[Demolition]

Quote:

Originally Posted by momerath Can anyone comment on their listening experience with the PACE (or any ppa with an aos dac) yet? I know at least one poster in this thread has a PACE by now and another said they would be hearing it at a meet. I'm hoping to buy one this month, and some glowing reviews would make parting with the money much easier

There might be some comments about aos' Grand PACE, PACE w/Diamond Buffer, standard PPA, and Piccolo DAC in the Vancouver Head-Fi Meet thread. I don't think they're very detailed comments, though. So, I'll jot down some impressions of aos' products here:

The PACE is a phenomenal amp/DAC combo. Very open-sounding with excellent clarity and resolution. I heard it with a Meridian 507 and with aos' modded Sony CE-775, and the overall sound quality was excellent.

The Grand PACE was a bit of a work in progress (basically a bunch of PCBs hanging out of an open Hammond case), but its sound was reminiscient of the regular PACE -- natural, clear, and with a nice wide soundstage. When complete, it will be a sought-after product with its USB DAC and other cool features.

The Piccolo was perhaps the most surprising of aos' products. I listened to it with everything from PCDPs and iPods to full-sized CDPs and with several amps and, basically, it made everything that it was connected to sound good. Personally, I think that the Piccolo is a real winner. In my opinion, its tiny size (only about 3" L x 2" W x 1" H, as I recall), great sound, and reasonable price make it a very desirable product.

D.

 

[commando]

I was talking to MisterX today, who has my aos DAC which he's building into a PPA for me. He said he did a quick listen test, and the sound quality was better than his moddedd ART DI/O. So when I have that, a PPA with black gates and a CD3K optimised diamond buffer, things should sound pretty good

 

[adhoc]

Quote:

Originally Posted by commando ...a CD3K optimised diamond buffer, things should sound pretty good

a diamond buffer optimised for the cd3k?

i'm curious, tell me more - i dont see how you can optimise that for a specific headphone.

 

[xtreme4099]

creator the diamond buffer from larocco who owns cd3k's has voiced them as such.

 

[commando]

Quote:

Originally Posted by adhoc a diamond buffer optimised for the cd3k? i'm curious, tell me more - i dont see how you can optimise that for a specific headphone.

Don't ask me, I just take the advice of clever people. Take a look here and you'll know as much as me.

 

[adhoc]

Quote:

Originally Posted by commando Don't ask me, I just take the advice of clever people. Take a look here and you'll know as much as me.

oh!

so it's just a buffer for all low impedance phones! i was under the impression that it was something for just the cd3k.

thanks anyway mate.

 

[Zoide]

I'm not asking for any specific builder names (in case they mind), but what is the usual price of a AOS DAC daughterboard? If, for example, you send your PPA to have the AOS installed on it? How much of a difference would it make from, say, listening from the analog out of a Toshiba 3960 to listening to it through the AOS?

Thanks.

 

[ipodstudio]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zoide I'm not asking for any specific builder names (in case they mind), but what is the usual price of a AOS DAC daughterboard? If, for example, you send your PPA to have the AOS installed on it? How much of a difference would it make from, say, listening from the analog out of a Toshiba 3960 to listening to it through the AOS? Thanks.

I think the AOS DAC now costs around $230 plus work.

 

[commando]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zoide I'm not asking for any specific builder names (in case they mind), but what is the usual price of a AOS DAC daughterboard? If, for example, you send your PPA to have the AOS installed on it? How much of a difference would it make from, say, listening from the analog out of a Toshiba 3960 to listening to it through the AOS? Thanks.

My PPA with AOS DAC is arriving some time within the next week, so i'll post impressions in a week or so. I can compare the output of my Sonica with the DAC.

 

[sbulack]

Quote:

Originally Posted by commando My PPA with AOS DAC is arriving some time within the next week, so i'll post impressions in a week or so. I can compare the output of my Sonica with the DAC.

Anything of note to report? I'd really like to get your comparison of the Sonica with the DAC. Thanks.

 

[commando]

I've only had the PPA/DAC/Diamond buffer for a few hours, so I don't think it'd fair to comment much on it yet. I can hear it improving the more I use it (burn in), or at least I can imagine i'm hearing an improvement.

The PPA doesn't seem to like accepting the analog out of the Sonica, so i'm having to compare Sonica Analog/Pimeta with Sonica Digital/Dac/PPA, so it's probably not a fair comparison. The only comments i'll make now are that it seems a little clearer, a more bass from the CD3k, but not so much of an improvement as I expected after shelling out this sort of money.

If you bump the thread in a couple of days i'll tell you what I think after a bit of burn-in time.

 

[momerath]

Quote:

Originally Posted by commando If you bump the thread in a couple of days i'll tell you what I think after a bit of burn-in time.

Please do

 

[commando]

I'm not quite ready to give an opinion, i'll post in a couple of days when i've had a bit more time to compare it.

 

[aos]

I also have a Sonica and I find it problematic at times, e.g. often it creates intermittent problems preventing it to be used in RMAA measurements with its optical out. USB 1.1 is taxed out by streaming 16/44 audio so depending on what else is in our PCs the audio quality can degrade. Using analog out of Sonica could also create trouble if the power supply of the amp (PPA or whatever) is not floating in relation to computer ground - ground loops occur. I usually use laptop running on batteries if I want to measure anything with Sonica but again I'm having problems with USB bandwidth. It probably depends on the chipset of the motherboard, whether you use a hub or not, what else is plugged in there etc. I know some people have managed to get Sonica to be bit-perfect but on my system that's a challenge.

 

[jboehle]

I too have had many problems with my M-Audio Transit. It is very dependent on having enough CPU power in reserve to stream the audio, and as a software developer, I use my CPU pretty intensively in other applications...causing music to skip, crackle, and pop all the time - quite an annoying problem. I am considering selling it and trying an Echo PCMCIA card - any opinions on that card? It's supposed to have very little CPU usage requirements.

Do the M-Audio USB solutions perform better with USB2.0?

-Jason