@thumb5 The environment is my living room for both the hifi setups, and I purposely left out the equipment brands as to not have anyone be disposed to equipment bias. I agree with you that our brains can trick us with expectation bias as well as something that sounds different might initially be perceived as better. Therefore the need for A/B/X is a must.
But I have listened to this Power/Pre combination with a different "cheaper" DAC before in my living room on my speakers and that combination could not compete with the Devialet when it came to unraveling complex musical passages. However this changed with the substitution of the R2R DAC. I was surprised or rather taken aback as to how the Power/Pre leapfrogged the Devialet with the above change.
Till that time I had been quiet satisfied with how complex classical music of the type "Lisa Batiashvili- Daniel Barenboim: Tchaikovsky, Sibelius: Violin Concertos" sounded on the Devialet.
As a last note the room is treated with a mixture of absorption and diffusion panels.
But I have listened to this Power/Pre combination with a different "cheaper" DAC before in my living room on my speakers and that combination could not compete with the Devialet when it came to unraveling complex musical passages. However this changed with the substitution of the R2R DAC. I was surprised or rather taken aback as to how the Power/Pre leapfrogged the Devialet with the above change.
Till that time I had been quiet satisfied with how complex classical music of the type "Lisa Batiashvili- Daniel Barenboim: Tchaikovsky, Sibelius: Violin Concertos" sounded on the Devialet.
As a last note the room is treated with a mixture of absorption and diffusion panels.
SOtM sMS-200-Ultra, SOtM sPS-500, Melco N1A, Rega RP8 (Exact 2), Core Infinity D440 Pro (2 x D220 Pro), Audioquest Diamond Ethernet, USB, Audioquest Castle Rock, Sonus Faber Olympica I.
