[FredT300B]

This is the continuation of a thread about Audio Mirror products that started on the Selah Audio forum.

The specific question was about the sound character of non-oversampling DAC's like the Audio Mirror, Scott Nixon, etc. I have been using a Scott Nixon tube dac with a Marantz CD-67SE player as the transport and have found the SN is significantly more transparent than the Marantz. I haven't compared the SN to any other DAC's, non-os or otherwise, but that's the topic of the August Houston Audio Society meeting. We will be comparing the Audio Mirror, Scott Nixon, and dAck! DAC's to each other, to some mainstream high end DAC's, and to the analog output of a Sony SCD-XA9000ES player. I'll post a summary of the results.

A question was also asked about the Audio Mirror preamp; whether it's assembled in China or in the US. As I understand it, Audio Mirror product parts are sourced from several countries - chassis and boards from China, Auricaps from the US, oil caps from the former Soviet Union countries, etc. The components are assembled here in Houston. The preamps use printed circuit boards, while the amps are point-to-point wired. There's a picture of the inside of a the Audio Mirror PP1 line/phono preamp at http://wardsweb.org/LSB/04_16_05/H02.html The two larger boards are obviously the power supply and preamp boards; the smaller front one is the remote volume pot board, the back one is the switching relay board which locates the selector switches close to the inputs. I believe the acutual selling price of this preamp (not the published price which is higher) with the capacitor upgrade shown (Auricaps and pio caps bypassed with teflons) was about $850.

The Audio Mirror web site is at http://www.audiomirror.com/

[doug s.]

to answer rocket & rnhood from the previous thread (which was kinda getting side-tracked!), the audio mirror products, as stated by fred, are mfr'd in the us of a, by parts from everywhere.  (most audio goods are mfr'd w/parts from everywhere, regardless of where they are actually put together.)  afaik, vladimir bezelkov is an eastern european (bulgarian?) expatriot, now residing in the usa.

rocket mentions "kav".  if yure referring to kavent, (or vincent - same thing), this has nothing to do w/audio mirror - this is gear mfr'd in china, quite popular in germany, among other places.

re: the audio mirror dac, as this was my only exposure to non-os dacs, i am quite anxious to hear the report of this dac compared to other more well-known non-os dacs like the s/n & the ack!   but, as far as comments on the sound character of the a/m dac i auditioned,  while i would say it was smoother, but w/less dynamics or frequency extension than my self-modded art di/o, we are talking small degrees, not huge differences.  the audio mirror dac was still dynamic & had good frequency extension.  and, my di/o is still plenty smooth.  which is, i guess, why some folk seem to prefer oversampled dacs, & others seem to prefer the non-os variety.   also, it is possible that ancillary gear may play a role.  if you have a highly detailed solid-state rig, or a more rounded tube rig, this may effect your preferences.  or mebe not - comparisons here are also needed, imo.  while i am into tubes, i consider my tubed gear (especially my preamp) as detailed as any good s/s gear.

doug s.