[Andrew_WOT]

Quote:

How are you Andrew?  I've never heard a Chord DAC....  But how much better than a Stello can it really be? 

 
USG

It can run circles around any DAC I've heard to day all day long. Quick search against this board should return you some useful hits. It's quite rare but very regarded in hi-fi circles, I have MKI (bought from UK shop) that is considered more detailed and into your face than smoothed out (rolled off) MKII, but the latest reincarnation (QBD76 ) seems to trump both (damn expensive as well).
Link to the manufacturer site
http://www.chordelectronics.co.uk/products_detail.asp?id=33
 
QBD76 (the latest one)
http://www.chordelectronics.co.uk/products_detail.asp?id=52
 
Review of MKI
http://www.stereophile.com/digitalprocessors/624/index.html
MKII
http://www.stereophile.com/cdplayers/807chord/index.html
 
 

 

[DaveBSC]

Quote:

You guys might be interested in a just published Positive Feedback round-up article on a wide range of USB transports http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue51/usb_converters.htm

Interesting that he seemed to prefer the adaptive converters overall rather than the asynch converters.

 

[Pacha]

Quote:

Hi Pacha
 
I think what I said was that I didn't like packing and insuring and shipping and tracking and then hoping that it arrives in china in one piece, and then hoping it survives the return trip intact......... but it's perfectly alright if you do.
 
USG
 

Well at least if you pack it as Kingwa does, you may not have bad surprise except package lost, which can happen in US too. I don't know if your USPS/FedEx/UPS/DHL service is perfect in US but here in France any of the delivery companies often deliver damaged parcels, so I'm not more confident in sending some frenchie DAC to my own country than to China with the Audio-gd packing which I kept and was beefy. I don't think all US guys are far more respectful of the parcel than some here do, throwing ruthless the boxes in the van and the plane parcel container.
But well, it's ok, just a matter of personal decision, if you wish to buy local stuff nobody will blame you for that.

 

[Andrew_WOT]

Can anyone point to the reliable online source of those 75Ohm attenuators and which model HiFace benefits from the most?
Thanks

 

[mmerrill99]

Quote:

Interesting that he seemed to prefer the adaptive converters overall rather than the asynch converters.

Yep, but then he doesn't seem to know that digital audio contains timing information as well as data - not just bits as he keeps talking about bit delivery from A to B. Anyway, he doesn't seem to care about the technology but yet he spent $15,000 on his "jitter immune" DAC & $1,200 on his Divertus adaptive converter, so go figure?
 
I guess he also recognised that a $12 attenuator was also worthwhile even on the $129 SPDIF cable!
 
He wasn't discriminating enough & left a lot of questions unanswered, I felt. For instance, he throws accolades on the cables he used & yet he used a stock USB cable on the JKHiface, without sonic penalty, it seems! He also just highly recommended everything which surely couldn't be the case!
 
Still, I guess he represents a lot of people who aren't bothered about the innards & the technology & just want to judge the sound which of course is what it ultimately is about, right!

 

[xdanny]

Quote:

Can anyone point to the reliable online source of those 75Ohm attenuators and which model HiFace benefits from the most?
Thanks

This is where I got mine, as per John's recommendations.  Scroll down to the bottom of the page and pick your db level.  I got a pair of 10s, the HAT-10-75 and a pair of 6s just to try out. 
 
http://www.minicircuits.com/products/attenuators_coax_fixed.html
 
I have the modded version, so I couldn't tell you which one would benefit the most from the attenuators.  From what I can remember reading a few threads, both versions should yield a slight improvement.

 

[Pacha]

Any attenuator recommended for RCA?

 

[Andrew_WOT]

Thanks, just ordered myself 10db one.
Do you just install them on the hiface or on the other end of the SPDIF cable too?
 
Quote:

This is where I got mine, as per John's recommendations.  Scroll down to the bottom of the page and pick your db level.  I got a pair of 10s, the HAT-10-75 and a pair of 6s just to try out. 
 
http://www.minicircuits.com/products/attenuators_coax_fixed.html
 
I have the modded version, so I couldn't tell you which one would benefit the most from the attenuators.  From what I can remember reading a few threads, both versions should yield a slight improvement.

 

[DaveBSC]

Quote:

Yep, but then he doesn't seem to know that digital audio contains timing information as well as data - not just bits as he keeps talking about bit delivery from A to B. Anyway, he doesn't seem to care about the technology but yet he spent $15,000 on his "jitter immune" DAC & $1,200 on his Divertus adaptive converter, so go figure?  
I guess he also recognised that a $12 attenuator was also worthwhile even on the $129 SPDIF cable!
 
He wasn't discriminating enough & left a lot of questions unanswered, I felt. For instance, he throws accolades on the cables he used & yet he used a stock USB cable on the JKHiface, without sonic penalty, it seems! He also just highly recommended everything which surely couldn't be the case!
 
Still, I guess he represents a lot of people who aren't bothered about the innards & the technology & just want to judge the sound which of course is what it ultimately is about, right!

Yeah, straight away he comes out and says that he's not going to rank them or really criticize them in any way. It was sort of hard to tell from first read through, but I think the only one that wasn't "highly recommended!" was the stock Hiface. It's too bad Chris at Computer Audiophile wasn't able to test the modded version in his Hiface review, as that would've been a much more worthwhile read.
 
Still, it does make me curious about the Sonicweld. A USB bus powered adaptive converter should be clearly inferior, secret sauce hardware or no, and yet he didn't seem like he was rushing to replace his with the battery mod Hiface or the supposedly ultra low jitter Audiophilleo.

 

[xdanny]

I've got one at each end. Still in the experimental stage, so I can't give an accurate report on how the sound is affected.  The 6db  ones are on their way from minicircuits, I should get them any day now.  I'll post my impressions if any after I play with them for a while...
 
Quote:

Thanks, just ordered myself 10db one.
Do you just install them on the hiface or on the other end of the SPDIF cable too?
 

 

 

[mmerrill99]

Quote:

.......... It's too bad Chris at Computer Audiophile wasn't able to test the modded version in his Hiface review, as that would've been a much more worthwhile read.
 
Still, it does make me curious about the Sonicweld. A USB bus powered adaptive converter should be clearly inferior, secret sauce hardware or no, and yet he didn't seem like he was rushing to replace his with the battery mod Hiface or the supposedly ultra low jitter Audiophilleo.

I offered one to Chris when he was doing his Hiface review a couple of months ago but he declined!
 
Dave's stated preference is the sound of adaptive USB transports -  as he stated about asynchronous "Light and airy while being very articulate with wonderful sense of detail combined with enough retrieval of ambient information to make images more 3D than 2D. While not as 'substantial' sounding as that heard from the isosynchronous Diverter nor as musically engaging in any overall sense either, even when combined with the Cardas/Black Cat cabling, converters featuring the asynchronous all sound more alike than different."

 

[xdanny]

Quote:

Yeah, straight away he comes out and says that he's not going to rank them or really criticize them in any way. It was sort of hard to tell from first read through, but I think the only one that wasn't "highly recommended!" was the stock Hiface. It's too bad Chris at Computer Audiophile wasn't able to test the modded version in his Hiface review, as that would've been a much more worthwhile read.
 
Still, it does make me curious about the Sonicweld. A USB bus powered adaptive converter should be clearly inferior, secret sauce hardware or no, and yet he didn't seem like he was rushing to replace his with the battery mod Hiface or the supposedly ultra low jitter Audiophilleo.

 
This is my impression as well.  Has anyone here had a chance to listen to the Diverter?
 

 

[baka1969]

I too would like to find an attenuator for RCA. Any suggestions please?

 

[DaveBSC]

Quote:

This is my impression as well.  Has anyone here had a chance to listen to the Diverter?
 

There are a few threads about it here, as well as some Positive Feedback reviews and such. Not too much in the way of direct comparisons though, at least not with direct rivals such as the WaveLink or the Weiss INT 202. Sonicweld is also apparently working on a complete USB DAC with volume control and a headphone output which would be a direct challenger to the Weiss DAC 202.

 

[sleepy dan]

The thing with Chord is that they actually understand what happens inside a D to A converter, to the point where they have designed their own conversion and filtering techniques.  They have some extremely clever people working for them.  Most manufacturers simply pick chips from the usual suspects (Texas Instruments, Cirrus Logic, Analog Devices, AKM etc) and put them together. 
Quote:

It can run circles around any DAC I've heard to day all day long. Quick search against this board should return you some useful hits. It's quite rare but very regarded in hi-fi circles, I have MKI (bought from UK shop) that is considered more detailed and into your face than smoothed out (rolled off) MKII, but the latest reincarnation (QBD76 ) seems to trump both (damn expensive as well).