Violectric DAC V850 - General Discussion and Impressions Thread
Feb 24, 2018 at 7:49 AM Post #406 of 588
And yes you can also use the RS 04 with the Tenor 24/96 board to record into your computer.
Actually, I used Tenor 24/192 for input with RS 05 until High Sierra update which made this impossible to use.
This expirement was made with built-in toslink output and the USB input of RS 05:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/vio...pressions-thread.761936/page-21#post-13745157
But it worked as input with some magic only (additional USB 2.0 hub).
Otherwise there was some clicks and pops at the input (maybe due to synchronization, maybe due to another reason, probably strange behaviour of some USB 2.0 devices on the modern OS X).
Interesting, is this the reason why 24/96 board only is capable to work for both input and output, and other boards are only for output?
 
Feb 24, 2018 at 9:07 AM Post #407 of 588
Anytime I've experienced clicks and pops in the studio it was always conflicting word clocks that were not synchronized. You can only have one master clock or you will always have issues. I believe the Tenor 24/96 can send a clock signal in either direction and simultaneously.

Apple has broke so many audio interfaces with their latest updates. It's just a disappointing mess. Maybe it's time to try a Linux system for recording?
 
Feb 24, 2018 at 9:24 AM Post #408 of 588
Maybe it's time to try a Linux system for recording?
Or to install Windows instead of OS X. I'm thinking about that actually :)

Anytime I've experienced clicks and pops in the studio it was always conflicting word clocks that were not synchronized.
This is why I asked my questions. But in the case of my experiment it does not matter, because I used input as a master clock, and the playback was performed from another application without using USB at all. So here may be some trouble with the drivers and interactions with the OS. I had the same issues with E-MU 0404 USB for example (but in both directions). It worked fine on the previous OS X versions. Actually the playback with the TENOR 8802 worked without any problem. But the new OS X just does not show this device at all. Even when I manually remove the driver from the system. Setup installs the driver, tells everything is okay, and that's all :)
 
Mar 2, 2018 at 12:25 AM Post #409 of 588
...
Now Fried being a man of measurements found this not only surprising but also troublesome since the audible difference can not be measured. It just goes to show there are still many details like imaging and sound stage that are very hard if not impossible to measure. These discernible differences are still very difficult to quantify. They may be small improvements or changes but it really does all add up in the end.
...).

Ah, my favorite topic... the measurement!! I posted this a couple of times on the other threads - well never really picked up the attentions. Here we go again.

Most current audio measure devices in my humble opinion can only provide the basis line. Can it measure the difference between correctly soldered and incorrectly soldered cable? If answer is yes - maybe those toys have picked up a long way over the years. If answer is still no - well.. my test equipment 17 years ago was already able to pick up such differences. I used to test multi million dollar telecommunication equipment, and the testing devices I used were in priced very high (hard to remember - but north of 25k). Such device was able to pick up a difference in a signal quality from incorrectly soldered cables or cables with damaged PVC cover. I still remember being amazed one day by the fact it picked up an 1/6 inch hole in 50 feet cable. The ground shield were perfect, but PVC cover had a very small hole. Still, the testing equipment picked up the degradation in the signal quality coming from the electro magnetic noise. Most audio equipment testing devices I have seen so far were not even able to pick up any difference from shielded cable vs not shield / soldered vs not. I'm not really sure what those equipment really do.. Anyway, sorry but in my humble opinion - such devices are more of a toy than a scientific device. I glad you mentioned imaging/soundstage. Because to my knowledge as well that the most audio test devices still cannot measure the difference in a soundstage. Well.. we all know the soundstage exist and actually it's the imaging/soundstage for me which sets TOTL from the rest. That's one of the reason I love v281. If a device cannot measure soundstage, it doesn't mean a difference in soundstage doesn't exist. It does mean that our ears are far more sensitive than what some early scientist have claimed. I once fasted more than 7 days. We learnt that a dog has a 100x better nose than a human, right? Well I tell you that our nose may not be as good as a dog's but it's pretty darn close if you go hungry for 7 days. Our ears are the same. Do you know if you go into a total sound isolation chamber that your ears can hear the heart beat of a person standing 6 feet away from you as long as your heart does not beat? My point is our ears are far more capable than some of those early published theories.

Sorry for being lengthy - just happen to be one of my favorite topic. :)
 
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Mar 4, 2018 at 4:51 PM Post #410 of 588
2391921C-6D00-455F-9005-A52F53B5F76A.jpeg C6B785A3-BEFC-4E9F-95B5-39DF10AC2D3B.jpeg 836B434D-EA59-4651-8858-3B402989F2EE.jpeg 180716 Update:
Visited Lake People last weekend and went home with a Violectric V850.

At home I played around with some audio units and I’m very happy that I found the best sounding digital source setup I ever owned:

Auralic Altair => Aqvox USB => ifi iUSB 3.0 (with external powersupply ((a similar one to the S-Booster)) => Curious USB Link => Violectric V850 DAC = fantastic, organic, sparkling and silky sound with a deep 3 dimensional stage.

Thx Fried!!! - Who knows, maybe
I’ll come back one day to pick up one of your fantastic sounding Niimbus gears.
 
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Jul 17, 2018 at 7:53 PM Post #411 of 588
Finally back on the forums after a long while. I'm very happy to see continuing activity in this thread and satisfied customers posting about their purchases. I'm still a satisfied Violectric customer myself :).


After many months of investing my idle time in the (nearly) defunct winamp milkdrop visualizer, I grew bored with it and found that having visuals on the screen actually takes away from the music and makes critical listening a lot more difficult. So, I may not have grown as much as I otherwise would in being able to evaluate sonic differences between equipment. Still, it is interesting to note how the brain over time unconsciously works to improve its aptitudes in the absence of associated stimulation or practice.


Returning back to my audiophile interests, I was surprised to see after all this time how I could hear a noticable difference between my RS 05 -> V850 -> V281 and old Schiit Bifrost Uber -> Lyr 2 w/ 6H23p (sp?) tubes. I didn't do a strict comparison to determine the difference the RS 05 itself was making, but having this Violectric setup makes for some amazing "wow!" moments when critically listening. Coming from a relatively large HT-Omega sound card for around $150 to a $1k to a dedicated setup acclaimed for its price/performance by the well-reknown Schiit audio, I really get the sense of "upgrade" or "quality" with my Violectric setup at over 5x the cost of my Schiit setup (excluding headphones in the setup). Feeling it now again, now I understand why I was experiencing audio nirvana. Music was great with the Schiit setup, but it didn't take me to the next league like Violectric one did. Its hard to describe for me really. Like the Lyr 2 / Bifrost were, the Violectric setup is said to perform above its price point. After this break and being in the audiophile market for only a couple or so of years, I can still say that what the Violectric setup has done for me was completely unexpected. I wasn't expecting a significantly different experience listening to the same songs on different setups. After all, diminishing returns, right?


Yes, there is indeed diminishing return on investment with respect to functionality of the setup. The least you could pay for audio is nothing, and you will have nothing. But wait, pay just $50 and get a set of ear buds and a cheap portable audio player. The return on investment here is infinitely more than the next rung down. Now, upgrading to a 300 dollar setup from a reputable company, the sound is distinctly better but not as much as going from having no sound to entry level, and paying $1000 is yields even less distinctly better sound than from $50 to $300.

But, the overall presentation of the sound may make for a dramatically more immersive experience. What if you're playing a video game, and 5% of the geometry is missing. It could be the most graphically impressive experience ever, second only to reality, except that there is a hole in the terrain where a cave or a structure should be. That's what we call a buzz kill, and this is where being really close to perfect, natural, and complete counts even if the returns diminish. My Violectric setup is the extra 10 - 15% that my music has been missing with my still very pleasant Schiit setup. What was missing primarily from the Schiit stack was a crisp clarity and a totally-extended, extremely immersive depth of succulent naturalness.


The headphones I used were the Beyerdynamic T90's, Amiron Home, Grado SR 325e, Sennheiser HD 598SE's, HD 600. The SR 325e’s, T90’s, 598SE’s, and 600’s paired very well with the Violectric setup. The best pairings were the SR 325e’s, HD 600’s and the HD 598SE’s. The Amiron Home did not seem to pair well, blurry and smeared compared to the T90's.
 
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Jul 18, 2018 at 6:25 AM Post #412 of 588
The HD 600 is a respectable headphone, I suggest moving up the HD800 with the SDR mod and reaping even more benefits of your setup.
 
Jul 18, 2018 at 11:46 AM Post #413 of 588
Thanks for the speedy reply Fegefeuer :). Yes, I am indeed looking to make those headphones a part of my collection since last Christmas, but I probably won't be able to get the HD 800 / S until around next Christmas though. Still nice that I'm impressed as I am and haven't yet reaped the full potential of what I've got :D.
 
Jul 18, 2018 at 10:17 PM Post #414 of 588
Ah yes, I was rereading through the thread and came across zhgutov's oversampling trick. I can't find any resampling software, at least not the kind I was looking for - real-time instead.of file conversion. To emulate a ladder DAC like yggdrasil, would it just be best instead to use the RS 05 to resample or should I track down a software program?

In the meantime i'll be listening for any changes to the sound between 44.1 and 176khz (or should I resample at 88.2).
 
Jul 19, 2018 at 3:43 AM Post #415 of 588
uy the RS05 and leave the software to do nothing other than bit-perfect ASIO or WASAPI. I'm not at a fan at all of software changing my music output. Only use software like EQ APO for using special software like HeSuVi or enabling systemwide plugins like Audeze Reveal.

Yaggy can't be emulated via software, the closed form filter of Schiit is unique and amazing at that.
 
Jul 19, 2018 at 11:58 AM Post #416 of 588
I'm thinking about possibly going to the "land of the light" and splurging on a yggy, but how much of a difference can I expect while already owning a reference-grade world-class RS 05 -> v850 -> v281? I'm asking anyone who would know. Should I even bother, already owning the RS 05 / v850 combo? I'm already very impressed with what I have, would upgrading (assuming that the yaggy would indeed be an improvement) the DAC make me even more impressed? Would it be a sound that I haven't even dreamed of yet (yes, I've never been to a good live performance)?

I know I'm already saving up for the HD 800S Fegefeuer recommended me, so any other upgrade to my signal chain will come next, but in the spirit of there eventually being an even better Yggdrasil v2 (the upgrade is already available for v1 owners), would it be so much better than the v850 that it would be in a completely different league? Even though I have reference grade world class equipment, I probably have a mid-fi understanding of being able to perceive sonic differences.
 
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Jul 19, 2018 at 4:05 PM Post #417 of 588
I'm thinking about possibly going to the "land of the light" and splurging on a yggy, but how much of a difference can I expect while already owning a reference-grade world-class RS 05 -> v850 -> v281? I'm asking anyone who would know. Should I even bother, already owning the RS 05 / v850 combo? I'm already very impressed with what I have, would upgrading (assuming that the yaggy would indeed be an improvement) the DAC make me even more impressed? Would it be a sound that I haven't even dreamed of yet (yes, I've never been to a good live performance)?

I know I'm already saving up for the HD 800S Fegefeuer recommended me, so any other upgrade to my signal chain will come next, but in the spirit of there eventually being an even better Yggdrasil v2 (the upgrade is already available for v1 owners), would it be so much better than the v850 that it would be in a completely different league? Even though I have reference grade world class equipment, I probably have a mid-fi understanding of being able to perceive sonic differences.

Personally I wish you will go ahead with it and let us know how Yggy 2 compares to V850 + RS 05 for a very selfish reason. :) But to be honest I haven't heard either but I will be surprised if Yggy 2 happens to be a substantial upgrade. If you decided Yggy 2 is 'not' within 15 days you can return it. If Yggy 2 happen to be better, then please shoot me a PM and we can negotiate on V850+RS 05. I'm a hard bargainer by the way. :)
 
Jul 19, 2018 at 7:44 PM Post #418 of 588
Sure thing BLacklWf :), but I'm not sure yet on whether I would want to keep both the yggy and the violectric gear. And, unfortunately, I may not be able to afford the yggy until by Christmas :triportsad:. In any case, I'll check with my parents and see if they can extend me a loan to get it sooner :).

Cheers :beerchug: and thanks for the interest :)!
 
Jul 25, 2018 at 12:29 PM Post #420 of 588
As far as I know there isn't one, only Lake People - Germany and Violectric - USA. But IIRC Violectric products are assembled and shipped in Germany, so you might be able to get in contact with Arthur or Fried and get your gear direct from Germany :).
 

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