PreSonus comes with two headphone amps that can play different signals, the headphone section is easily worth its asking price IMO.

For DAC comparisons, I set up a demo between DAC1 in preamp mode (balanced into Central Station) versus Central Station's internal DAC. When several people listened to it, they were skeptical if I actually did A/B switching. Because level mathching was precise, and because Central Station's relay switches didn't create clicks, people could hardly tell if there is actual switching based on sound quality alone. I also used Esoteric DV50 to feed unbalanced analog and optical digital signals into Central Station. We listened to K501 and K1000 to compare the two sources, and heard small differences that sometimes favored one source or the other, depending on the music and the listener. I feel that Central Station's jitter rejection is less than stellar, so it may not sound as good when driven by a lesser transport than the Esoteric. In a four-way shoot-out, Central Station proved to be almost as good as Benchmark, Lavry and AQVOX. In this case I feel Central Station probably suffered from the higher jitter coming off M-Audio Audiophile USB and Toslink distribution amplifier. Anyway, these listening tests convinced me that Central Station's DAC is well worth $500.

Considering that Central Station is a connectivity powerhouse, has a no-compromise passive preamp built on switches and resistors, and has DAC and heapdhone amps that can sound as good as dedicated DACs or amps in its price range, I don't hesitate to call it one of the true hidden gems in consumer audio. On the other hand, it has already made a splash in the pro-audio circles, its target market. It is only a matter of time before home audiophiles recognize its superb value.

 

[Edwood]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gpalmer Oh my God! Where are the pictures? Where are the posts? Come on guys are you letting that sleep thing get in the way again?

Sleep? What are you talking about?

We are still going.

Ray, Iron_Dreamer, Jasper994, and I are over at my place right now. Ray is catching an early flight, so I guess he's not going to sleep either.

I'll post some pics soon.

-Ed

 

[PFKMan23]

yeah man. Stop holding out and post some pics!!

 

[grandenigma1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Edwood Sleep? What are you talking about? We are still going. Ray, Iron_Dreamer, Jasper994, and I are over at my place right now. Ray is catching an early flight, so I guess he's not going to sleep either. I'll post some pics soon. -Ed

by soon you mean now? you need to be kind and account for time zones!

I demand pics of the gsx now if you want to be welcome at cincy meet ...if not we will have mikey pick you up

Ferbose ~ did you reach any conclusions on the DAC wars?

 

[gpalmer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Edwood Sleep? What are you talking about? We are still going.

Ahhhhh, that's the spirit I remember!

 

[bhd812]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Edwood Sleep? What are you talking about? We are still going. Ray, Iron_Dreamer, Jasper994, and I are over at my place right now. Ray is catching an early flight, so I guess he's not going to sleep either. I'll post some pics soon. -Ed

you guys still up? I will call Ray..lol

 

[akwok]

[size=x-large]GS-X![/size]

 

[Ferbose]

Quote:

Originally Posted by grandenigma1 Ferbose ~ did you reach any conclusions on the DAC wars?

My two cents:

Since D/A and upsampling chips are getting better and better, and the op-amps are also improving constantly, it is a matter of time before all half-decent DACs sound almost identical for the 44.1/16 format.

Benchmark, AQVOX and Lavry all sound so similarly good, I don't know what to recommend. There is not much room to improve upon that, despite hi-end companies always like to advertise otherwise. DV-50 is built like a tank, which really appeals to hardcore audiophiles, but for redbook it did not outperform the three pro-audio DACs.

To get even better sound, hi-rez is the way to go. To my dismay, hi-rez actually seems to be dying.