AudioCircle
Audio/Video Gear and Systems => Critic's Circle (Equipment Reviews) => Source Component Reviews => Topic started by: John151 on 18 Feb 2010, 07:37 pm
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Hey EE DAC owners - lets get all of the reviews and initial set up comments here in one thread:
My initial findings from the "Inudstry Ads" thread:
Mine is up and running and I am quite pleased. Bill - Thanks so much for letting me stop by and pick up the unit after hours. :thumb:
The first tracks I played were from Diana Krall (various CDs), and I immediately noticed improvements from my prev DAC, In comparison, the EE is open and airy, and subtle passages show greater detail.
The unit looks fantastic and appears to be very well built. Also, the small size is great as it fits perfectly on the shelf next to the SB3. The controls are very tight and have a quality feel when operated. The LED lights are visible in a well lighted room, and yet not too bright when the room is dark (a complaint I have had with many prior audio components, including the EE CDP). One complaint is the on/off button - you need to push it in firmly or it turns off again when you retract our finger.
It also plays both music and movie DVDs (prev DAC did not), which is great news for me as I recently purchased the new Oppo BDP-83 and did not opt for the SE version. Since I am only using two channels for my HT, the EE DAC eliminates the need to upgrade to the SE, nearly paying for itself on day one. :thumb:
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John151....
Which DAC would that be ? Thanks.... :thumb:
LiTe DAC 62 from Pacific Valve. I have been very pleased with the DAC 62 as it made my SB3 sound soooo much better. Thus, I want to be very careful not to come across as being negative towards 62 - it is a great sounding DAC. In comparison to the EE, I would say the 62 is warmer, where the EE is more neutral. As an example, my system has historically had trouble with Amy Winehouse (insert jokes here). The bass on all of the tracks from Back To Black suffered from excessive bass, and it was really not enjoyable. Over the years, I have been able to reduce the bass, but it was still at a level that I would not listen to Amy. With the EE, the bass is clearly reduced and tighter. The bass is still very strong on Rehab, but no longer drowns out the vocals. I have noticed other tracks where the bass is also reduced, which the Jury is still deliberating on. Another track that my system has struggled with is Norah Jones. Not sure how to describe it, but her voice would spike at times, which was not very pleasant. Over the years, my system has been table to tame this, but not enough. The EE appears to have solved the issue with her voice spiking. My very first impression, listening to Diana Krall, was that her voice sounded more delicate and "airy" (is that a word?), much like the sound that I heard when I had the EE CDP and Maggies (a sound I have been trying to get back to for years).
Anyway, the unit is still breaking in, but my initial impressions are very positive. The ISOTEK CD has been playing all night, so I look forward to some more listening today. However, I leave town for Vail later today, so any further reviews will have to wait until next week.
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This DAC is outragous! I've been listening for almost three hours now after it having warmed up for about 6 and I think like my other EE products, this sucker is home for good.
I don't want to get too far ahead of myself, but there is some great resolution and body to this thing. Musical excitement and emotion come through.
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And what other DACs can you compare it to? How do you find tube vs op-amp outputs???
Exciting to finally be getting impressions of this mighty exciting DAC.
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Please guys, let it burn in for some hours, Initial impressions are really great but it has been my experience that burn in time has been required on all our products over the years. To go into critical listening mode trying to compare the tube output to the Ss output at this stage is really not validating anything except it sounds pretty darn good right out of the box. 9 hours with maybe 4 hours thru the tube and 5 hours thru the SS really doesn't withstand the scrutiny of critical listening mode. Not yet anyway :lol:
Thanks for posting though.
Bill
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You are definitely right, Bill. Thats why I said I didn't want to get too far ahead of myself, but I did want to share some of the 'out of the box initial excitement'.
I've got a question for you: I like to leave my digital sources on 24/7 to keep everything warmed up/stabilized. Would there be any detriment to doing so with this DAC, but toggling to SS mode when its idle. That way a little 10minute tube warm up is all it will take to sound its best?
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Bill or Alex,
Any idea of the break-in time for the DAC?
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I would say about 50 hours or so.
Cheer !
Alex
Bill or Alex,
Any idea of the break-in time for the DAC?
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[quote author=Gopher
I've got a question for you: I like to leave my digital sources on 24/7 to keep everything warmed up/stabilized. Would there be any detriment to doing so with this DAC, but toggling to SS mode when its idle. That way a little 10minute tube warm up is all it will take to sound its best?
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Gopher, I haven't shut my off yet and probably won't for a week or so. I like to shut things down usually after 7 days or when I know I won't be around for a while(12 hours) and upon return home I'll have something to do other then listen, so then I'll turn it all on to get everything warmed up while I do my other chores and then the system when ready for play is ready and raring to go.
I never leave my tube amps on anymore when I leave the house. I use to all the time but I was at a customer/friends house and one of his buddies was trying to sell him a DAC and lent it out for him to try. We plugged the thing in and thank God we didn't leave the room when he turned it on because within 45 seconds it started smoking and flames were seem coming from the piece. That pretty much convinced me to shut it down when I'm not at home.Not that I worry about our equipment but just to be on the side of caution as my brother who is a cop had half his house burn down because he had an extension cord that his fridge in his garage was rubbing against or the fridge was somehow on top of it, anyway the cord shorted, started a fire and he lost litterally everything inside his house. Luckily his wife smelled something and his 2 daughters ,wife and himself were able to escape unharmed.The dog my brother had to run into the house and get and she was hiding under the kitchen table. Albeit devastated from watching half their house go up in flames but things are replaceable and that's why we have insurance. Moral of the story, we take electricity for granted, without proper precautions it can end your days in a split second.
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FYI guys, these things seem pretty responsive to tube changes. I got out of work early for the first time in forever (only an hour after my scheduled day) so I decided to throw in a 12au7 I had in my box.
The first one I grabbed was a NOS Ratheon 5814A. Really interesting how it changes the presentation. Very lush, kinda dark, maybe less resolving. When Bill recommended this tube to me originally (for preamp) he described it as having a smokey night club type of sound and I think that is spot on.
Bill, what is the stock tube branded minimax? Are they Shunuangs? I know Alex prefers them in his circuit.
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Yes it is Shuguang.
Cheers !
Alex
FYI guys, these things seem pretty responsive to tube changes. I got out of work early for the first time in forever (only an hour after my scheduled day) so I decided to throw in a 12au7 I had in my box.
The first one I grabbed was a NOS Ratheon 5814A. Really interesting how it changes the presentation. Very lush, kinda dark, maybe less resolving. When Bill recommended this tube to me originally (for preamp) he described it as having a smokey night club type of sound and I think that is spot on.
Bill, what is the stock tube branded minimax? Are they Shunuangs? I know Alex prefers them in his circuit.
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FYI guys, these things seem pretty responsive to tube changes. I got out of work early for the first time in forever (only an hour after my scheduled day) so I decided to throw in a 12au7 I had in my box.
The first one I grabbed was a NOS Ratheon 5814A. Really interesting how it changes the presentation. Very lush, kinda dark, maybe less resolving. When Bill recommended this tube to me originally (for preamp) he described it as having a smokey night club type of sound and I think that is spot on.
Bill, what is the stock tube branded minimax? Are they Shunuangs? I know Alex prefers them in his circuit.
You may want to check your notes, the smokey night club tube for me is the old Black glass tungsol 12AU7.Not saying the Raytheon 5814A would be embarassed in the nightclub setting,it has more of a Latin Salsa club feel, as your legs can't help but tap to the music.Makes me want to get up and dance or at least run into the basement and bring up my Conga drum and play along.
The Raytheon 5814A triple mica is my, this tube does everything so wonderfully tube, along with its brother the blackplate Raytheon 12au7 from the 50's
Let that 5814A get a few hours on it, it will open up and the music will pour out of it like a crisp chardonnay :lol:
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Gopher, Bill:
Any recomendations where one might obtain this Tube?
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Just an fyi.. I've found rolling tubes in a DAC has different effects than in a preamp.. Their character is not as predictable in my experience.. but maybe they are in the EE DAC.
Glad to hear folks are excited. I'm looking forward to hearing impressions after 10 days of 24/7 break-in. Everything takes 200 hours in my opinion. ;)
-C
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I'm writing this as a music lover not the distributor, but it was a very interesting session.
After talking with Alex yesterday he mentioned how going thru the AES/EBU for him created the best results, well not having a transport or a Balanced cd player I thought I would give what I had on hand a try. Would it sound good, who knew but I had a couple of spare hours this afternoon.
My source is a Macbook Pro, the biggest baddest one they made a year ago. anyway I have from Locus Audio Design(Thank you Lee) his Axis USB cable. I liked what this cable did so much to the music and at the time I had until the MiniMax DAC came an old Theta Pro and also an Apogee Mini as DAC's, the Apogee only had the Balanced out and I wanted to try running balanced into our Eastern Electric EL156 monoblock amps, so Lee was kind enough to build me a pair of his Axis Balanced cables(again Lee thanks). I sold the Apogee a couple months back as I knew our DAC was coming in shortly and didn't need 2 DAC's laying around(needed the funds).
I was plating around with the inputs going between USB and the optical out of my Mac there was this hint of grain using the optical but I had just switched out the stock 12AU7 tube in the MiniMax DAC to a E80CC pinched waist D getter which Alex said was ok to use in the DAC, although not a direct substitute for a 12au7 as it draws twice as much heater current, Alex the designer said it was ok to use.
Now how do I get to use the AES/EBU input, I remember I had a Trends USB converter laying around somewhere, I found it :thumb:. So I use my Axis cable out of the Mac to the Trends which has a few different outputs on the back ,one being the lonely AES/EBU. So far so good, will my Axis balance cable work in this configuration.Do a search in the basement and in the huge pile of cables that have accumulated over the years is a pair of the Axis Balanced cable, heck I only need one, all right :D
Let everything warm up for 10 minutes or so as the system was playing for a couple hours before the journey began so tubes were still probably a little warm already.
The listening test proved to be smooth as silk listening in this configuration.
I don't have a lot of Hi-Rez music and what I do have I don't listen to them often but I will give them a shot later this evening but just listening to what I call normal music, albeit my favorites which are recorded very nicely(needless to say I guess because who wants to listen to a crappy recording) every song that I listened to was exceptionally better then they have ever sounded before.
If possible you might want to try and listen through the AES/EBU input.
Delightful is my word of the day for this :lol:
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Very interesting, Bill. Do you know if something like this might work for those of us without an aes/ebu transport?
http://www.lynxstudio.com/product_detail.asp?i=48
$7 bucks may be worth it to experiment.
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Bill,
Since you are using a computer, I'd like to know how you think the direct USB input sounds compared to the aes/ebu or any of the other inputs.
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Very interesting, Bill. Do you know if something like this might work for those of us without an aes/ebu transport?
http://www.lynxstudio.com/product_detail.asp?i=48
$7 bucks may be worth it to experiment.
I think that cable would work great, you can't beat the price so I would go for it.
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Bill,
Since you are using a computer, I'd like to know how you think the direct USB input sounds compared to the aes/ebu or any of the other inputs.
The USB on the bottom had a little bloat to it, not as defined on the bottom end as compared to the toslink but I prefer the USB in the upper frequencies as I heard a little grain using the optical out of my Macbook Pro. The USB into the Trends USB audio adaptor that I had on hand and then from the Trends using its AES/EBU output into the MiniMax DAC's AES/EBU input right now is just lovely. Taut bottom with tinkling highs and the midrange is perfect.It really is a beautiful blend.
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The USB on the bottom had a little bloat to it, not as defined on the bottom end as compared to the toslink but I prefer the USB in the upper frequencies as I heard a little grain using the optical out of my Macbook Pro. The USB into the Trends USB audio adaptor that I had on hand and then from the Trends using its AES/EBU output into the MiniMax DAC's AES/EBU input right now is just lovely. Taut bottom with tinkling highs and the midrange is perfect.It really is a beautiful blend.
Maybe Lee could turn you onto his Nucleus USB cable, just might take care of any bloated bass issues. I know I'm pretty happy with mine. :thumb:
Cheers,
Robin
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Hi Robin,
Really ,the bloat wasn't excessive at all just not as taut as with the optical.
If Lee needs a spokesperson for his Nucleus then I'd be willing to trade up but the Axis will have to do for now. I like this cable a lot(as posted earlier ,so much so Lee was kind enough to build me some balanced Axis cables) but I noticed about 6 months ago you after having the Axis moved up the chain to his Nucleus.I envy your decision but I just can't afford the upgrade at this present time.
Keeping in mind all the comments that I've made have been with about 60 hours on the DAC as I don't like to keep the MAC running for more then 12 hours at a time to let the computer cool down a bit as it is a laptop. Plus, I like to listen to the very first unit in house thru the break/burn in process so I can tell others what to expect along the way. If sending units out for review, I will use a burn in disc to spare the reviewer the process usually.
That is the only part of being in the business that I have grown weary of. I've burned in enough components for any one man's lifetime.When the original MiniMax preamp came out years ago , I burned in at least 50 of them, listening to each and every one of them. Then all the components Eastern Electric has put out since then. I'm not looking for any tears :bawl: to be shed for me but the little bit of time it seems that I have to just listen as a music lover gets cut short. Being that the springtime of my life has passed and winter has begun to set in, the hours seem much more valuable now. :banana piano:
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Is anyone using/trying the BNC input, and if so, how does it compare? I have a bnc version of the HiFace on the way and might go that route rather than directly from the USB of my Mac mini where my music files reside...
Thanks,
Randy
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Very interesting, Bill. Do you know if something like this might work for those of us without an aes/ebu transport?
http://www.lynxstudio.com/product_detail.asp?i=48
$7 bucks may be worth it to experiment.
Gopher,
After looking at the picture again of the cable, the DAC needs a male input AES/EBU
I have a couple of 3 foot and half a dozen 6 foot male RCA to Male AES/EBU input cables so if you would like one free of charge let me know. I will get one out to you ASAP.
Thanks again for your support,
Bill
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Many thanks, Bill! Very cool of you to offer.
Actually this may simplify things for me a good bit as I'll use my CD transport via coax and just run a toshlink to my computer (positioned exactly behind stereo on other side of wall).
It sounds like you and Alex are really convinced this is the way to listen. Is there something fundamentally different about how the DAC handles different digital inputs? I imagined the differences would be very negligible due to the state of the art jitter reduction, but I can definitely hear a subtle difference between coax and tosh--still trying to pick a winner.
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Hey Gopher, as I know your exquisite taste in source devices :wink: , I am eagerly awaiting your early impressions of the EE DAC in contrast to your resident CDP. Thank you in advance!
M.
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Actually, I won't be A/Bing the two sources. I didn't want to gush about the product too much, too early, but upon hearing it I boxed up my Berendsen. It is being traded in to a dealer this weekend towards a Well Tempered Reference turntable. I am confident and comfortable with this decision.
Though I didn't compare them directly a few quick thoughts while I'm at the office would be:
Both are very musical devices with good PRaT and just a fun presentation.
EE DAC has a bit more body than the Berendsen though not at the expense of speed.
The Berendsen sounded like great, fun digital to my ears, but it was definitely digital--the EE blurs the line with analog a little more.
I have to experiment a little bit with my system and see whats going on, but the EE DAC has a wee bit more self noise to it than the Berendsen. At the same time this self noise is not at the expense of resolution... I think the EE is a little more resolved than the Berendsen. (I suspect the noise might have to do with my tube rolling selection).
Also, I think the EE does microdynamics a bit better. Subtle inflections in voices for example seem more noticable--I find this information important as my brain associates that with conveying emotional content.
So far I think I liked the stock tube best with the EE DAC. I'll probably swap it back in tonight and experiment.
I suspect this will be my last digital source. I lived happily with the Berendsen for almost 5 years but this thing fed by a squeezebox is unbelievably convenient. I'm hoping that between this and my new turntable, I can retire from upgrades again.
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I'm hoping that between this and my new turntable, I can retire from upgrades again.
:rotflmao:
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Gopher,
Is this self noise you referred to still present when you switch to the op-amp output stage?
Look forward to hearing more impressions.
-Roscoe
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I'll try this weekend. Quite honestly, I haven't spent any time with the opamp output.
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I have about 43 hours on mine at this point
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Isn't anyone else going give some initial impressions?
I already own the product and know I love mine, but I keep checking these threads hoping to find feedback from others!
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If the DAC's are on 24/7, this coming weekend will be the best time to do a real review. I swear by my 200 hour break-in requirement. I make no judgements until then. I'm sure there are many with their own ritualistic obsessions. ;)
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If the DAC's are on 24/7, this coming weekend will be the best time to do a real review. I swear by my 200 hour break-in requirement. I make no judgements until then. I'm sure there are many with their own ritualistic obsessions. ;)
Good for you! It is hard sometimes but I try to do the same thing when I get new stuff. :thumb:
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Hello Everybody :)
I´m hardly deciding between this DAC and the Audio GD DAC19 with DSP competing in a relatively equal pricerange and seem to be stupidly good for the money compared to the "higher end" branded competition. For the EE DAC speaks the two different soundsignatures ( tube ). Good tubeamps are not cheap so i thought that i could save me from buying one if the EE tube give me a similar sound already and be more flexible if i uprgade my speakers sometime in the future. Is this idea wrong or do i need a tube amp anyways for full bodied warm sound with high amount of detail ?
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Hi Ramon,
There is nothing like a good tube amp but if on a budget I would go for a warmer sounding tube to throw into the EE DAC that still would retain the detail your also looking for. My preference would be a Mullard longplate 12au7, K61 etched date code in the glass,expensive though at about $100. next would be a Tungsol blackglass 12au7, the going rate for these on Ebay anywhere from $25-$40, or an old RCA blackplate 12au7 square getter tube for $15-$25. These tubes are what some would consider warm or lush sounding which seems to be what your trying to find that your system might not be portraying.
Good luck with whatever way you choose,
Bill
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Hi Bill,
Thanks for the reply, yes my gear and especially my speakers are quite neutral to analytical sounding wich on one side is great with high quality recordings but some music, especially the lower quality ones are sounding to clinical flat atm. The DAC could be a solution and using one of the tubes you mentioned could give those recordings a bit more soul i think. Actually i´m using only an Harman Kardon AVR 5500 with older AKM DA´s in stereo mode after downsizing my surround setup. Never had any dedicated DAC.
After my basic room threatment finishes i´ll contact you regarding the DAC. Are there any official reviews planned ?
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I have been tube rolling like a mad man trying to dial in the EE DAC. I started with Mullards in the Candella, and the stock EE tube in the DAC. After several combinations of tubes, I finally hit the jack pot. Running circa 1953 RCA JRC tubes in the Candela, and a Dario MiniWatt in the DAC. All I can say is WOW - this is the exact sound I was looking for!
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Kinda slow in this thread. Any more reviews now that the EE DAC has been out for a while?
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My wife just ordered me one. I am so very excited! Expect my review to be posted here after burn in. Will also be doing a full review for www.head-fi.org .
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Got mine on Tuesday and have been breaking it in with a repeated playlist off the SB Touch since then. Gave it a brief listen last night for the first time in comparison to the stock analog outs to the Touch. Not going to comment much yet as it was only a very quick listen and according to Bill the unit really doesn't come into it's own until after 100 hours of break in, but so far I like what I'm hearing :)
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Got mine on Tuesday and have been breaking it in with a repeated playlist off the SB Touch since then. Gave it a brief listen last night for the first time in comparison to the stock analog outs to the Touch. Not going to comment much yet as it was only a very quick listen and according to Bill the unit really doesn't come into it's own until after 100 hours of break in, but so far I like what I'm hearing :)
Told ya!
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Ok, I'm by no means an expert reviewer, but here are my experiences and thoughts on my new EE DAC.
The EE DAC reached my doorstep on Tuesday of last week and even though the suspense was killing me as for what it might do for my sound, I decided for once I'd try to let a component break in before giving it a real listen. To that end, I heeded Bill's advice and just put my SB Touch hooked up via coax cable to the EE DAC on a 5 album playlist without hooking up the analog outs to the rest of my system. Bill mentioned that the unit started to really sound good and open up after about 100 hours of burn in so I thought I'd give it a listen on Friday evening for the first time as my wife and kids were going to be out of town for the weekend. Would that be 100 hours? No, but it would be close enough.
So fast forward to Thursday evening and I couldn't take the ribbing from two fellow audio enthusiast friends any further that I had a wonderful new piece of audio gear and I had yet to give it a listen. Sigh....a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do so I hooked up the analog outs and fired up my Salk ST's :) Well.....I got 5 minutes into listening and my wife and two kids came home and I couldn't hear a darn thing. Decided to wait a bit more and put on my Beyerdynamic DT880's later and see what I heard. Well, a few hours later the time came to give the EE DAC a first listen. At first, I was doing quick A/B comparisons with the EE DAC tube output to just the SB Touch analog outs that were also hooked up to my preamp. I'm sad to report here that at first it was VERY difficult to make out the difference between the two units. Yes, the vocals were a smidge better and yeah I thought I was getting more detail, but it wasn't like a night and day difference. Now with that said, I just had a long rough day at work and was already somewhat frustrated and this listening test was further souring my day. At the urging of a friend who was telling me I should hear much more of a change than that, I tried to really relax and let the music just wash over me. It was at this point that I also migrated away from the quick A/B comparison and just went with playing a few minutes of a song through just the SB Touch and then restarting the song and listening to the same few minutes with the EE DAC. It was then that I REALLY started to notice the differences. Vocals were more than just "different" on the tube output of the EE DAC, they sounded like there was more meat on the bone so to speak. There wasn't just more detail in the EE DAC, things like cymbals sounded like cymbals should with more shimmer and decay after being hit with a drum stick. There was more resonance in acoustic guitar passages. Satisfied at this point that I was at least getting SOMETHING, I decided to hit the sack and let the DAC continue to burn in for another 24 hours and follow up the next night with a listening session with my Salk ST's instead of just headphones.
Now it's Friday evening and after getting home from work I look forward to pulling my speakers out from their normal resting places (yes my family room doesn't allow for optimum speaker placement most of the time), put the stereo on and see how things were sounding with the DAC after another 24 hour break in. That's when I remembered that I had to turn the PC on when I got home which meant that the SB Touch did not have an information stream all day long! (My wife had turned the PC off before leaving town earlier that day.) Talk about a pisser! Decided against trying to listen in 15 minutes to form any real opinion and just started up the PC and let the unit burn for a few hours while another local audiophile friend and I grabbed dinner. While at dinner, I was telling my friend about my frustration in trying to pick up differences between the SB Touch and the DAC on Thurs. He said he'd offer his opinion on Saturday night when he came over to let me borrow some of his acoustic room treatments to see what type of affect they might have on my systems sound.
So after dropping my friend back off at his home, I pulled the speakers out from the wall and gave a listen to Dido's Life For Rent with the EE DAC and the stock tube along with a nice refreshing adult beverage. This time around things were a bit more clear in comparisons to the SB Touch analog outs. First and foremost, the EE DAC had a much tighter hold on the low end which I had not noticed in my DT880 cans. Bass notes were much easier to pick out as individual notes instead of just one deep sound. Detail in the upper registers was also improved to use an often said line, the music just had a much more "alive" sound than it did previously with just the SB Touch analogs. This was most noticeable in Dido's voice. With the EE DAC her voice took on height and depth while with the Touch outs it just was a relatively flat presentation. Then I threw on some of the hirez downloads by Naim to see how they sounded on the ST's vs. the BD's. Again, the EE DAC did not disappoint with cymbals sounding like they had much more shimmer and decay than the output from the Touch alone. Drumstick hits were also quite easy to pick out vs. the Touch alone. At this point, I was becoming a bit more comfortable in my purchase :) Played around with speaker positioning a bit more to try and get things sounding the best I could before doing any really serious listening the next day. With that done, I rolled into bed and let the DAC continue burning in.
Saturday morning, I got up about 7 and did about 2 hours of listening before heading out to see Inception. (Bad ass film by the way with what I thought was a cool soundtrack to boot.) During this two hour session, I decided it was time to do a little tube rolling as I really wanted to see if there would be much difference to the stock tube and the DAC now had 75 plus hours of burn in on it. So in went the Mullard http://www.upscaleaudio.com/Mullard-Old-Logo-12AU7ECC82_p_247.html (http://www.upscaleaudio.com/Mullard-Old-Logo-12AU7ECC82_p_247.html)........... HOLY CRAP!!! What a change in sound! Vocals which I already thought were pretty good with the stock tube vs. SS became VERY VERY 3D. The sound wasn't really darker, but it just felt like everything picked up a notch of realism. To me, the low end became even more tight and stringed instruments had a really nice resonance to them. Soundstage also gained quite a bit of width. Sent a text to two friends telling them that I was quite blown away. Even though I wanted to go see Inception pretty badly, I seriously considered tossing that idea aside and just continuing to listen to the awesomeness that was playing before me. All wasn't perfect however.........vocals at times were a bit overdone and had just a slight bit of glare. This was especially apparent in stuff by Alison Krauss. It wasn't painful by any means and still sounded better than my system ever had, but I was kinda hoping that maybe the tube just needed a little settling time and that would iron things out. It was at this point I left for Inception with the EE DAC continuing to burn away with the new Mullard. When I got back about 4 hours later (had a bit of shopping to do after the film), the harshness in the midrange was gone and things were once again back to being buttery smooth :) Like I said, I couldn't believe the difference between the stocker tube and the Mullard. Makes me wonder what other sounds might be out there in other tube land as this is my first bit of tube gear.
My friend came over on Saturday evening and again we tested the EE DAC to the stock SB Touch. Within about 10 minutes of listening he said there was absolutely no comparison between the two and all of the items that I thought were improved he basically reaffirmed. (I had not mentioned to him at this time what I thought had improved.) The first thing he mentioned was that he was surprised by just how much more control of the low end the EE DAC seemed to have. He was also quite blown away by the new found 3D'ness of the vocalists in recordings. Said it just lended the listening experience to a much more "being there" feeling.
Oh, one other thing, the EE DAC has a volume knob and I was a bit concerned about where to set it initially as it was just one more variable I thought I'd have to deal with having a dedicated pre. Well I went with the advice of Big Red Machine and just put it full over to see how things sounded. No issues that way and so I figure I'll leave it there as turning it down didn't seem to offer any real benefits in my system. Listened for the remainder of the afternoon and into the evening just to a variety of things and just had grins from ear to ear.
To sum it up.....would I purchase another EE DAC? Absolutely. I really was curious if this product was worth all the praise that seems to be heaped upon on it here and now I'm a believer. The ability to change the way the unit sounds with some tube rolling is really just icing on the cake as the bass control and detail this thing offers is great.
Also want to say a quick thanks to Bill for being so prompt in responding to a number of questions I had about the unit prior to purchase.
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Kinger.... great review and I agree with your observations and it will make mine seem short. My EE DAC arrived two days ago and what can I say except it sounds fantastic. I am used to the chip in my slimdevice tranporter and the EE blows it away. my wife is not much of a stereo person and I had her listen to both the tube and the SS and it was the tube that won hands down. I plan to do some more listening this evening and see if the burn in makes it even better. Very clear highs, natural mids and clear tranparency.
The build quality seems first rate... a solid little box. I am running an optical link from my cheap DVD player as the Transporter not at my lake house. I would highly recommend the EE DAC. First class sound and Bill was a pleasure to buy from. Now on to tube rolling !!!!!!!! :thumb:
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Bill,
Based on some of the speculation in the reviews of your DAC that I've read, are you really working on a new version that allows higher res music through USB? I suppose it doesn't matter since I don't use the USB, but then again it would be nice to have that option.
I plan on buying a MiniMax DAC soon - loved the sound of it at RMAF! But if you truly are going to offer a newer version, I might wait.
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Kinger
thx, great review
I like a "thick description" of yr experience, makes me reliving it stepping into yr moccasins ;) I have not read the other previous posts, just glanced over the newest ones. I missed a bit your complete setup to have a more complete idea
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Guys it sounds like a very exciting DAC :D I have notice a few guys have asked for some comparisons to other DACs with no reply's :scratch: Has anyone heard this DAC that has also heard some of the heavy weights so to speak like Berkeley, Dodson, Accustic Arts, MBL, Weiss or DCS? I and I'm sure a lot of other readers would love to hear your comparisons to something that might give us a benchmark. Can someone compare this to Dan Wrights modded Transporter?
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Anyone compair this DAC to the DAC in the Cambridge Audio 840C?
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Looking for a good sound card recommendation to use as a output from my shuttle PC to the MiniMax DAC - gettting away from the USB input which is not fully suppport from this unit.
Currently using a Peachtree audio DAC/AMP to a a Dynaco SCA -35 and WOO-WA2 headphone amp