03-Mar-2015, 19:53
(This post was last modified: 03-Mar-2015, 20:17 by Rufus McDufus.)
I can't really add much because I'm in total agreement with what Guillaume said! First off his system is sounding absolutely incredible. He's swapped Apollo for Atlantis Entreq ground cables on the Devialets since I last heard it and I was even more impressed than before.
The Akurate Exakt DSM (using Tidal) is very good but sound-quality wise my mind had already come up with a figure before I saw what Guillaume thought above - I was thinking 'this sounds like 80% of the Totaldac streaming music from a NAS'. In hindsight that might be a tiny bit on the generous side. The AEDSM had elements of that characteristic Linn sound even though it was being used merely as a transport and bypassing the DAC. It's 'polite' but also I feel like the upper and lower frequency bands are trimmed a little, particularly high frequencies. Tracks with prominent cymbals or snare on the Totaldac didn't sound prominent at all on the Linn, and practically inaudible. The Transparent Reference XL SPDIF from Linn to Devialet sounded impressive initially but the more I listened the more I thought it was enhancing bad aspects too. A Coldplay track 'Always In My Head' sounded too ethereal with the TA cable - the background choral voices were almost too prominent and it overwhelmed the track a bit, coupled with possibly a rise in noise making it more difficult to make things out. I think the TA was an improvement generally but just brought the (minor) failings of the Akurate DSM.
Back to Totaldac - just wonderful. So transparent and airy. It really is a great device!
Oh - the Entreq grounding cable on the AEDSM was the most obvious example of what grounding can do that I've heard so far. Remove the Entreq ground and the quality just collapsed over the space of about 2 seconds. Put it back and you could hear it gradually coming back again. A bigger effect than even on Devialet.
The Akurate Exakt DSM (using Tidal) is very good but sound-quality wise my mind had already come up with a figure before I saw what Guillaume thought above - I was thinking 'this sounds like 80% of the Totaldac streaming music from a NAS'. In hindsight that might be a tiny bit on the generous side. The AEDSM had elements of that characteristic Linn sound even though it was being used merely as a transport and bypassing the DAC. It's 'polite' but also I feel like the upper and lower frequency bands are trimmed a little, particularly high frequencies. Tracks with prominent cymbals or snare on the Totaldac didn't sound prominent at all on the Linn, and practically inaudible. The Transparent Reference XL SPDIF from Linn to Devialet sounded impressive initially but the more I listened the more I thought it was enhancing bad aspects too. A Coldplay track 'Always In My Head' sounded too ethereal with the TA cable - the background choral voices were almost too prominent and it overwhelmed the track a bit, coupled with possibly a rise in noise making it more difficult to make things out. I think the TA was an improvement generally but just brought the (minor) failings of the Akurate DSM.
Back to Totaldac - just wonderful. So transparent and airy. It really is a great device!
Oh - the Entreq grounding cable on the AEDSM was the most obvious example of what grounding can do that I've heard so far. Remove the Entreq ground and the quality just collapsed over the space of about 2 seconds. Put it back and you could hear it gradually coming back again. A bigger effect than even on Devialet.
