[punit]

Review of SW1X DAC III (Standard)

https://www.dagogo.com/sw1x-audio-design-dac-iii-review/

[A_shah]

yes

[lokie]

I modded 3 different Audio Note Dac's. Very similar modular design and NOS non-digital sound.

Rolling that Audio Note Copper coupling cap will result in dramatically different sonics. Way more than tubes in my experience.
The rest of my system trends toward warmth so the AN Cu wasn't the optimum cap there for me.
The problem with dong this is expense, and the time  it takes for the caps to burn in.

Anyway, I've moved on from AN to ABBAS which has shares DNA with SW1X. Having fun with more mods and replacing caps with Black Gates as I can find them. Would love to hear these SW1X's someday... I have a feeling I would like them. Although me thinks to beat the ABBAS it would be north of $6k.

[abd1]

I own  this  reviewed DAC now just came today Purchased last week from an AC member  have not had the time to try it out perhaps 2mrw or Thursday , I have an extra set of tubes that were sent with the unit 

Asghar

Looking forward to how you think it compares to the PS Audio DS.

[mresseguie]

[If I mistype or say something odd, it's because I'm exhausted after adding gutter guards to a house, and cutting giant redwood tree roots which were threatening the foundation.]

I'm resurrecting this thread because I just reread it to refresh my memory. I wanted to be reminded of my impressions after I received my DAC III+ from Slawa. I've had the upgraded DAC III+ for 2+ years, and I still think it's a wonderful DAC. That said, I stumbled onto one of those 'can't pass it up' opportunites last week. Someone had posted a SW1X DAC III BAL/SPL DAC for sale on Audiogon, and I saw it less than a day after it was posted. The DAC was just a couple months old, and <possibly> hadn't been fully burned in yet. It had a 60Hz hum that the seller couldn't overcome, so he decided to sell it at a steep discount rather than send it back for repair.

I received it a couple days ago, and added it to my main system. Sure enough, there was an annoying hum coming from my speakers. I figured some of the hum was due to my rat's nest of cables, and some from the DAC's location on my audio rack, so I moved cables around and placed the new DAC on the bottom shelf all the way to the left side. This cut the hum to a level that I could live with, but I could still hear it during the silence between tracks.

Slawa and I have been emailing back and forth trying to suss out the issue. Well, this DAC is sensitive to nearby EMI/RFI radiation (is it radiation?). Slawa told me to ground it. Well, there's a ground doohicky on the back cover, so I ran a cable from it to the ground inside the closest outlet. Now, I have near total silence [still a bit of hum, but not noticeable during playback.].

I'm playing all sorts of CDs to hear how music sounds on this new DAC, and I can't believe how fantastic this DAC is!   This is one of those 'drooling on the floor' times in which I don't give a damn if people see me drooling. As good as my 'old' DAC III+ is, it pales in comparison to the DAC III BAL/SPL.  Acoustic instruments, female vocals, opera (how often do I listen to opera??), guitar, cello, sax, everything <so far> sounds incredible.

Of course, I'm keeping this new DAC, but I have a dilemna. What to do with my old DAC III+? Until this new one came along, I could have happily kept it for years and years. Now, it's 'extra'. I could keep it in a secondary system; I could sell it, or I could ship it back to Slawa in order to trade up to one of his amps or preamps. What the hell should I do? [He asks himself.]

I'm so tired this evening that I can't think straight. I'll post more tomorrow or the next day. Oh, yeah. This purchase was very much an impulse buy. I hadn't planned to do it. I'd already ordered a Holo Spring3 KTE w/volume control last month, so my timing on buying the new SW1X DAC is not the best. My Spring 3 DAC is slated to arrive tomorrow. 

Big brother and li'l brother:

[punit]

Hi, Can you please explain how exactly you did this?

"Slawa told me to ground it. Well, there's a ground doohicky on the back cover, so I ran a cable from it to the ground inside the closest outlet. Now, I have near total silence"


Thanks

[mresseguie]

Hi, Can you please explain how exactly you did this?

"Slawa told me to ground it. Well, there's a ground doohicky on the back cover, so I ran a cable from it to the ground inside the closest outlet. Now, I have near total silence"


Thanks

Hello, and thank you for asking. I'd forgotten about my post above.

Well, I'll do my best to describe it to you. There is a brass screw-on head (the doohicky) on the back cover. I assume it's connected to the metal case or motherboard(?). I unscrewed just enough to wrap a 16 gauge wire around the threaded portion. Then, I tightened the ground screw down to secure the wire. I unscrewed the mounting screw which holds the outlet cover/plate on the wall. The receptacle inside the box has connections (screw heads) for three wires. One of them has the ground symbol beside it. I loosened the screw just enough to allow me to wrap the wire from the DAC onto the ground screw. Then, I carefully retightened the screw onto the new ground wire.

I cut the grounding wire from a spool of solid 16g connecting wire that I have for projects such as wiring crossovers for DIY speakers.

I'd placed the new DAC on the left side of the bottom shelf, but Slawa informed me that the best spot on my rack should be on the right side of the middle shelf. This way, the power supplies inside the DAC's case would be furthest away from other components that emit RFI/EMI. I haven't yet tried this. I've also considered constructing a shield from copper sheets (think sarcophagus) to see if it helps, but Slawa didn't think much of that idea.

This new DAC III BAL/SPL is stunningly good sounding. My old DAC III+ sounds almost flat in comparison, which seems silly to me because it had been giving me so much enjoyment as I listened to CDs or streamed via my computer.

I hope my explanation above proves helpful for you. I watched a couple short YouTube videos to make certain I didn't do anything stupid.

Michael

[punit]

Thank you for the detailed explanation. Much appreciated

 

[mresseguie]

You're welcome! 

The photo is pretty small, but it sure looks as though you've got a very nice system. 

Michael