Soekris "dac1541": DAC/Amp - Stream of Consciousness Impressions

Discussion in 'Headphone Amplifiers and Combo (DAC/Amp) Units' started by Torq, Jul 27, 2017.

  1. Metro

    Metro Friend

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    I didn't see this in the manual until tonight — a very pleasant surprise for me! @soekris, you should add this to the specs.
     
  2. porkfriedpork

    porkfriedpork Friend

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    Ide be in for sure on dac1521 group buy.
     
  3. Forza AudioWorks

    Forza AudioWorks MOT: Forza AudioWorks

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    Still wondering if I should.
     
  4. GoodEnoughGear

    GoodEnoughGear Evil Dr. Shultz‎

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    Soekris DAC1541 Review

    Review Disclosure:

    I bought this, so I'm reviewing it. I submitted Marvey's disclosure form wherever the hell that goes.

    Review validity:
    I don't have a lot of gear. I've been dicking with lots of digital EQ and that's really helped me learn to listen. I don't have golden ears as far as I can tell. I don't like sibilance.

    Review modus operandi:
    There are plenty of measurements and expert opinion on this DAC, so these are my impressions based on casual (normal) listening. I didn't built a faraday cage or meditate in a pyramid or triangulate my Feng Shui or any of that shit.

    Review gear:
    Genelec 8030B with 7050B sub (analog class AB not the new digital class D stuff) Balanced, Sennheiser HD6XX Balanced, CA Andromeda SE.

    EQ:
    Sonarworks 4.0 custom calibration for the monitors, averaged profile for HD6XX and none for the Andros. I have elected to avoid mucking with DMG Equilibrium so far to keep the evaluation simple. DMG sounds better than Sonarworks IMO, but it takes a bunch of CPU and my machine chokes on Hi-Res with the settings I run.

    Relative evaluation:
    LH Labs GO2A SE Balanced and SE running the same gear above. I have no Schiit or toobs. Sorry.

    -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    TL;DR:
    This is a clear and significant step up from the GO2A SE. The tone, clarity and detail are superb, the filters are usefully different and as an all-in-one type device I don't believe it has a peer anywhere near its price point. In fact I'm not sure it does at double the price point.

    With the Genelecs it is exceptionally clear, with taught, controlled bass, gorgeous mids and clean, clear highs without aggravating sibilance. As importantly it has an analogue sound that brings out the natural timbre of instruments and voices and brings a substance to the music that was missing.

    For harder to drive headphones you probably want a separate amp, but even with the HD6XX it's punching well above the Geek and sounds great. With an easier to drive neutral headphone I think it would really shine - maybe a Focal Clear.

    With Andromedas the DAC1541 is nothing short of f'ing stellar. You can add a lot of fucks to that and still fall short of how good it is.

    The Review:

    On the Genelcs and source material in detail:


    The Gennies are the easiest transducers for me to hear differences in sound, with Andros a close second. They are less forgiving than the Andros, though, so shit sounds shit, good stuff sounds good. I don't believe they are sibilant, but they show it up mercilessly where the Andros are a lot kinder, and they have pushed my sibilance button with several recordings and make them unpleasant with the GO2ASE.

    Firstly the Gennies are dead silent at full volume with the DAC1541. That is impressive. Even running SE off the GO2A SE they still had a slight hiss where balanced due to ground issues there was a distinct buzz at 6 inches away.

    I must give LH Labs a nod for how good the GO2A SE does sound with good recordings. They do an impressive job for the size. That said, my primary interest in comparison was to see how the DAC1541 handled sibilant material vs the GO2A SE, so I loaded up my nemesis, Bruce Hornsby and the Range - The way it is/On the Western Skyline.

    Halleluja, Bruce's hayseed has been unpicked from between his front teeth! The sibilance isn't gone (it's baked into the recording) but listening to it now I can get into the music without every "s" leaping out at me like a sheepdog whistle. There's also a crashiness that's gone and a fullness or weight to the music that wasn't there before, and a noticeable clarity and sense of detail that immediately distinguishes itself from what I hear as a kind of cellophane digital edginess on the Geek. I can hear that the Geek's cellophane effect can make it seem more detailed than it is vs the Soekris. Also I'm using the soft Butterworth filter here.

    My next test track is David Gray - Mutineers/Cake and Eat It. This is a well recorded (IMO) track with a certain chuffing kind of sound in the midbass in the opening, like the sound of a gust of wind filling a closed room that provides the rhythm in the opening passage. The chuffing nature is something that can easily get lost, and I was super happy to hear it loud and clear. Finally I was hearing on the monitors what I hear on the Andros out of the Geek. Guitar plucks are exquisitely clear and sound more 'real' and there is more separation between instruments, like they stand out in relief.

    Next up is my sibilance antidote, Mark Knopfler - Kill to get Crimson/The Scaffolder's wife (and in fact the entire album). This album sounds great on the Gennies with the Geek, so I was thinking it would be too warm on the Soekris. And indeed there is a syrupiness to the mids that comes through now that seems less clear than with the Geek. Not bad at all and the Soekris' clarity is still there, but the Geek seemed to serve that recording better. So I cycled through the filters to get a bit more 'edge' back and voila! the green filter brings out the crispness again. This is the first time I have actually used a filter to tweak the sound on the DAC (in DMG there are a lot of filter tweaks that I do use to be fair) and it was a welcome option.

    Lastly some Sara Bareilles live. The piano is deep and sounds organic, I can hear the wood and the reverberation in the bass like I'm in the same room with it. I finally understand what digititus is, and this is beautifully devoid of it vs the GO2A SE.

    On Andromeda:

    The Soekris seems to be the perfect match on paper, with Zout of 1.5 SE and 3 ohm balanced. I don't have a balanced adapter to go to 4-pin XLR so this one is SE. Holy balls the Andro's are <edit>they DO hiss after checking again, but pretty low. Didn't notice it first time 'round</edit> almost hiss-free and sound better than I've ever heard them. They are fantastically clear and articulate, and I immediately just get lost in the music and forget to 'listen' at all. Again I have few references but this clearly takes a big step up from the GO2A SE. I'd love to borrow a ZX2 because I think this may just be the Andro's perfect pairing - they just sound f'ing amazing out of this device.

    On HD6XX:

    I mentioned in a drunkpost that they sounded very meh out of the DAC1541 but I suspected I had done something silly with the EQ and I was right. I hadn't flipped Sonarworks from the monitor calibration to the HD650 averaged profile, and they are pretty opposite with SonarWorks taking a good chunk of bass out to tame the 7050 sub in a small room and pumping up the 250hz range. Running the right calibration and things get much better - the chuffing in Cake and Eat It is back, where on the wrong profile it's just gone. Interestingly the Geek is louder, so I don't have to drive the volume up as much as on the DAC1541, but there is more than enough headroom even on some quieter recordings I have but I do get to -10 fwiw. I can see how the Jot would complement the HD6XX well, as I found again I was using the Orange (mixed) or Green (butterworth) filters to wake them up a bit as well. That said, there is a clear step up from the GO2A SE in terms of clarity and detail while removing that cellophane/digital air. I imagine an amp with more power would get a crisper response out of the HD6XX but this is no slouch. The clarity and separation are exemplary and they sound great as is.

    Sidebar:

    I have a 40 ft optical cable running from the TV to the DAC1541 and the monitors flank the TV. So I am using it as a DAC for audio from my PC, a DAC from the TV (I don't care much about TV but it's nice for movies) and a DAC/headamp - pretty much getting full mileage out of it. The remote is a great feature too, though it is pretty short range (the generic Apple ripoff I bought online).

    Conclusion:
    See TL;DR. It's some good shit.
     
    Last edited: Dec 5, 2017
  5. yaluen

    yaluen Acquaintance

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    Popping in to express interest in a dac1541 group buy as well.
     
  6. PacoTaco

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    If you guys can wait ~2 weeks from tomorrow, I will be able to join the group buy as well.
     
  7. Forza AudioWorks

    Forza AudioWorks MOT: Forza AudioWorks

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    Count me out please. In my case it's a long process o_O
     
  8. bengo

    bengo Friend

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    @GoodEnoughGear I found only good NOS DACs cured sibilance issues entirely for me. You might want to try uploading the NOS filter to DAC1541 to replace whichever filter you like the least :)
     
  9. GoodEnoughGear

    GoodEnoughGear Evil Dr. Shultz‎

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    Good call @bengo. I know the headers are available, so I guess I have a little reading to do.

    Crap, thanks for the rabbithole...I had no idea there was a whole filter 'brewing' community. I was thinking about powdercoating the minty case top, but I may as well stick a serial port in there while I'm at it! :eek::D
     
  10. gepardcv

    gepardcv Almost "Made"

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    I hear a slight hiss from the 1541+Andromeda combo. I emphasize slight. No hiss from the less-sensitive JH13fp. That said, I agree that it’s a stellar setup. It gets the bulk of my listening time right now.

    Incidentally, I recently found out that Soekris made a firmware change with later-shipping units. Minimum volume goes to -90 instead of -80. Not sure which serial numbers this affects. It’s still not low enough for total silence. Again, not a big deal. Just wondering if it makes sense to add a “mute sound” special case for the minimum volume setting.
     
  11. Cellist88

    Cellist88 Friend

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    Yep....there is still hiss from the 1541 with the andros....but the hiss is less than a wm1a. I find that quite impressive. I haven't had so much time to listen to it, so I will have to write more when I get back!
     
  12. GoodEnoughGear

    GoodEnoughGear Evil Dr. Shultz‎

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    Mine is a -90 fwiw...but thats just firmware.
     
  13. dmckean44

    dmckean44 In a Sherwood S6040CP relationship

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    Wow, I didn't realize this DAC had such a huge community behind it.
     
  14. soekris

    soekris MOT - Soekris Engineering

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    My Discrete R-2R Sign Magnitude DAC technology started life as a DIY project over at diyaudio.com.... There you can find more info about the tech, and about the filter brewing.
     
  15. GoodEnoughGear

    GoodEnoughGear Evil Dr. Shultz‎

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    Yup, checked again and I hear it too. I'll update the review...
     
  16. brencho

    brencho Friend

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    Curious to hear from folks with a 1541 how the headphone out handles relatively efficient planars (thinking PM2/PMx2 but pick your poison) or even less efficient ones... Seems like it does super well with Andro, and at least decent well with sennheisers.
     
  17. Cellist88

    Cellist88 Friend

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    @brencho I think @Northwest mentioned earlier in the thread that his PMx2's sounded good with the dac1541.
     
  18. gepardcv

    gepardcv Almost "Made"

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    I use it with an Oppo PM3 once in a while. It works fairly well, no major problems, but I think it's a trifle underpowered. It makes no sense given the PM3's published specs, but I swear I hear a little more bass emphasis and a little less treble roll-off when the PM3 runs out of a bigger amp compared to the 1541.
     
  19. earnmyturns

    earnmyturns Smartest friend

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    Does quite well with AFC (Æon Flow closed), although I have not had time for a careful side-by-side with my other headphone rig (Holo Spring KTE 3>Neurochrome HP-1) and my other closed planars (Ether C Flow). What I mean by "quite well" is that I do not notice any obvious flaws, bass is tight and substantive, mids are maybe slightly recessed (but that's partly AFC), highs are clean, fast. Lots of detail. Maybe not as musical as my other rig, Holo Spring NOS has a way to draw me in that never tires, but then, we are talking 1/3 cost for DAC + amp. On these subjective, fairly superficial impressions, dac1541 is awesome bang-for-the-buck, and there is no aspect in which it makes me itchy to switch to another option. Keep in mind that my intended use for dac1541 is as my work@work rig, and the music I use for work is in a relatively narrow range, mostly spacey, flowing, minimalist modern jazz and world, contemporary classical -- think recent Vijay Iyer, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Anouar Brahem, Stefano Battaglia, Nik Bärtsch, Philip Glass, Terry Riley, Ligeti, Saarihao, ...
     
  20. brencho

    brencho Friend

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    Thanks @earnmyturns thats super helpful. I'm also looking for something for work so that sounds interesting. At this point there's little doubt that it's a good dac but I still debate amping but that's cause I tend to slowly drift into "going overboard" territory cause it's fun (but expensive and dumb)
     

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