John,
Talk to us about your Dakiom experience (maybe start a new thread...hirez tweaks?)
It helps CD, as well.
I think they are, overall, great when used in the right application(s).
I found the rca-type Dakioms to be mostly helpful.....the pigtail-type for speaker outputs not so helpful.
I have a bottom-of-the-line pair (US$59) and a top-of-the-line pair (US$218) and they both work....the top-of-the-line unit seems a little more 'confident' in what it does.
What does it do? It's a feedback stabilizer...so it works only for those components that use feedback in their design. It does not work with players that have tube outputs, or probably have been designed in some way with stable feedback already.
For me, it made an absolutely, unforgivably bad sounding
Sony DVP-S7700 sound respectable (it was modded and used only as a transport, but I had to use for listening while my DAC back then was in for upgrades)
It has greatly improved the
Pioneer DV-656a I have and the
Cambridge DVD-99 as well (tho less improvement found with the Cambridge...which I can assume to mean that feedback stabilization has been addressed better in it)
It
won't give you bigger bass, more impactful dynamics, or improve resolution - better power supplies and hi-rez only can bring that forward. It just adds this organic, more lifelike rightness to the music that I prefer to have in every instance now.
I started a review of these in 2004, btw, that may be a helpful read:
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=7588.0A good hi-rez player of choice, an isolation transformer, a Herbie's disc mat, a sensible 14ga cord and DVD-A is quite surprisingly enjoyable. Not
quite vinyl standards.....but for less than $600 invested, there is very little for a vinyl front end that is enjoyable (that would be deck, new or used, cartridge, good sub-base, a record cleaning machine or other method of cleaning, etc).
Sorry for the tangent....but the Dakiom's
should add to hi-rez enjoyment for others as they have for me
John