chrisdrop
1000+ Head-Fier
There have been some comments on another thread here on head-fi regarding SW1X DACs. I paid Slawa at SW1X a visit recently and thought I'd consolidate and answer some questions here, as well as post some overall information as it arises.
(Presently, this post is presently more of a placeholder where I intend to add relevant information that presently exists in PMs and other threads.)
I will say straight away, that I liked what I heard quite a lot.
Caveats: I don't own one of these products. I may or may not do so. I have had no inducement of any form for any comments. Shill-free-zone. I am no expert with important experiences, just another head with ears and opinions.
Intro:
I have been considering a new DAC for a few months. As one does, I have been scanning, reading, chatting and musing about DACs for that time. I was interested in the following DACs:
Visit:
I reached out to Slawa at SW1X and asked if I could come to check out his DACs. He was very helpful and accommodating, so I planned time to visit. It was fun. To share some direct thoughts after the visit, here are a few lightly moded excerpts from PMs I exchanged with two other head-fiers.
All of that sounds very enthusiastic. It is/ was. I would like to be sober at the same time. I have heard some very nice hi-fi kit to be clear, but I have not heard every high-end DAC out there. The experience did rebase my expectations for the kinds of changes I could expect to hear.
I am primarily a USB user while considering all this, I am considering how to handle USB as the DACs support SPDIF only without adding options. There are USB options.
More to come...
(Presently, this post is presently more of a placeholder where I intend to add relevant information that presently exists in PMs and other threads.)
I will say straight away, that I liked what I heard quite a lot.
Caveats: I don't own one of these products. I may or may not do so. I have had no inducement of any form for any comments. Shill-free-zone. I am no expert with important experiences, just another head with ears and opinions.
Intro:
I have been considering a new DAC for a few months. As one does, I have been scanning, reading, chatting and musing about DACs for that time. I was interested in the following DACs:
- Primarily:
- Schiit Yggdrasil (Analog 2)
- Holo Spring II L3
- Someone else posted about the SW1X DACs and I added them to my list. They are not too far from my home in the UK so I thought I could check them out and they sounded interesting.
- I was also possibly considering the Lampizator Amber 3. Several other keen head-fiers seemed to really like it (and other Lampizator DACs).
Visit:
I reached out to Slawa at SW1X and asked if I could come to check out his DACs. He was very helpful and accommodating, so I planned time to visit. It was fun. To share some direct thoughts after the visit, here are a few lightly moded excerpts from PMs I exchanged with two other head-fiers.
I spent a good ~4h w/ Slawa's. I can't un-hear any of it. I am now clear on a few things (and less clear on others!):
We listened for a bit to Slawa's main "killer 2-channel system" as-is for a short while (including one of his DACs). We then put my RME ADI II DAC into this setup, replacing his DAC. The very, very audible power supply wall-wart switching noise was a horror to behold once we even plugged it in, with the DAC itself still in the box. The RME compared to any of his DACs (which we did cover later) sounded completely flat and lifeless. The RME was a small 2d napkin in front of you as opposed to a giant 3d spatial image. No hyperbole; it was so night and day I was floored. We played the same song, ~volume-matched back/ forth and it was stark. Instruments moved "into place", things sounded alive. With the RME it was almost like you just took "the real music" and squoze it from top to bottom, left to right, with overall less amplitude and conceptual acoustic-mass.
...
He showed the changes of replacing, one at a time, black-gate capacitors for other capacitors. Amazingly audible changes even for one change. It was a very interesting demonstration of detail I wouldn't have guessed. That said, he is not a "roller", he wants to find the right thing, put it in place and move on.
...
We then compared his DAC1 and DAC2. DAC1 sounds good, DAC2 sounds even better, DAC5 sounds better. I am sure the intervening models follow the line between 1-5.
...
For myself, what I am not clear on; if the RME compared to any of his DACs is so starkly different, how does it compare to any of the other DACs I am considering? The difference on the speakers was truly massive. It is really hard to say after a few hours of listening and talking if it was the same relative size on the headphones.
His DAC II was much better on the headphones, but perhaps not as jaw-dropping different as on speakers. That is expected I guess when his system is in the very expensive zone all told and the HP setup is far more humble!
His DACs are dead-silent, musical, #certainly-definitively-unquestionably-much-better than my RME DAC.
- I really should get a new DAC.
- He makes very nice DACs.
- USB as transport needs thinking on how to handle.
- ASR-like SINAD, THD, etc DAC measurements really do not correlate with "sounds good".
We listened for a bit to Slawa's main "killer 2-channel system" as-is for a short while (including one of his DACs). We then put my RME ADI II DAC into this setup, replacing his DAC. The very, very audible power supply wall-wart switching noise was a horror to behold once we even plugged it in, with the DAC itself still in the box. The RME compared to any of his DACs (which we did cover later) sounded completely flat and lifeless. The RME was a small 2d napkin in front of you as opposed to a giant 3d spatial image. No hyperbole; it was so night and day I was floored. We played the same song, ~volume-matched back/ forth and it was stark. Instruments moved "into place", things sounded alive. With the RME it was almost like you just took "the real music" and squoze it from top to bottom, left to right, with overall less amplitude and conceptual acoustic-mass.
...
He showed the changes of replacing, one at a time, black-gate capacitors for other capacitors. Amazingly audible changes even for one change. It was a very interesting demonstration of detail I wouldn't have guessed. That said, he is not a "roller", he wants to find the right thing, put it in place and move on.
...
We then compared his DAC1 and DAC2. DAC1 sounds good, DAC2 sounds even better, DAC5 sounds better. I am sure the intervening models follow the line between 1-5.
...
For myself, what I am not clear on; if the RME compared to any of his DACs is so starkly different, how does it compare to any of the other DACs I am considering? The difference on the speakers was truly massive. It is really hard to say after a few hours of listening and talking if it was the same relative size on the headphones.
His DAC II was much better on the headphones, but perhaps not as jaw-dropping different as on speakers. That is expected I guess when his system is in the very expensive zone all told and the HP setup is far more humble!
His DACs are dead-silent, musical, #certainly-definitively-unquestionably-much-better than my RME DAC.
All of that sounds very enthusiastic. It is/ was. I would like to be sober at the same time. I have heard some very nice hi-fi kit to be clear, but I have not heard every high-end DAC out there. The experience did rebase my expectations for the kinds of changes I could expect to hear.
I am primarily a USB user while considering all this, I am considering how to handle USB as the DACs support SPDIF only without adding options. There are USB options.
More to come...
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