What is wrong with Cary as transport?

[skyline889]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Patrick82 When I used HD590 and Audigy2 it didn't sound thin, it sounded too heavy! But K1000 does sound thin, why? Because it doesn't add colorations, it shows all the problems in the system. The recordings aren't the problem, which is what most audiophiles usually complain about. My worst albums sounded better than my best albums after some upgrades. After I bought the K1000 all my albums were completely unlistenable to, I searched my collection and only found a couple albums I could listen to. I was using Benchmark DAC1. A year later of tweaking the problem was gone, all my albums were listenable to from beginning to end, there was only a slight hint of sibilance but it didn't bother me because it almost sounded perfect. And after I got the Valhalla digital cable, there is no hint of sibilance anywhere in ANY album. Nothing.

Your arguments are confusing. You're arguing two different sides of the spectrum. Yes, it's possible to add bass and warmth via coloration however, the same is true for harshness, it's not like cables and lower end components can only add bass. You can add too much detail or a harsh edge to music via coloration as well. Upgrading cabling certainly can remove some bottlenecks in a component but there are more than just cables comprising a cd player or an amplifier. There're physical limitations to the boards, chips, etc that act as bottlenecks too.

Like I said in your other thread, the primary reason why the Valhallas are so expensive is that the teflon casings that enclose the conductors are extruded by a proprietary method developed by Nordost to keep the teflon casings completely air-tight. The percentage of cables that don't meet their specs and are dumped to the percentage of accepted cables is very high which contributes to the sky high prices. By hacking off those ends and soldering them like that, you mine as well just buy something like the Red Dawn.

 

[Patrick82]

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Originally Posted by skyline889 You can add too much detail or a harsh edge to music via coloration as well.

You mean RFI/EMI, AC noise and resonance control?

 

[skyline889]

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Originally Posted by Patrick82 You mean RFI/EMI, AC noise and resonance control?

No.

 

[Tachikoma]

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Originally Posted by Patrick82 What do you think of computer as transport with EMU0404 soundcard?

nothing special. With your kind of budget I'd be using a Lynx AES16 for a transport...

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Someone says $2000 budget source is almost as good as $13 500 EMM Labs DCC2 SE (Burr Brown)

and WITHOUT THE VALHALLA CABLES TOO

Besides, you don't see us making fun of the person saying that, do you?

Quote:

Originally Posted by hungrych Someone says $2000 budget source is almost as good as $13 500 EMM Labs DCC2 SE (Burr Brown)

Thirded. If you are truly interested in finding the truth why haven't you experimented with (supposedly) better gear than the DAC-1? How can you conclude that you are paying for nothing more than extra colourations to the sound without trying it beforehand? The cary 303/300 certainly cannot represent the whole of the high-end DAC/transport industry.

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I mean why do people spend $10 000+ for a transport if something cheaper is good enough? Is it because they want the transport to be slaved to the DAC?

I have a transport that can be slaved to a DAC and it only costed me $201 shipped.

 

[humanflyz]

Patrick is beginning to remind me of a certain Doctor that it's beginning to scare me.

 

[Garbz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Patrick82 What do you think of computer as transport with EMU0404 soundcard?

Horrid. If the following DAC (and you do need one) didn't have transformer coupling and clever jitter control it would be grounds for suicide!

Lol not quite that bad. But as far as computers go I prefer my digital signals not to come from a dongle. Other than that it's a reasonably good card providing it's followed by a carefully designed dac.

 

[Patrick82]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Garbz Horrid. If the following DAC (and you do need one) didn't have transformer coupling and clever jitter control it would be grounds for suicide! Lol not quite that bad. But as far as computers go I prefer my digital signals not to come from a dongle. Other than that it's a reasonably good card providing it's followed by a carefully designed dac.

In my experience, because I have actually tried it. Computer isn't bad at all if there is clean power. The difference between power cords feeding the computer is bigger than for other components! Someone told me and I didn't believe, but then I tried it myself and now I hear the truth!

With Nordost Valhalla power cord and PS Audio Power Plant they all sound the same, DACs, transports, amps, CD players. They aren't perfect, but the difference between them is way too small to be worth it. I'm talking 1/20th of the difference than between Nordost Vishnu and Valhalla!

I'm just wondering if I should keep my Cary transport or sell it for 1/3 of price and use computer instead. Cary is little better yes, but it's only a significant difference. The same difference as normal audiophiles call "huge". But myself I only care about night and day improvements, anything else is just a waste of time.
The Cary also has upsampling that outputs up to 192kHz through the digital out, it's much smoother and "musical" but it's not that important to me. Computer is good enough. But the problem is I would need to use an RCA adapter to use my AES/EBU Valhalla digital cable. With the Cary I don't have that problem.

 

[Jahn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Garbz Horrid. If the following DAC (and you do need one) didn't have transformer coupling and clever jitter control it would be grounds for suicide! Lol not quite that bad. But as far as computers go I prefer my digital signals not to come from a dongle. Other than that it's a reasonably good card providing it's followed by a carefully designed dac.

oh yeah, i forgot to add that my 0404 dongle does indeed go out to a carefully designed external DAC

that said, i think my whole rig costs less than one of patrick's power cords, so he might want to think about a beefier source than the one i use.

 

[Tachikoma]

Quote:

In my experience, because I have actually tried it. Computer isn't bad at all if there is clean power. The difference between power cords feeding the computer is bigger than for other components! Someone told me and I didn't believe, but then I tried it myself and now I hear the truth!

Good for you. Now ditch that sorry excuse of a soundcard and get something with wordclock in/out

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But the problem is I would need to use an RCA adapter to use my AES/EBU Valhalla digital cable. With the Cary I don't have that problem.

There are soundcards that can use AES/EBU cables... or if they can't use the AES/EBU cable (like the LynxTwo/L22) you could rebuild the breakout cable with valhalla cables

 

[Patrick82]

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Originally Posted by Tachikoma Good for you. Now ditch that sorry excuse of a soundcard and get something with wordclock in/out

Benchmark DAC1 doesn't have wordclock.

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Originally Posted by Tachikoma There are soundcards that can use AES/EBU cables... or if they can't use the AES/EBU cable (like the LynxTwo/L22) you could rebuild the breakout cable with valhalla cables

Last time I looked a Lynx card had 2 meter long breakout cable. I didn't think about rebuilding it though. Isn't the impedance going to be messed up when hardwiring the digital cable there? Or does the 110ohms stay without the XLR connector in the path? I guess the breakout cable is going to mess it up anyway. But then I can't upgrade my $2k Valhalla to $7k Tara Labs Zero Digital cable because I can't remove the vacuum connectors on those!

 

[lan]

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Originally Posted by Patrick82 Computer isn't bad at all if there is clean power.

It doesn't matter though because the computer outputs non clean power. You need to mod your PSU, motherboard, soundcard, and any other external devices.

 

[lan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Patrick82 Computer isn't bad at all if there is clean power.

It doesn't matter though because the computer outputs non clean power. You need to mod your PSU, motherboard, soundcard, and any other external devices.

 

[Meyvn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Patrick82 If you want to save some money, get Benchmark DAC1 and $30 000 worth of cables instead of cheap cables and a million dollar source. It will also sound better!

Wow. Just wow.

 

[Patrick82]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lan It doesn't matter though because the computer outputs non clean power. You need to mod your PSU, motherboard, soundcard, and any other external devices.

How? I'm using Antec Phantom PSU, it's supposed to be efficient.
I can hear a difference when plugging it into wall, Ultimate Outlet, Power Plant, and demagnetizing it.

Do the devices put back noise into the PSU?

 

[Computerpro3]

Efficiency has nothing to do with it really.

Look, I know what I'm doing when it comes to computer power supply design (google computerpro3 and psu). I have modified and cracked open probably 90% of the good brand's models out there. I can tell you right now that it's physically impossible that you hear a difference. Computer power supplies introduce a tremendous amount of noise into the voltage lines on their own - it doesn't matter if they get the cleanest power in the world, the unit itself will pollute it. Period. I use $500 Pc Power and Cooling and Zippy/Emacs supplies, the two cleanest and most stable units in the world. And I can tell you that there is still dirty power and RF coming out of them.