Ack dAck Review
This is very difficult in that I have never reviewed a component before and I like the rest of you are tired of hearing the typical comments used for describing the character of an audio component. At the same time I feel that in order to give the complete picture of the components
Character I will have to give a little bit of background of system, beliefs on the reproduction of sound.
By profession I am a commercial photographer based in Los Angeles and as a result of my professions adoptions of digital technologiesI find that there is quite a bit of overlap with both digital sound reproduction and digital imaging. (photography)
Background
I have been involved in the high-end for about 15 years. I started off with a tube only system and went to a biamp tube solid state, which has evolved to the current solid state all digital system. The reason for the change from tube to solid is that I became tired of the tube chase.
Currently the system consists of 47 labs Flatfish, pure power battery supply for the Flatfish, Ack dAck w/ battery (reason for review), Bent Audio TVC, Pass Labs Aleph 2 monoblocks, and Vienna Acoustics Mahler speakers. I would describe my sound as very open detailed dynamic without being harsh.
The Ack dAck circumstance
My quest for great digital sound started 8 years ago with the purchase of a Bow Technologies zz-8. Great analog sounding player but I thought that there might be more that I might be able to pull out of the elusive silver disc. This is where my photography background comes into play.
As I started to understand film scanning I found that scanning at the optical resolution of the scanning device. Not interpolation get it all off with out the addition of guess data. So with this information I started to investigate the non-over sampling filterless dac. At the same time everything that I read suggested that AC lines were very detrimental to good digital sound. That led me to the Ack. The Ack is
Inexpensive and when I found one on Audiogon it was to good of a bargain. I figured that if I did not like it I would be able to sell it again and get my money back. I was floored !! The sound in combinations to with the Bow was better then I could have ever expected. I called Chris Owen (Mr. Ack dAck) to ask if he was modding the Ack. He said no told me Steve @ Empirical Audio was planning a mod for the Ack. After which Steve started the Ack forum on the audiocircle site. I had some question about the mod and even made a trip to CES to listen to the modded Ack. Right about this time Chris Owen announced the new Ack 2.0, which made for very inexpensive dAcks on the used market as people were upgrading in the 2.0. I decided to purchase another used Ack and send it up to Steve to mod while continuing to listen to my original dac. This aloud me to compare the 1.2d version with Steve's modified 1.2d.
Sound
Finally, to the part you all have been waiting for. The sound… I had been eagerly waiting notification from Steve that the precious cargo was on its way. First I must commend Steve on his knowledge and patience. I have some not traditional ideas and he listened and accommodated me with his time and knowledge. Again the sound…
I know that the upgrades require a break in time but right out of the box the new and improved unit smoked the original. Much greater depth and width. The textures of the bow on the strings of the violin were clearly audible. But not in a way that makes that the important feature. The completeness of the music was never disturbed in order to bring out or emphasis individual aspects of the music. I currently have approx 60hrs on the unit and it’s going through its growing pains. although they have become less noticeable over the last 20 hrs. as i have listened i have heard the dac change sound. the mid bass would get thick and the top end extenstion would not be there. but when it came back it sounded incredible. I will update in a couple of weeks as i put more time on the unit. if there are any other questions that i can answer feel free to ask.
