[fine tunes1]

I have had several high profile digital front ends from Accustoc Arts of Germany, and not long ago the very good   Ayon Skylla -2 dac which musicality wise IMO beat the Weiss 202 as well as the latest Berkeley
Nothing is absolute.  The latest is a combination which in fact is rated A plus my several sours es
The NAD -M 51 digital dac it has a great direct digital volume ,therefore very dependent in the excellence of your amplifier. This dac is one of only a few that does not go through A to D conversion until the end .it does from PCM to PWM then to a pure class A output buffer stage ,connected to the Excellent  Bryston -BDP
Connections are critical. .there I have tested several and the Wireworld Platinum usb, and xlr
Complete the chain as well as Kimber Paladium  power cords Hifituning Supreme fuses.
Not only is this setup Very musical but also very re veilling, and somehow even old recordings
Sound better. For $4k for the Bryston  as well as the NAD it is one of he best buys in all of Audio !!

[cheap-Jack]

Hi.

I have had several high profile digital front ends from Accustoc Arts of Germany,
. This dac is one of only a few that does not go through A to D conversion until the end .it does from PCM to PWM then to a pure class A output buffer stage ,
. For $4k for the Bryston  as well as the NAD it is one of he best buys in all of Audio !!

Not intend to offend.

 Why still lingering around the historic redbook audio CD 'red-ray' era when Blu-ray is technically so much advanced?

I gave up redbook CD-A & yellow book CD-R for DVD-audio (24bit- 192KHz) a few years back. Then I flipped the calender back to vinyl which sounds musically much better than any CD-A & DVD-A. I virtually play vinyl only these couple of years. Why, more musical sound!

But until last week I got a Blu-ray player which is intended to play HD Blu-ray movies randomly for the holiday season. Then I casually played my music CDs which were left sleeping on the shelves for ever. Not expecting any miracle from digital.

YET, yet I dropped my jaw big bigtime when the music read by the Blu-ray player sounds so so much better than before. What happen? I wish I knew this fact earlier!

Now even inorganic sounding redbook CDs, whic I gave up years back, can sound very close to vinyl musically when played on Blu-ray player. WOW! Unbelievable!

May I suggest any music lovers stop paying big bucks for redbook DACs & invest on Blu-ray. Digital advances faster than one can ever imagine! I think I find this out a bit too late!

c-J

[kyrill]

interesting, thx for sharing
Can you elaborate on yr system? Does the blu-ray (type, brand) player gives a digital signal to yr DAC ( type brand) or does it have analogue outputs to yr main system?
 

[werd]

I have had several high profile digital front ends from Accustoc Arts of Germany, and not long ago the very good   Ayon Skylla -2 dac which musicality wise IMO beat the Weiss 202 as well as the latest Berkeley
Nothing is absolute.  The latest is a combination which in fact is rated A plus my several sours es
The NAD -M 51 digital dac it has a great direct digital volume ,therefore very dependent in the excellence of your amplifier. This dac is one of only a few that does not go through A to D conversion until the end .it does from PCM to PWM then to a pure class A output buffer stage ,connected to the Excellent  Bryston -BDP
Connections are critical. .there I have tested several and the Wireworld Platinum usb, and xlr
Complete the chain as well as Kimber Paladium  power cords Hifituning Supreme fuses.
Not only is this setup Very musical but also very re veilling, and somehow even old recordings
Sound better. For $4k for the Bryston  as well as the NAD it is one of he best buys in all of Audio !!

If you like using the digital volume on your dac you should look at using a TPV pre.  By leaving the volume of the TPV on full you can use the volume on your dac. You get the sound of the dac but you also get the impedance matching of the pre. And not to mention the isolation.

[TONEPUB]

Hi.
Not intend to offend.

 Why still lingering around the historic redbook audio CD 'red-ray' era when Blu-ray is technically so much advanced?

I gave up redbook CD-A & yellow book CD-R for DVD-audio (24bit- 192KHz) a few years back. Then I flipped the calender back to vinyl which sounds musically much better than any CD-A & DVD-A. I virtually play vinyl only these couple of years. Why, more musical sound!

But until last week I got a Blu-ray player which is intended to play HD Blu-ray movies randomly for the holiday season. Then I casually played my music CDs which were left sleeping on the shelves for ever. Not expecting any miracle from digital.

YET, yet I dropped my jaw big bigtime when the music read by the Blu-ray player sounds so so much better than before. What happen? I wish I knew this fact earlier!

Now even inorganic sounding redbook CDs, whic I gave up years back, can sound very close to vinyl musically when played on Blu-ray player. WOW! Unbelievable!

May I suggest any music lovers stop paying big bucks for redbook DACs & invest on Blu-ray. Digital advances faster than one can ever imagine! I think I find this out a bit too late!

c-J

Your blu ray player probably just has a better chipset than your CD Player did.

There's no magic playing CD's on a Blu Ray player.

[srb]

Your blu ray player probably just has a better chipset than your CD Player did.

There's no magic playing CD's on a Blu Ray player.

Agreed.  In fact, unless the Blu-ray player is a dual laser upscale model with one laser having the optimum 780nm wavelength specified for redbook CDs, it would be actually be a technically less than optimum transport.  The difference must lie in the DAC chip, associated analog output stage and power supply.
 
Steve

[Rclark]

Your blu ray player probably just has a better chipset than your CD Player did.

There's no magic playing CD's on a Blu Ray player.

Exactly. My EMO ERC-2 slaughters my Blu Ray player (for cd's). Cheap Jack I now know to just tune you out.

[Guy 13]

Hi all Audio Circle members.
After lots of reading on blu-ray,
I am almost ready (When I will have the money) to buy a blu-ray player for movies (Of course) but also (Maybe) to replace my Rega Apollo) for CD.
I wonder if I will be disappointed.
I would like tho buy the OPPO, but I think I might settle for a less expensive Panasonic with a separate audio RCA output, unless the entry level OPPO
is better (For CD) than a hi-end Panasonic blu-ray player.
Guy 13

[Rclark]

The Oppo's are different. I've never heard one but they have had a long reputation for being excellent CD playback devices.

[wisnon]

I have had several high profile digital front ends from Accustoc Arts of Germany, and not long ago the very good   Ayon Skylla -2 dac which musicality wise IMO beat the Weiss 202 as well as the latest Berkeley
Nothing is absolute.  The latest is a combination which in fact is rated A plus my several sours es
The NAD -M 51 digital dac it has a great direct digital volume ,therefore very dependent in the excellence of your amplifier. This dac is one of only a few that does not go through A to D conversion until the end .it does from PCM to PWM then to a pure class A output buffer stage ,connected to the Excellent  Bryston -BDP
Connections are critical. .there I have tested several and the Wireworld Platinum usb, and xlr
Complete the chain as well as Kimber Paladium  power cords Hifituning Supreme fuses.
Not only is this setup Very musical but also very re veilling, and somehow even old recordings
Sound better. For $4k for the Bryston  as well as the NAD it is one of he best buys in all of Audio !!

The M51 is certainly great value for money, but it can be beaten. Witness feedback from a pal in Australia:

"Today I received some impressive-looking power cables that someone on SNA sold me last week. One of these is now attached to the Lampi, and the matching cable to the Pulse PSU. The pair of 'python-sized' Harmonic Technology 'Magic' PCs are providing power to the speaker power supplies. I took a risk buying them, not knowing just HOW much difference they could/would make. If someone had told me even several weeks ago that I would pay a couple of thousand dollars for some power cables I would have laughed at them.

Before today, the Lampi (level 4 Generation 4) was already impressive, soundstage, timbre, dynamics and other parameters were improved after switching out the NAD M51 DAC. To be honest, the Lampi made the NAD sound pretty ordinary! I made some comments re that in a thread someone started last week on SNA.

Today, with the replacement PCs, the SQ has gone up, yet again. The sound is as close as I can remember to analogue. It seems that whatever I've done has only revealed just how good the Lampi, the SGR speakers, and the TE Vibe, are capable of being together.

The Lampi sounds very much at home in my system and I don't begrudge one cent of it's cost. I think of it as an investment in my current and future enjoyment of music." 

and

"Aus $6000 for the Lampi Level 4 (with I2S USB module) isn't chump change either.

Regardless, I don't regret one single dollar of it's purchase price. Before it arrived (eventually!) I had my share of doubts about whether I'd maybe taken 'a step too far' in my search for an analogue-sounding digital system.

As soon as I plugged in the Lampi my doubts disappeared, and as it has settled in to my system I am increasingly satisfied with my decision to buy it, sight-and-sound unseen!

It's in a whole different class from my NAD M51, which is a GREAT DAC for the price. Until I heard the Lampi I wouldn't have believed I would hear such an improvement in SQ with my system.

Crazy thing to do eh? "

and


"Lampizator L4 vs NAD M51

Lets make a couple of things clear here.  The Level 4 Lampi costs $5,500.  The M51 $1500 at current list price.  They are very different machines.  The Lampi uses a true tupe output stage, runs entirely at Class A and uses a 32 bit 192k delta sigma chipset.  The M51 uses a 35 bit 844K PCM to PWM process and is all solid state.

If emotional weight and euphonic charm is important to you, the Lampi wins.  I was initially naive in my time with the Lampi, and suggested the it was only a marginal improvement over the Bifrost.  This is not the case.  The Bifrost tricked me with its effortless and easy-going nature.  It was only when the Lampi returned to its owner that I realised just how much was missing.  It is the best soundstaging, most musical DAC I have ever heard.  Period.

The other side of the argument is this - the sheer pragmatic value of the M51.  With its high quality finish, modest dimensions and connectivity, it ought to earn high WAF.  But boring matters of practicality aside, the M51 achieves without the aid of valves - most of the Lampi's other virtues - being a holographic soundstage, fatigue-free treble, excellent detail retrieval and a sense of complete and utter composure regardless of source material."

[cloudbaseracer]

If you like using the digital volume on your dac you should look at using a TPV pre.  By leaving the volume of the TPV on full you can use the volume on your dac. You get the sound of the dac but you also get the impedance matching of the pre. And not to mention the isolation.

What is a TPV pre?

[srb]

What is a TPV pre?

I was thinking he meant a TVC preamp, a Transformer Volume Control(led) preamp?

Steve

[geowak]

Hi all Audio Circle members.
After lots of reading on blu-ray,
I am almost ready (When I will have the money) to buy a blu-ray player for movies (Of course) but also (Maybe) to replace my Rega Apollo) for CD.
I wonder if I will be disappointed.
I would like tho buy the OPPO, but I think I might settle for a less expensive Panasonic with a separate audio RCA output, unless the entry level OPPO
is better (For CD) than a hi-end Panasonic blu-ray player.
Guy 13

Running a Rega Apollo as transport to a Benchmark DAC. Results are very pleasing. Are you just tired of the Apollo now, just curious?

[Guy 13]

Running a Rega Apollo as transport to a Benchmark DAC. Results are very pleasing. Are you just tired of the Apollo now, just curious?

Hi geowak and all Audio Circle members.
The sound of my Rega Apollo is good.
What I don't like it's the way it operate.
Look as if once in a while the function control internal software goes bezurk.
When I move back to Canada I can re-wire the main transformer from 220V to 120V,
but I think I will sell it to a Vietnam, even if I loose money.
I don't have good reason not to like my Apollo, it's just that I don't like it and I think I will replace it with a OPPO 105.
I hope that satisfy your curiosity.
When you are curious, you can learn more...
If you want to know more, please let me know, it's always a pleasure to answer any questions from an Audio Circle member.

Guy 13