Great day out at the toy shop yesterday, lots of stuff to play with, and interesting conversations.
I’ve largely ignored the digital front end into the amp up till now, I’d been focused on finding speakers I loved for years, and replacing a pile of Naim with a 200 a few years ago was an unplanned and unexpected detour. And because it sounded amazing via USB from the silent PC I already had, and being in the bit’s are bit’s camp (as long as the DAC controls the clock) I was happy to leave it for the future whilst I continued speaker hunting. A few months ago I finally bought new (to me) speakers so paying attention to the digital front end is drifting up my priority order, so this day was good timing.
I missed some of the earlier dems with the Melcos and the stillpoints, but was there for a some of the later tests. For all these tests it should be noted this wasn’t exactly perfect dems conditions, people were coming and going, unfamiliar systems relaxed atmosphere etc, so I totally reserve my right to change my mind in the future.
Using the Aurender X100 (I think) the ‘cheap’ chord usb cable was compared to the spendy chord usb cable. I didn’t hear any difference.
Then the Aurender X100 was compared to the N10, with the expensive chord usb cable, again I didn’t hear any difference. Though there was a detour into “that’s not the same version of the track” here I think.
Then the N10 was swapped to feed the O’da via AES (using super expensive chord cable). This was interesting, there was a difference, the bass seemed ‘thumpier’ via usb, and the vocals had more presence via AES. I preferred the AES, on this track on this system, so this is definitely worthy of future investigation for me.
It wasn’t done back to back with anything but AIR3 was put on from a mac mini a bit later, and I was intrigued to think that this might be better than the other toys used before, this really did seem a tiny bit better, it had a complexity, richness and ease that seemed great to me.
At some point later Alasdair re-did the stillpoint under the N10 dem. I’m very much a non-believer in supports under components, excepting turntables, speakers and some CD players, and I’m afraid my mind wandered of and just started listening to the Radiohead track used during the dem, so I didn’t hear a difference.
The DCS, 800s and blades sounded room sounded really great. I’ve spend a fair bit of time in this room before, but have never heard any of these components before so am unable to comment on the DCS, other than to say that even with only 11/12ths of a pair of blades the sound was amazing. So I just sat there playing tracks I like, they all sounded great, and some of there recorded for less than the price of the digital cable used!
My conclusion is I need to wait for Air3, if the SQ holds up, and the reliability is there this may be all I need. And failing that it will give a real baseline for others to better.
I still largely believe that bits are bits, but the interface does seem to matter, and the DCS may have even better bits, if you can afford them.
Kevin.
I’ve largely ignored the digital front end into the amp up till now, I’d been focused on finding speakers I loved for years, and replacing a pile of Naim with a 200 a few years ago was an unplanned and unexpected detour. And because it sounded amazing via USB from the silent PC I already had, and being in the bit’s are bit’s camp (as long as the DAC controls the clock) I was happy to leave it for the future whilst I continued speaker hunting. A few months ago I finally bought new (to me) speakers so paying attention to the digital front end is drifting up my priority order, so this day was good timing.
I missed some of the earlier dems with the Melcos and the stillpoints, but was there for a some of the later tests. For all these tests it should be noted this wasn’t exactly perfect dems conditions, people were coming and going, unfamiliar systems relaxed atmosphere etc, so I totally reserve my right to change my mind in the future.
Using the Aurender X100 (I think) the ‘cheap’ chord usb cable was compared to the spendy chord usb cable. I didn’t hear any difference.
Then the Aurender X100 was compared to the N10, with the expensive chord usb cable, again I didn’t hear any difference. Though there was a detour into “that’s not the same version of the track” here I think.
Then the N10 was swapped to feed the O’da via AES (using super expensive chord cable). This was interesting, there was a difference, the bass seemed ‘thumpier’ via usb, and the vocals had more presence via AES. I preferred the AES, on this track on this system, so this is definitely worthy of future investigation for me.
It wasn’t done back to back with anything but AIR3 was put on from a mac mini a bit later, and I was intrigued to think that this might be better than the other toys used before, this really did seem a tiny bit better, it had a complexity, richness and ease that seemed great to me.
At some point later Alasdair re-did the stillpoint under the N10 dem. I’m very much a non-believer in supports under components, excepting turntables, speakers and some CD players, and I’m afraid my mind wandered of and just started listening to the Radiohead track used during the dem, so I didn’t hear a difference.
The DCS, 800s and blades sounded room sounded really great. I’ve spend a fair bit of time in this room before, but have never heard any of these components before so am unable to comment on the DCS, other than to say that even with only 11/12ths of a pair of blades the sound was amazing. So I just sat there playing tracks I like, they all sounded great, and some of there recorded for less than the price of the digital cable used!
My conclusion is I need to wait for Air3, if the SQ holds up, and the reliability is there this may be all I need. And failing that it will give a real baseline for others to better.
I still largely believe that bits are bits, but the interface does seem to matter, and the DCS may have even better bits, if you can afford them.
Kevin.
Roon, Rega P9 + Dynavector XX2Mk2 > 440 Pro > Sonus Faber Guarneri Evolution
