[astrostar59]

  Hi astrostar59,
As you might remember, i was planing to test the TotalDac after my friends are ready to give it to me.
Situation changed as they send it back to France after they finally got the Pavane. All of them realized the Pavane as best sounding DAC in the test cycle.
 
Comparing to the TotalDac there is explicit less distortion on the Pavane as it was told to me.
Next thing was that a cd-drive was better in sound quality than the Windows and the Mac Computer.
 
This is very surprising but i know that some of them has similar hearing preferences so i will accept this statement for now.
Now i wait to get the Pavane as a competitor to the Esoteric D-02 in near future.

This is fascinating indeed! I wonder what Arnauld thinks about it? I can only guess as I haven't heard the TotalDAC. Distortion? It is odd, the TotalDAC has no tubes so unless the design is weak or the bandwidth of the transformers is poor? I wonder if by distortion they mean 'not realistic'? If the Pavane wins I would be surprised but delighted, as it is quite cheap in relative terms. Going back to my little Metrum Octave Mk II it is way behind my Audio Note 4.1. I can only guess the Pavane is in another league to it.
 
Odd about the transport. I wonder if it is the fact sound via SPDIF from a transport sounds cleaner / smoother than via USB input. The Pavane uses the Amanero USB or the M2Tech USB board. Both are very good IMO. I have tried various transports up to a CEC belt drive 10K transport, and my Mac Mini with Audirvana+ in standalone beat it by around 15-20%. In Audirvana+ iTunes mode it was worse than the transp.
 
Right now I am upgrading all the capacitors in my DAC 4.1 with Audio Note Kaisia and Elna Silmic II. It will max that design out to as far as it can go. I'll report back later on that.
 
Good luck with your search. I think you can get the Pavane on buy / return. If it beats your expensive D-02 that would be crazy but possible.

 

[yaluen]

  anyone know if the 407 are being discontinued? or why it's really cheap right now on PJ? just ordered one for $254 shipped to the USA...cheaper than the 307, actually...and less than half the price of the 507. hmmm....

 
If you click through to the merchant site that's actually selling them, you'll notice that everything is suspiciously discounted. A whois of the domain http://www.earphone-home.com/ reveals that the registrar is Chinese. I suggest exercising caution as it looks very much fraudulent.

 

[paradoxper]

I've never heard of PJ being fraudulent like Cattylink, for example.

 

[yaluen]

No no, not PJ themselves as they're just a middleman service, but the merchant they're sourcing the 407 from, "earphone-home.com"
 
Follow the link at the bottom of PJ's 407 page (http://www.pricejapan.com/front/e_good_info.php?code=1033&category=10 → http://www.earphone-home.com/order/item/6572.html)

 

[Earspeakers]

Ah, yeah their source is running a 50% off sale on the 407's for whatever reason. Too many in stock probably. Middle child syndrome, people probably gravitate either to the high or low end leaving the 407 alone maybe. 

 

[kugino]

thanks for the heads up. I figured the purchase is protected via PayPal and my CC company. will see if they're the real deal when they arrive. I'll let people know.

 

[yaluen]

They also have the SR-009 at 80% off for 31794yen

 
http://www.earphone-home.com/order/item/6260.html

 

[Michgelsen]

(...) not sure there are very many dynamics/planars in the $250 range that can compete with the 407.

 
I guess not, at that INSANE price.
 
Yes, the 507 have a lot of highs, but for me they're even highs, which is less of a problem than a single etch. It was easier for my eyes to adapt to the highs of the 507 than to the etch of the Lambda Signature or the highs of the HE60. I think it helps that their bass is awesome, acting as a counterbalance.

 

[kugino]

They also have the SR-009 at 80% off for 31794yen

http://www.earphone-home.com/order/item/6260.html

haha. yeah. but PJ didn't have those listed...we shall see.

 

[paradoxper]

  No no, not PJ themselves as they're just a middleman service, but the merchant they're sourcing the 407 from, "earphone-home.com"
 
You can see the link at the bottom of PJ's 407 page (http://www.pricejapan.com/front/e_good_info.php?code=1033&category=10)

Not sure about the implication of fraudulent then. PJ takes the risk whatever that is with the sources not the customer. 
 
And Stax services units from PJ so it doesn't seem to affect much as far as being 'grey market.'

 

[yaluen]

Right, to be clear, I wasn't accusing PJ of being fraudulent. As I understand it, PJ simply search for the cheapest price online for the products they export and source them from whichever merchant that may be. It just so happens that in this case, their source for the 407 seems to be fraudulent. What I'm wondering is if PJ do due diligence on their sources.

 

[paradoxper]

  Right, to be clear, I wasn't accusing PJ of being fraudulent. As I understand it, PJ simply search for the cheapest price online for the products they export and source them from whichever merchant that may be. It just so happens that in this case, their source for the 407 seems to be fraudulent. What I'm wondering is if PJ does due diligence on their sources.

And to bait you with semantics. You say they're fraudulent yet PJ uses them as a source. So..

 

[yaluen]

You know what I mean

 

[paradoxper]

  You know what I mean

I do. I wouldn't personally contact earphone-home to purchase direct, but I also don't see how earphone-home is fraudulent per se if PJ is able to source Stax through them.

 

[yaluen]

Possible PJ has yet to order anything from earphone-home. Also, a telephone number for earphone-home is nowhere to be found on their site. AFAIK, one is required by Japanese law.