HiFi Subjectivist ¦ Audio Forum ¦ NVA User Group

Very interesting, maybe not for the less is more purists amongst us but definitely worth a few minutes of your time.

Good DAC testing and then some

Just had a bit of a DAC reshuffle and did some comparative listening to a few devices, which has mainly served to fire up a spate of upgradeitis and got me wondering about adding another DAC to the arsenal.

1) Office setup: Topping D30 vs Cambridge DacMagic Plus & SBooster LPSU. The Dacmagic wins with a full, rich SQ. Meatier and better defined. Should do at (more than) 5x the price and the Cambridge has a good headphone amp built-in, handy here.





2) Lounge headphone rig: Topping D30 vs TeraDak 4.1. This is the TeraDak unit with 8 TDA1543 chips and an external 30W LPSU. A critical listening setup this with a streaming Volumio PC outputting USB via a Schiit Wyrd. Then from the DAC to Schiit Magni3 amp and AQ NightOwl cans. The Topping was sounding good here but the TeraDak has its refined smoothness and crystalline imaging in play and really reveals the fine detail with enjoyable punch and emotive flow.
The D30 moved into the bedroom system with an Allo DigiOne, Sansui AU 217 and NVA Cube3's. Sounds really good here and not particularly different from the TeraDak 4.1.



3) Main system: Metrum Musette vs TeraDak 4.5 Chameleon. The bigger TeraDak with 16 TDA1543 chips and the same model outboard LPSU. Wasn't easy to do a direct comparison on USB as Volumio streamers simply refuse to connect to the Metrum USB interface. So I tried SPDIF coax from the CXC CD transport. The Musette displayed a wide soundstage and big woolly bass. A hefty, full sound but lacking subtlety and involvement. The Chameleon has a narrower soundstage but far better detail and tonal balance.
Going back to USB on the TeraDak it sounding slightly better than the coax input, but still a bit indecisive. Remembering that I had changed the input settings in Volumio when trying to access the Metrum, I switched the Resampler function back on, set it to 24bit, 96KHz output and 'very high' quality. That sorted things out and everything went back to being absolutely wonderful again.
The Musette has returned to the non-critical-listening installation in the lounge with a Sonos Connect, vintage NVA amps and Arcam One speakers - it does sound glorious there.





There are 2 DACs out there that have my attention at the moment and hopefully after the lockdown ends I'll have some funds again. These are the Schiit Bifrost 2 and the Denafrips Ares II. It looks as it these both can switch between NOS and oversampling processing with different filters being involved. Prices here are €850 for the Bifrost and €650 for the Ares - although Schiit are having supply difficulties and a Denafrips will need to be ordered direct from Singapore.





So it's back to just enjoying what I have and dreaming of things that may come ...

... after the Lockdown blues have ended.

Intresting to see that most expensive unit gets least wanted position...

Mr Fretless

Don't forget the Musician Pegasus, a little more money than the Denafrips, but a review I saw gave it to the Pegasus, pacier and more detail, and it looks better too.

I find all this DAC talk darn intriguing, but I have to admit to ignorance about a great deal of the modern DACs. I owned my previous DAC for 12 years, and it was a multi bit machine based on the Burr Brown PCM 1704. Eventually I had to add a Singxer SU1 USB/SPDIF converter so I could hook up to a computer. I enjoyed the sound of the Kukama for a lot of years, and really saw no reason to change.

As a lark I decided to buy a DAC from a company called Mivera Audio, but it came off the used market. The build information as follows sort of sucked me in

Furutech IEC
Custom SMPS from Sanken
Belleson SPZ regulators
LT3042 regulators for each component of the dac board
AKM 4490 dac in fixed DSD bypass mode
Single NDK NZ2520SD in 22.579Mhz clock with very low phase noise
Weiss BP OP2 op amps biased in Pure Class A (4 of them - about $700 alone)
Neotech UPOCC silver output wiring
USB input and XLR outputs

So far I don't have all the kinks worked out. Its supposed to be optimized for DSD 256, but the computer needs to upsample to that output, and supposedly Roon will do that. But Roon costs stupid money. I have Audirvana playing now, and it cannot upsample to DSD 256 without a lot of background noise. I can get it to DSD128 or PCM 352.6 , and both sound pretty good. It wont upsample DSD 64 to 256 either. I bought a new computer to do this also, an Intel Nuc with 10th gen i7 CPU and 16 GB of RAM.

But like I said I am pretty ignorant of this new fangled DAC stuff. I have yet to figure out why one would want a non over sampling DAC chip also, yet apparently they are well regarded. I do wish I knew more rather than just buying on rep. Case in point, there was one review over on head hifi that spoke very highly of the Mivera unit, and some other owner associated posts that also did so. Yet afterwards I come across a post on ASR that is scathing on build quality, and some of the design selections. Gives me all sorts of internal doubt, and perhaps I bought something I really should have known better not to. Unfortunately I have just not stayed current on digital technology, and now am paying the price. So I really appreciate tagging along and seeing what you guys get accomplished.

Antonio:

Thanks for mentioning the Musician Pegasus. Had a look at it and it is a real contender. Funny thing is that some people think it is a modified Denafrips Ares as the internals appear to come from the same OEM source.

Neonknight:

For your DSD you could try a temporary installation of Volumio (free) from a USB stick. I have it on an Intel i7 PC and upsampling in the computer is no problem.

As to NOS via oversampling. To my ears the non-oversampling and R2R DACs have a more naturaL, analogue-like character free from the edginess and artificiality of some digital processors.
But things are constantly progressing in DAC land and it's difficult to keep up. Looks like the best value devices are coming out of China at the moment.

Sorry to drag the thread into the gutter (he lied) but I once misread Denafrips Ares as Denafrips Arse, and now I cannot unsee that, every time it's mentioned.

Back to the thread. Hopefully writing it down will have exorcised that particular demon for me. Of course, it's possible I've just passed the curse on....

@fretless

Sure I will give Volumino a trial. Are you saying you are able to upsample 16/44.1 to DSD 256? That would be awesome if possible, as I cannot do that in Audirvana. When I had my Kukama hooked up I would use Pure Music, however that program never would interface with Qobuz, and had no upsampling options. Very nice sound in terms of redbook cd playback though, but it was unstable as heck and would shut down if I let it idle for awhile. I have hooked my Kukama back into the system while using Audirvana and not achieved the same sound quality, so I wonder if its a limitation in the music program.

A basic install of Volumino looks to be affordable, at least on a yearly fee of roughly $50 USD, while the purchase price is equal or more expensive than Roon. At least that is how I read it.

Regarding the DACs coming out of China, the Topping D90 seems to be the darling, and is not terribly expensive in terms of what audio equipment can cost. In the US there seems to be a well regarded brand called Holo Audio, which is sold by Kitsune Audio USA. Not cheap stuff though, but seems to be considered "upper tier" componentry? Hate the idea of spending money on it and not really knowing the marketplace. Which is why I purchased the Mivera off the used market, in order to get an understanding of these new fangled DACs. I admit to being a long time analog user, and one thing I find is if I buy a pre-owned bit of analog stuff, if I do it right I recover my funds whenever I move it on. Digital seems to be a venue for a person to turn a large pile of money into a smaller pile after a few years.

Quite a few people use HQ Player to upsample...