The All Purpose Advice Thread

If moderator can push this to the other tread I would appreciate that. Sorry, too new here...

 

In my experience, people who find Bryston bright are often listening to twenty year old amps in need of new caps. I have a serviced and upgraded B60 with internal dac which is similar to the one in the BDA-1, and I find it rather on the warm side of things.

I can sympathize with trying to bring stuff into Canada. The customs port in Winnipeg is one of the worst in the country and they flag absolutely everything for extra fees.

Have you browsed CAM? There are plenty of options to look at. Just at a glance I see a NAD M51 for a $1000 CAD.

 

The Bryston piece of digital gear (dac/amp?) at the Moon table a few years back at RMAF was bright to me as well. I do not feel that way about the sole Bryston amp I have heard, though.

Just to repeat what everyone is saying- buy used, period. And since you know now how good things can sound without a preamp, do just that. I had to part with my beloved tube pre after 15 years of great service once I heard a good dac with clean volume attenuation.

You are tossing out lots of mainstream hifi candidates for a dac, but have you thought about pro audio? I use a Prism and am very happy and there are others that are just as good or better. Investigate some of @Psalmanazar comments in threads on dacs, but beware you may have to read years of his posts in order to activate your own personal filter with which to funnel and sift through his prose.

 

Buy used. You're in Denmark. Can't you get DAD or SPL or something cool locally?

 

Any suggestions for finding out if I'd be into the NOS DAC scene, coming from a Yggdrasil? Is there something relatively inexpensive I could try, or some kind of loaner? I'm not unhappy, just curious.

 

I listen BDA-1 through Bryston power amp and my Cary Audio, both are less than 10 years old. Bryston has in your face sound which some people like, I prefer more relaxed presentation. I'm using CAM as my daily go to site and leaning towards NAD M51. Just wanted to understand if it sounds more involving than BDA-1. Saw a comment from @purr1n that M51 and Gungnir multi kind of in the same league which brings me hope that it's not too bad...

 

I'm at Canada, not Denmark...

 

Does anyone have experience with different 300B tubes? I'm thinking of buying a pair as a secondary option for my ECBA, in part to prolong the life of the KR PX4's I have in it now, which will be obnoxiously expensive to replace if/when I ever have to. So I'm wondering if there's a 300B tube known for being particularly fast and more neutral than not?

I use my ECBA with ZMF Verite and Fostex TH900's, so I really wouldn't want any dark or slow sounding 300B's. The KR PX4's are perfect for "Japanese headphones" atm, and I wouldn't expect any 300B's to match them from what I've read, but a similar sort of signature would be nice.

 

Based on what I was reading so far DS DACs are not being praised by local gurus here - except maybe some exceptions like Matrix X-Sabre Pro or Convert-2. I would go for one of those but can't find them on used market. Therefore I'll be pushing 2k+ for brand new. If I get NAD M51 for about $600 US will I be missing a lot comparing to those DACs or even D90?

 

Thanks!

Also, if I enjoy the sauciness and ricey dynamic prowess of a Genalex Gold Lion 6922 tube in my Vali 2, is at all logical to assume that Gold Lion 300B's would have a similar flavor in the ECBA? Not at all as a replacement to the KR's or potential EML's, but as a cheap funky alternative since matched pairs are < $200. Like, is what I'm hearing with the Gold Lion 6922 a "house sound"?

Like, Gold Lion -> ZMF Verite w/hybrid Universe pads = Final Audio Design Verite.

 

Problem I've experienced is expensive NOS DACs perform significantly differently than the less expensive models. Even following the chain up Metrum, I got a dislike for posting my experience - which was simply I did not feel the Onyx sounded like it was in the same family as the Amethyst (which I had just traded in to pursue the upgrade). Compare the Schiit lineup, where I absolutely feel there is a relationship between Bifrost, Gungnir, and Yggdrasil. Tweaks here and there, notwithstanding, there is a common sound.

Also some NOS (Holo Audio) have a more aggressive sound, closer to OS. And some OS (Airist Audio) have a less aggressive sound, closer to NOS. Your best bet is to read what Hands wrote:

https://superbestaudiofriends.org/i...oversampling-dac-comparison-master-list.4049/

 

$US 600 for the M51 in Canada is a good price, but on reading another thread I'm reminded of another D/S possibility (credit to @Taverius ): Gungnir D/S, of which there's one in Gatineau asking $CAD 675:

https://www.canuckaudiomart.com/details/649607089-schiit-gungnir-ds-dac/

It's an early version* (Schiit's USB 2) which can be upgraded if you want to go USB from your computer into it rather than from the Mede8er's optical (which is the only digital output option from that model, if I'm reading the specs right?). For preamp functionality, add a Schiit Sys, which has been reported by users here as very transparent, for pocket change.

For local opinion on the Gungnir D/S, search here with term Gungnir and user SoupRKnowva.

* The ad says purchased in 2005, but that must be a typo - likely 2015.

 

I felt like I just wasted money on buying a Dangerous Music Convert-2. I've been reading GearSlutz on various converter boxes and I was set on either a Crane Song Solaris or Dangerous Music Convert-2. I got the Convert-2 over the Solaris as it seemed to fit my preferences more based on the feedback here, but I am very unhappy. My source is Michael Kelly's Pi2AES.

Can you confirm what I'm hearing?

I find the lack of depth to be really bothersome. Everything is like on a flat two dimensional painting, but it moves around to where the imaging isn't stable. I use Jennifer Warnes' "Bird on a Wire" as a test track. Her vocals are little right of center on this converter. After the first hit of a tom on the left there should be another low end blooming of the drum just slight to the right...but on the Convert-2 it is panned too much towards the center. The few different triangles used aren't played in the same location, they shift. So does the attack of the snare. It's an awkward sound-stage for this recording. And none of the it pops out from the speaker at you either. I find this to be consistent with other studio recordings where the Convert-2 can't make sense of the actual recording space. Other DACs you get more of the impression of the actual venue or use of a "wall-of-sound" gets neutered. The background of a lot of recordings get lost.

Which leads me to the other problem. It lacks the ability to resolve the tiniest of details that go into how an instrument sounds. Like vibrations of guitars or the air under a drum attack are missing, which gives a flat presentation. The Convert-2 is so clean sounding that it verges ever so close to being sterile. The speed of which notes are played can make instruments impart a kind of a realism however there's not enough finer detail to sustain them so I'm left unsatisfied. It's as if the Convert-2 is resolving recordings in a way that suppresses a layer of low detail while highlighting more of the top layer in a way to impress. I find it to be a rather boring converter to listen to with the lack of nuance. The bass, while extremely tight, lacks detail compared to other converters to where I get a sense of the actual bass strings being used in a recording.

Treble can be kind of grating at times depending on the recording. It can make an already hot recording into one that is barely tolerable to listen to. Piercing female vocals are like a scapel in my ear canals.

Ultimately I don't find the Convert-2 as faithful to the recordings themselves as other high-end converters nor does it make for an engaging two-channel listen.

I am looking for an engaging listen, not clinical sounding but with the greatest resolution capabilities to the recordings. Good depth and layering is important to me as is a sound-stage. Not sure if a €2000 budget will work for what I want.

 

Thanks Purr1n for your input, I was hoping to hear something like that
I don't care about SINAD so much and was always suspicious about ASR statement that all DACs would sound the same as soon as they measure fine. Probably my current M-DAC measures fine too but I can definitely hear the difference against BDA-1 or MSB in A/B test.
I was looking for D90 because I saw that Ian @Torq was putting it close to RME ADI 2 DAC FS - maybe on another forum... I would probably get RME even maybe Pro version to feed my HT receiver into it. But finding those used seems almost impossible.

 

Saw that one and 2005 made me wonder but you are probably correct - should probably read 2015. I want to stay within balanced path if possible so Sys won't work for me. As I mentioned before I'd rather get DAC/preamp all in one so Schiit is kinda on the bottom of the list unless I want to go with Freya S. Hopefully it is better than my current Parasound P3 but that just adds another complexity to the game - have to buy 2 units without listening to them first.
You are correct about Mede8er outputs - in fact I'm using optical right now. Is there something wrong with this approach? I was trying other DACs via USB and Foobar 2000/HQ player but couldn't really pick the difference on my system. Again, it was very brief listen since I got both MSB and Bryston for a day and was mostly focused on listening experience - especially with MSB.

 

Seems like the M51 ticks all your boxes then, and at that price you'd lose little or nothing if you decided it wasn't for you.

Optical has higher jitter than other interfaces, which can come across as softening of note edges. Given the choice, I think most people would prefer AES, BNC or RCA (in that order), or USB straight into the DAC (but USB can have issues with electrical noise, so nothing's perfect).

 

I really, really struggle with this. Could you explain the relationship between jitter in audio applications and BER?
Edit - Bit Error Rate