A friend of mine sent this review to me yesterday from an acquaintance of his. I don't know the reviewer and I've never heard his system. Nonetheless, it is grist for the mill.
Review:
Hi all. I auditioned both these dacs in a friends highly resolving, super accurate system. It is not "bright" ,just not colored in any way. It is ,in fact ,the best stereo I've ever heard in 30 years of this hobby. ANYHOO, the point is in the best of the best, I felt the Ack! actually creamed the Scott Nixon and even bested my friends mega buck reference. I even like it better than my Wadia 850.
I think one of the ack!'s primary strengths is the battery power supply. This thing gives the blackest backrounds I've ever heard. With that you get micro detail, soundstage nuances that blew my mind! It doesn't have quite the bass weight of the reference or the Wadia, but I felt it was a small price to pay for the rest of the package, esp. considering the price!
Both dacs lose that high end airiness, that you realize after listening alot, is just digital "hash", not musical content or even "airiness" of the studio. It 's just digital crap! again, the Ack! excelled here over the Nixon.
The Ack! needs a good solid , low jitter transport to shine. But a good Pioneer Pd65 of EAD T 1000 or Cec can be had for relative peanuts these days. Also, spring for a solid digital cable(I recommend even the bottom line Mapleshade over big buck compitition).
I really feel this is the greatest bang for buck deal out there.