rumatt
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I have a Stello DA100 and a Citypulse 7.2x (without TXCO upgrade), and this describes some conclusions after a day of listening.
BIAS:
I had the Stello first and love it. I love the sound, theb build quality, and fact that it has built-in USB, etc. All off my initial listening impressions had me favoring the DA100, and it was clear that I had no ability to be unbiased. Thus, I did some blind listening.
If you've never done blind listening tests, I highly recommend it. Before the blind testing, I was SURE that I preferred the DA100. Immediately after starting the blind testing it was clear that I was unable to reliably tell the DAC's apart. What's even funnier, is that I would hear a cue that made me think I was listening to one or the other, and I would immediately start to like the one that I thought was the Stello. The mind games are just ridiculous.
BLIND LISTENING SETUP
I ran my computer into my USB sound card that I have setup to be bit-perfect (soundblaster live 24-bit). The SPDIF output goes into a splitter and into both DAC's. The DAC analog outputs got into a passive A-B switch that I have, then directly to my amp. I'm listening with speakers (Paradigm Studio 60's), not headphones.
To achieve double-blind tests, I scrambled the cables when plugging them into the A-B switch so I didn't know which DAC was A and/or B. I had to get up to flip the switch, so I was not doing rapid A-B'ing (which is good anyway because I didn't have level matching). I switched after a whole song, or a group of songs, and took notes while listening.
BLIND LISTENING RESULTS
1) The Stello has more bass. The Citypulse has reasonable bass, so the difference is not noticible unless the song is bass heavy. But on one or two songs, I could reliably identify that the Stello had more bass. While in many cases this was positive, on one song I wrote: "Bass is almost too heavy and I can't hear the vocals as loud as I'd like" for the stello. Note: I had my sub turned off, and my towers go down to about 35 Hz in my room before they drop off (measured with SPL meter), so I was not comparing, or even hearing, deep, deep bass.
2) Other than bass-heavy songs, I could not identify either DAC reliably. There are a few characteristics (described below) that I was more likely to associate with one DAC than the other, but several times when I thought I had it figured out, but I actually had it backwards. It is AMAZING how many factors impact what your brain hears, including the volume, the previous song, your mood, the planets alignment, etc.
In terms of picking a winner, I think I did pick the Citypulse one or two more times than the Stello.
I will do more tests tomorrow and see if I can identify them more reliably. Otherwise, it's just pure noise and I'll sell the Stello and keep the Citypulse because it's cheaper!
EDIT: I removed some of my initial impressions/descriptions of the sound of these dacs, which I am no longer able to replicate. I don't want to mislead folks on the characterizations of these dacs. Further details are later in this thread.
BIAS:
I had the Stello first and love it. I love the sound, theb build quality, and fact that it has built-in USB, etc. All off my initial listening impressions had me favoring the DA100, and it was clear that I had no ability to be unbiased. Thus, I did some blind listening.
If you've never done blind listening tests, I highly recommend it. Before the blind testing, I was SURE that I preferred the DA100. Immediately after starting the blind testing it was clear that I was unable to reliably tell the DAC's apart. What's even funnier, is that I would hear a cue that made me think I was listening to one or the other, and I would immediately start to like the one that I thought was the Stello. The mind games are just ridiculous.
BLIND LISTENING SETUP
I ran my computer into my USB sound card that I have setup to be bit-perfect (soundblaster live 24-bit). The SPDIF output goes into a splitter and into both DAC's. The DAC analog outputs got into a passive A-B switch that I have, then directly to my amp. I'm listening with speakers (Paradigm Studio 60's), not headphones.
To achieve double-blind tests, I scrambled the cables when plugging them into the A-B switch so I didn't know which DAC was A and/or B. I had to get up to flip the switch, so I was not doing rapid A-B'ing (which is good anyway because I didn't have level matching). I switched after a whole song, or a group of songs, and took notes while listening.
BLIND LISTENING RESULTS
1) The Stello has more bass. The Citypulse has reasonable bass, so the difference is not noticible unless the song is bass heavy. But on one or two songs, I could reliably identify that the Stello had more bass. While in many cases this was positive, on one song I wrote: "Bass is almost too heavy and I can't hear the vocals as loud as I'd like" for the stello. Note: I had my sub turned off, and my towers go down to about 35 Hz in my room before they drop off (measured with SPL meter), so I was not comparing, or even hearing, deep, deep bass.
2) Other than bass-heavy songs, I could not identify either DAC reliably. There are a few characteristics (described below) that I was more likely to associate with one DAC than the other, but several times when I thought I had it figured out, but I actually had it backwards. It is AMAZING how many factors impact what your brain hears, including the volume, the previous song, your mood, the planets alignment, etc.
In terms of picking a winner, I think I did pick the Citypulse one or two more times than the Stello.
I will do more tests tomorrow and see if I can identify them more reliably. Otherwise, it's just pure noise and I'll sell the Stello and keep the Citypulse because it's cheaper!
EDIT: I removed some of my initial impressions/descriptions of the sound of these dacs, which I am no longer able to replicate. I don't want to mislead folks on the characterizations of these dacs. Further details are later in this thread.
