30-Aug-2014, 00:17
(30-Aug-2014, 00:05)Georgethesixth Wrote:(29-Aug-2014, 19:38)GuillaumeB Wrote: Did a little bit of experimenting with playing tracks off a USB stick, sounded equally good although didn't do any direct A/B comparisons with the NAS.
When Rufus is here tomorrow we'll look at this a bit more closely.
I did go back to A+/AIR though... and went backwards and forwards a few times.
AIR is excellent, no doubt about it. But the totaldac is bringing something extra, I'm convinced of this. The timbre of instruments seem a bit more real/live and there is a quietness (ultra black backgrounds)to the presentation which encourages the micro dynamics. It shouts a bit less at you and draws you in a bit more. I suppose the tones just feel right. The positioning of instruments seems more resolved too. There is some additional definition too, in surprising places.
Anyway I could go on and on. It's terribly subjective I know and for many AIR will be perfect, and for good reason! I thought it was pretty excellent coming from the MiND. I just think the totaldac is doing something else and it's rather special.
Guillaume
Boys and their toys btw : Are there any woman on this forum ? I thought there was a gender-gap in IT, but based on observations in this forum, HiFi is obviously worse.
On a serious note : I would really appreciate it if you could compare the sound of dedicated off-the-shelf PC/Jriver config with the Aries and the Totaldac Server.
Haha! Too true! And I'm one of the worse in case you hadn't noticed
I think Rufus has configured a PC with J River with good results... will see if there is any way he can bring this tomorrow. Otherwise it will have to be my Mac running A+ and AIR (which sounds awesome by the way!)... although I could try and download J River I guess...
Guillaume
Industry disclosure: UK distributor for Shunyata Research
220 PRO, totaldac d1 server with additional external power supply, totaldac d1-seven, Echole PSU for Totaldac, Wilson Audio Sasha 2, Shunyata Research cables, Shunyata Hydra Alpha A10 + DPC-6 v3, Various Entreq ground boxes and cables, Entreq Athena level 3 rack, 2 X SOtM sNH-10G with sCLK-EX + 10MHz Master Clock input + sPS-500 PSU, i5 sonicTransporter w/ 1TB SSD
UK