[davejcb]

Looking for some opinions here... I'm about to receive my Royal Masters (finally!), and am trying to decide which DAC I will add to my Panasonic DVD-A7 transport. So far, options are:

SN TubeDac or TubeDac+
Ack! DAC
Bel Canto 1
Bel Canto 2

What are you folks using with your De Capo and Royal Virtuosos for digital? The CD will be going straight into Decware Zen Selects, BTW.

Thanks!

[mcrespo71]

I have actually tried all of the Dacs you mentioned, but only 2 of them with the MM De Capo I's.  I own the Ack dAck and preferred it over the SN Tube Dac + by a large margin.  I've heard both Bel Canto's and actually think the Dac 1 is more laid back sounding and I bet it may mate better with the more upfront nature of the MM De Capo I.  The Bel Canto's have a very different sound than the non-oversampling dacs- they make the soundstage huge and 3 dimensional, but don't sound as natural to me.  However, if you like that type of sound (pinpoint imaging/big bass), then I'd definitely go for the Bel Canto's.  The non-oversampling designs have a better midrange and just sound more like music to me.  In addition, the Ack dAck has a ridiculously black background than can be just addictive once you get used to it.

Michael

[mcrespo71]

BTW, for my notorious review of the Ack dAck vs the SN Tube Dac +, see this thread http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=5441

Michael

[sdk]

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.

[davejcb]

Sounds like the Ack! is what I'll give a try...

Anybody try the Bel Canto DACs on these speakers?

[mcrespo71]

Dave,

Just to be sure, you could always try the demo dAck risk free.  I believe they were offering anyone a demo of the dAck for the price of shipping.  Obviously, this is the preferrable way to try the dAck out.  Then you can be absolutely sure you will like it.

Michael

[lcrim]

davejcb:
I have a single Select SE84-CS amp teamed w/ Parker 95 MKII's.  The detail, after some tube rolling, is truly jaw dropping.  For a digital front end I have a $60 Toshiba 3950 DVDP (thanks Rosconey!) that was the hot thing over on the Asylum and Superlatives IC's by diycables.com.  I use the rotary switch box from Decware so that I can switch between the Toshiba and my other sources, no preamp so far.  The Select requires a 2 volt input to reach full gain.  I found this out w/ my analog front end which doesn't get to full gain as well as my HDTV receiver (the jazz channel on directv (840) can be great for background music  at times despite the compression.)
The Toshiba w/ mimimal tweaks and on well recorded Redbook is very good.  On grainy stuff it can't help but reproduce it.  The very low price has a reverse snob appeal to me.  
A player that I would like to try is the tubed output DVD player that Decware is modding from a Sony player.  I haven't heard it myself but its a bit less than the Ah Tjoeb but that one also has an available upsampling board that was raved about in some quarters.  The Decware unit is of more interest to me for its video and sound capabilities combined.  You might have mentioned that you have a transport already, I forget, so you only need a DAC but just wanted to mention these options.

[davejcb]

Just to be sure, you could always try the demo dAck risk free.

Probably what I'll do. Thanks Michael!

The Select requires a 2 volt input to reach full gain. I found this out w/ my analog front end which doesn't get to full gain as well...

That's actually one of the reasons I'm trying to avoid the SN TubeDac, as it only gets ~1.75V. Thanks.

[brucegel]

If you can afford it the audio aero capitole mk2 is very listenable.