I recently sent my Ensemble Dirondo CDT and Audio Note DAC 4.1x Signature to Steve for upgrading. I'm a past customer, and I have an earlier DAC 4.1x mods review on Steve's website.
I wanted to try V-caps, which Steve recommended in the DAC. I sent along the CDT because, while clearly extraordinarily well-built, it sounded hard and overly bright (as in the Six Moons review). I believed Steve could work his magic on it, including the addition of an Audiocom Clock 4.
He did his usual, "speeding things up" and reducing jitter with judicious parts swaps in the CDT along with the Clock 4. Along with the V-caps into the DAC he undid some boogering up of his earlier mods by someone who added balanced analog outs about a year ago (not an AN authorized tech...).
It took only a couple of songs from the first cd I played through my "new" source components before I had to stop and telephone Steve - I was THAT stunned!
I've gone through a lot of gear/mods over the past 7 years and have learned more about the effect (including in my wallet) of system changes than I ever wanted to know - well past the steep end of the learning curve for sure. These mods are transformational.
Focus is now razor sharp. I never thought imaging, three dimensionality and air had so much to do with jitter in digital sources.
Low level detail is unreal.
Timber is much more natural, both instruments and human voice.
Noticeably tighter and powerful bass (Steve actually tweaked the DAC mods after "completion" because he felt the bass could be improved with a different cap mix)
All this is just words which can't describe the transformation of my system. Nothing has done more to convince me that the source is of greatest importance in an audio system.
A few weeks before my modded gear returned, I read an audio forum snippet from Steve:
"Most people have never heard a truly low-jitter digital source" (paraphrased).
I'm now blessed to be among those who have, and who can enjoy it in their home.
I owe a debt of gratitude to folks like Steve and Ralph Karsten (of Atma-Sphere Music). Their world class expertise is matched by their honesty and customer service.
