Dinking Around With DACs

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic. Read 2013 times.

SteveFord

  • Volunteer
  • Posts: 6384
  • The poodle bites, the poodle chews it.
Dinking Around With DACs
« on: 8 Jul 2014, 07:31 pm »
I recently did a little shuffling around of my stereo components and decided to see just what's what with the DACs/players that I have here.  I don't expect the individual results to be meaningful to anyone but myself but the overall conclusion might prove useful to someone.
I had a few things to screw around with: a Pacific Valve DAC 62 with current JJ Tesla ECC83 tubes, two Art D/IOs and a Yaquin tube buffer with NOS Sylvania tubes just for the fun of it.
The main downstairs system is probably familiar to regular readers but if not it consists of Magnepan 3.7s, an SVS subwoofer, VTL 300 deLuxes, a Harman Kardon 7600 II CD player, a deHavilland UltraVerve 3 and some other crap which isn't germane to this write up.
Harman Kardon makes a big deal over their internal DAC but for those who simply must, you can hook up an external DAC via a coax cable.  I use Blue Jeans S/PDIF cables for what it's worth.
I have bad news for HK's marketing department, without an external DAC it sounds pretty darned dull and lifeless.  I would describe it as being the audio equivalent of a really bad blind date in a hot car with no air conditioning.
I tried it with the Art DI/O and it made it sound even worse (very distant), the Art DI/O with a tube buffer (blech!) and then a tube buffer alone.  No dice.
I plugged in the Pacific Valve unit and that was the ticket.  It's not as good as my vinyl set up but it was at least in the ballpark with good bass, a wide and deep soundstage and that's the winning combination for that set up.



Up next was the wife's system which consists of Magnepan MMGs and a CC5 center channel, a Bryston 2B Pro for the CC5, a modified Hafler XL280 for the MMGs, the same SVS sub which pulls double duty, a modified Carver C1 preamp, an old Oppo 981 player and some other crud.
By itself the Oppo sounded terrible - really thin and kind of tinny sounding.  Adding the Art DI/O made the sound even worse, adding the Art DI/O with a tube buffer was a step even further in the wrong direction but running the Oppo through the Yaquin buffer by itself was just right.  It really transformed the system into something quite nice.  Go figure.  Here's the buffer posing atop something which isn't the Oppo but you get the idea.



Finally there's the upstairs system.  That's Magnepan 1.7s, VTL MB250s, a Sonic Frontiers SFL-2 preamp, an HHb 830 BurnIt Plus player and some other junk. 
I'd previously used the Pacific Valve DAC with this one but decided to try the Art DI/O instead as the Pacific Valve was spoken for by the downstairs system.  It was certainly an improvement over the internal DAC in the HHb unit.  It really worked out well with the HHb which is a good thing as I was wondering if the Art DI/O would find a home or not.  It did.



What surprised me about this little DAC comparison was discovering that what works great with one player/batch of components doesn't necessarily transfer to another player/batch of components.  I figured that a good sounding DAC would work equally well everywhere but that wasn't the case.  There is synergy with these things just like everything else.
It makes me look at the various DAC reviews in a new light.  It sounds great to one reviewer but will it work out with what I have?  I believe that you need to try it out in your own system to see if you can duplicate the results.



Chris Adams

Re: Dinking Around With DACs
« Reply #1 on: 8 Jul 2014, 10:23 pm »
Thanks, Steve. Well done and well said about synergy. :thumb: