I was at Steve's place about 6 months ago. I was just at his place again a couple of days ago. 6 months back, he had a very rough version of the shortblock, but it had a similar "effect" to the sound that I heard in this production model. It may not have been as good, but my memory cannot stretch that far back as when I go to listen to "anything", I go with objectivity as my number 1 goal because I need to hear something objectively (call it subjectively in spite I have no relation to Steve besides him kindly hosting me twice now for some listening session time).
Short-block end of the stick is the device works. Not only does it work, it actually sounds better with his mega buck (or rather bang for buck) Overdrive SE than does his Overdrive SE sound without it attached. I believe this Overdrive SE all in one dac should be able to hold its own against anything on the market, cost no option...I really do. Many may prefer their own tailored to personal system sounding dac vs. Steve's, and elect to use an OR5 or other Off-Ramp. But as an all in one device, it's splendid and I did not hear any flaws or issues with it. I would never say it's the best, but I have to again say it should have no problem competing against anything out there for the digital side of things...
So what does shortblock do? I honestly have no clue. To my ears, it's similar to when I first heard good/correct sounding cables in my system. I never and still to this day have no clue why a cable can make a difference. One can ramble on for the life of them, but a cable is a cable is a cable...but no, one day I decided to swap what I had that was a nice cable, so I thought, but the one that has not left the system to this day (some 6?) years later is not going to leave the system till I die...is it the best? Likely not even close, or maybe it is? I will never know. What I do know is it transformed my skeptical side into knowing for a night/day, not subtle this and that, literally night day change in every single aspect of the sound I was hearing. Cable break in? What's that? Well, so they supposedly broke in in time, but uhhh...I don't hear things like that and while I won't argue it is not possible, I just know what works and what does not. People often say system synergy, and maybe that's what I have in these cables and other stuff, but, is it some fluke of nature, magic, etc. that brought these cables to me??? No...they just sounded good, proved me wrong about cables, and life went on "without" swapping more cables around to see if I could get "more".
So shortblock is to my ears, the same exact type of thing going on. It's literally a box that does something right. I can say more coherency, more depth, more this, more that, but rather than go into all that 6 moons artsy fartsy lunatic verbage, I'll K.I.S.S. and say for $200, that's NOTHING to give it a try. Wost thing that can happen is you don't hear anything with it, whatever you hear isn't much of anything, maybe it sounds poorer with it in your system, but you never do know until you try do you?
I'll repeat something I said in a prior write-up about Steve and that is, he is just not like these mega anal farts that just have to prove you wrong and say you must be deaf not to hear things how he (Steve) hears them. Been around too many designers like this and you really cannot speak objectively about anything because they want you to know the sound they hear is exactly how it should be sounding and any ear that hears otherwise is subject to some kinda issue. SO I can sit in a session with Steve and flat out say this sucks or this sounds detailed and good, but flat on the lower mid section or whatever I want that another designer would take major offense to and cry like a woose. What does Steve do? He may agree, disagree, whatever. Most importantly, he is open to feedback, and IMHO, he takes this especially from people with good objective ears and builds off of it, bettering maybe what he even has at present time or just coming up with some thoughts/ideas/etc. future going to get the digital as best as it can and as up to date obviously as is possible which I think he's done an exceptional job with since his stuff is either ahead of the game or in the least on the same playing field as the biggest cost no option devices out there.
I'll simply conclude this by saying that I have zero affiliation with Empirical other than my listening sessions at Steve's place. I will also be reporting my own listening time with the Shortblock and how it sounds on my own gear...maybe it does not do anything or I just don't like it..I figured if I've heard something "clearly" special happening with it the last time using the OR5 w/some mods, on the Overdrive at the time, and then this time with the latest and superior Overdrive SE, $200 is really nothing for me to put down since I will be able to hear something immediately with how revealing my signal is. More to come on this and I'll write up another review, however long or brief it may be on my own system's sound with it in.
I want to thank Steve for allowing me to come by both 6 months ago and also on my birthday two days ago. I've stated before that I truly appreciate Steve's approach/style with respect to accepting criticism or having an open thought-stream where good ears can come into play and help him hear certain things he's not getting placebo'd by in order to help continuing along the right paths and bring those that love this stuff more of that love!
Cheers all and hope to get the Shortblock thoughts out by tomorrow as I'll have it setup for about 5-6 hours of listening, or if nothing right off the bat, may not have it in longer than a few minutes if no sources have any affect with it on them.
