[evillamer]

Has purrin tried this dac yet?
http://www.aquahifi.com/la_scala.html
 
John Darko seems to like it alot, rating equal or above the Metrum Hex:
 
http://www.digitalaudioreview.net/2014/03/aqua-hifi-la-scala-mkii-dac-review/

 

[62ohm]

   
Yeah, the Metrum DACs really work best with a high-end SPDIF converter of some sort. You might be better off in the end and save money ultimately by saving up for the MkII with USB input.

 
The Mk.2 costs almost twice as much as the (second-hand) Mk.1 here, that's why I'm more inclined to get the Mk.1

 

[Clemmaster]

The Mk.2 costs almost twice as much as the (second-hand) Mk.1 here, that's why I'm more inclined to get the Mk.1

A second hand mkII is roughly 300 more. Makes you reconsider a bit. Plus the Octave / Aurix stack looks cute

 

[62ohm]

A second hand mkII is roughly 300 more. Makes you reconsider a bit. Plus the Octave / Aurix stack looks cute

 
There's no 2nd-hand Mk.2 currently available here in NZ, and if I get one from overseas I would need to pay additional tax..

 

[motberg]

   
Not an option as the shop I'm planning to buy it from has both, and I would get a special price of I get both at the same time. But if I only get the Octave, which I would still get free shipment, I would have to pay for additional shipment if I want to get the USB-Coax converter later on.
 
PS: I'm not familiar with any kind of USB-Coax conversion, the converter the shop is providing is this "MHDT Labs USBridge" which cost roughly $120 USD.

This appears to be an old version powered only by the USB input, so you may need to clean that up a little.
 
I would grab the DAC before it is gone and get one of these XMOS Gustard DDC
http://www.head-fi.org/t/736294/gustard-u12-usb-interface-8-core-xmos-chip
 
The toslink may be OK, but in my experience would require a decent cable and even then the coax would probably be more suitable for such a high quality DAC

 

[bmichels]

Did someone heard this one ?   A tube DAC....may be it will offer a nice synergy with my EC445 ??  

 

 

[ciphercomplete]

Alot of us here, including myself, have been through the ringer with Sabre chipped dacs and for that matter sigma delta dacs in general.  It might be hard to find someone who wants to try it. $6500 for a sabre dac just doesn't sit well with me having already heard a crap load of them.

 

[evillamer]

  Alot of us here, including myself, have been through the ringer with Sabre chipped dacs and for that matter sigma delta dacs in general.  It might be hard to find someone who wants to try it. $6500 for a sabre dac just doesn't sit well with me having already heard a crap load of them.

Sabre ES9018S is seriously not a bad sounding chip if it's well implemented like in the case of the Auralic Vega. The only problem is with ES9018K2M sounds more harshy or pitchy treble(sabre glare). Not sure if the ES9018AQ2M will fix this.

 

[bmichels]

  Sabre ES9018S is seriously not a bad sounding chip if it's well implemented like in the case of the Auralic Vega. The only problem is with ES9018K2M sounds more harshy or pitchy treble(sabre glare). Not sure if the ES9018AQ2M will fix this.

 
Accuphase also use ES9018 in it's DAC, including it's latest DC-37, and.... I do not think that Accuphase is know for "bad" sound !!

 

[bmichels]

have you noticed that now the TotalDac D1-TUbe is now "mk2"....& sold at the price of the D1-Dual ! 

Indeed in this D1-Tube, the discrete R2R ladder is doubled (like the d1-dual) 

 
One more reason to go TotalDAC...

  (but note that this Tube version is still SE only, and do not have the Headphone out like the D1-Dual). So ....

 

[magiccabbage]

I heard a dedicated Audio PC today with a Lampi generation 4 through my WA5. The dedicated PC was amazing. Very impressive - it floored me actually .....

 most impressive thing at the meet I thought  

 

[darkless]

have you noticed that now the TotalDac D1-TUbe is now "mk2"....& sold at the price of the D1-Dual ! :eek: Indeed in this D1-Tube, the discrete R2R ladder is doubled (like the d1-dual) 

One more reason to go TotalDAC...   (but note that this Tube version is still SE only, and do not have the Headphone out like the D1-Dual). So ....

As the output impedance for the tube version is 460 Ohm, a headphone output with such a high impedance would make little sense.

 

[Stillhart]

Hi all,
 
Just wanted to report in a bit.  I picked up an Audio-GD NFB-28.  Since I decided that I wasn't going to drop the big bucks on a R2R DAC just yet, I figured the NFB-28 is one of the best bang-for-the-buck Sabre DAC's out there and a good one to hold me over until I can jump into the big leagues.  I got it used so saved a few bucks.
 
Anyhow, I did some testing tonight comparing the NFB-15 (Wolfson), NFB-28 (Sabre) and GO SE (Sabre) all using the amp in the NFB-28.  I posted a bunch of impressions in the NFB-28 thread.  But what I wanted to mention here was that, upon comparing the 28 and the 15, I could very clearly hear that "one-note bass" you were talking about in the Sabre DAC.
 
It's weird because the Sabre has more bass extension and more sub-bass body.  Yet kick drums felt totally flat and lifeless...like kicking wood instead of a drum head.  The Wolfson DAC, although inferior in a lot of ways, had a lot more dynamic kick drums.
 
The other thing that I found interesting was comparing the two different Sabre implementations.  I felt like the GO SE was more "sabre-y"... it had more digital treble and even less dynamics in the bass.  They were very similar overall but the differences were there and I felt like the 28 just had more body and was slightly more pleasing.
 
I know this stuff is all relatively low-end for some of you guys, but I found the comparisons really fascinating and I think it helps me understand some of the things you've been discussing in this thread.
 
EDIT - Forgot to mention that my testing was done with the SE connection on the NFB-28 since I don't have my balanced cable yet.  The sound should improve a bit but I'm not sure how much the Sabre sound is going to change... I'll find out in a few days.

 

[ericfarrell85]

I heard a dedicated Audio PC today with a Lampi generation 4 through my WA5. The dedicated PC was amazing. Very impressive - it floored me actually ..... :eek:  most impressive thing at the meet I thought  

What was the dedicated pc? I don't know if you own one, but the Lampizator is a component that can "floor" someone who hasn't heard it before. It's nothing if not distinct. Though, it's certainly not without issues, it has an immediate glamour about it.

 

[evillamer]

@Stillhart
 
Please move up to the R2R if you can or at least find someone near you who has a good R2R dac to listen to. If I have to exaggerate abit here, sigma delta sounds like a ultra high quality FM synthesizer generating sine waves vs the natural fluid sound(better at micro semitones, plakton details) you get off R2R dac.