[joessportster]

Maybe someone can help here. I am fully digital & have been for years. One thing that kills me is etch & sibilance. I have heard and loved the Lamp Gen 4 Level 4 DACs I have no experience with the later models. I guess I am hoping someone can tell me if the newer models are chasing the newer sound that seems to be popular now days. To me its overly analytical and just grating on my nerves. I dont want to buy the lamp Amber 5 only to find out its a poor fit. especially seeing as Lamp has now done away with the 7 day trial period

Historically I have been in the NOS / R2R camp of Tube DACs............

I listen to all genre of music, I love acoustic, Classic Rock, some Classical & Jazz............Eva Cassidy, Allison Krauss, Patricia Barber, Diana Krall for  female vocals...............I tend to listen around the 85 to 90 db level. I am in a smaller room that is a tad on the live side. Though I am working on that

any advice appreciated

[toocool4]

Reading what you wrote, your equipment does not sound like the problem to me.
You say you are in a small lively room and listening at 85 to 90db, and at a guess you don’t have enough room treatment.

What is the size of your room and how much treatment do you have in there?

[Early B.]

Yeah, the source of etch and sibilance can be a bunch of different things, including cables, tubes, and capacitor upgrades. There are many other reasons to buy an Amber 5, but don't expect any specific DAC to eliminate sibilance.

[Tyson]

Room first is my advice.  Only after you have the room dialed in can you really fine tune the rest of the system properly. For example, if you treat your room now, the sibilance might disappear entirely.  That's good to know before changing any other gear.

[WGH]

To my ears, PCM recordings have a lot of energy, a little too much. My ears get tired with all that high energy. The ANK (Audio Note Kits) NOS DACs are one solution to the PCM frizzies, three guys in our audio club have great sounding ANK DACs but they only listen to Redbook recordings.

Redbook is fine but I wanted to hear the latest hi-res music too so I took another route. Four years ago I built a high powered fanless music server and bought HQPlayer. Now I can listen to entire selection of DSD music that is available. Many new studios like Sound Liason and Cookie Marenco's Blue Coast Records record directly to DSD.

HQPlayer is one of three software players that play native DSD; JRiver and Roon are the other two. Other players will play DSD but over DoP which is limited to DSD128. HDMI is limited the DSD64.


I upsample all my ripped and downloaded PCM recordings to DSD256. Music sounds more natural and the high frequency frizzies have been banished.
HQPlayer is a state-of-the-art upsampler, a high powered computer isn't recommended, it is required. And there is a learning curve.

The Lampizator Amber 5 will play every format including DSD. Search for free DSD music samplers to see if that solves part of your etch & sibilance problem.


Note: I gave up trying to integrate a library function into HQPlayer, the available options are all ugly. JRiver has an excellent library interface. I start HQPlayer first and it locks in the USB output. I then start JRiver and drag and drop albums into HQPlayer. The best of both worlds.

[joessportster]

Hello all, Thank you for the suggestions.

My Room is 13.5 X 16, The 16 opens up behind me. There is a bar that creates the boundry. Speakers (OB Lii Song F-15 over Bass aug. or a pair of John Kalinowski Seas Exotic LARGE Bookshelf. When I have these in I run a pair of Subs to fill in the bottom.

I set aprox 7 feet away from the speakers. They are 36" away from side walls, and 48" away from front wall. I have drywall for walls and Vinyl plank tile flooring. I put a 10 X 12 carpet on the floor. For the first point of reflection I hung heavy moving blankets (floor to ceiling. I also hung heavy moving blankets behind each speaker

I am in the process of building some defraction panels. I injured my hand so the project is on hold for a spell. I want to hang 2 x 2 panels at first reflection on top of the moving blankets. I also plan to hang a pair of them behind the speakers

System consists of PC running J-River 32, Files are mainly flac, Some DSD and DSF also. I down sample everything to Red Book 16 / 44.1  The PC usb out to a Border Patrol SEI DAC that I use as a DDC, USB to Spdif Convertor. I use a curious or audioquest cinnamon USB cable from the PC to the Border Patrol.  I use an Audioquest COAX from the BP to a PSAudio Direct stream perfectwave. The DAC is connected to my Coincident statement linestage.  The pre mid high goes to a pair of Williamson amps, and the bottom goes out to a pair of Crown XLS1502 amps for bass 150 Hz and below.  Top end runs full range

Cables are mostly home brew mogami I paid a guy to build them..................Speaker cables for top end are either kimber 12tc or a pair of artisan pure silver.........Bass cables are copper snakes from Digital amp Company

Thoughts ?

[WGH]

System consists of PC running J-River 32, Files are mainly flac, Some DSD and DSF also. I down sample everything to Red Book 16 / 44.1  The PC usb out to a Border Patrol SEI DAC that I use as a DDC, USB to Spdif Convertor. I use a curious or audioquest cinnamon USB cable from the PC to the Border Patrol.  I use an Audioquest COAX from the BP to a PSAudio Direct stream perfectwave.

You know the PSAudio Perfectwave DirectStream automatically upsamples all inputs to DSD128? You are throwing away data and then PS Audio is trying to reconstruct the data at the other end.

All those cables, all those boxes. I'm sure you have a reason. I would plug the USB cable from the PC to the PS Audio.

[JackD]

If your DAC is the DS MkI then the preferred input is I2S and the most accepted and used method of conversion is the Matrix Audio DDC. Connect it between the computer and DS and simplify the whole process. This is the device Ted Smith used with the DS.

https://www.matrix-digi.com/product/82/X-SPDIF3

[joessportster]

The reason I am not going straight USB to the PSaudio is they are a PITA with software. If anything fails to mate up perfectly the PSaudio will skip, stall, stop all together.......Even when you have it working it is quirky IMHO. So I opted for SPDIF input as I already had the BP.............. I have used 12s input on other DACs (AGD R7HE)and frankly never heard anything that led me to believe it sounded better.

I took 4" thick mattress foam and placed it at first reflection points IMHO it makes no difference. I moved it right up against the side of the speakers it makes a small difference positioned like this

[JackD]

I'm only telling you what the designer of the DAC recommended but you are free to do whatever you want.  As I've owned a DS MkI for almost a decade and never had a problem with it in terms of the things you describe I would suggest that maybe your issues are elsewhere in the chain.  Mine has been in two different houses in four different systems and never a serious issue even with the PITA Bridge II. Quirks were resolved by rebooting the entire network chain from the modem forward.

[joessportster]

I'm only telling you what the designer of the DAC recommended but you are free to do whatever you want.  As I've owned a DS MkI for almost a decade and never had a problem with it in terms of the things you describe I would suggest that maybe your issues are elsewhere in the chain.  Mine has been in two different houses in four different systems and never a serious issue even with the PITA Bridge II. Quirks were resolved by rebooting the entire network chain from the modem forward.

What Firmware are you running ?  Mine has Sunlight...............I understand the issue could be elsewhere. I just can not fathom where. All copper cables except the 1 speaker cable which I am swapping out today. Williamson amps are known for a lot of things, but bright isnt one of them. The Coincident statement linestage uses the 101d tubes which are not considered bright.  That just leaves the DAC    real head scratcher

I went ahead and pulled the trigger on the Amber 5, I figure if it doesnt work out I can just resell it, Being a 1 owner with warranty will help move it if it is required

[Early B.]

Your Audioquest cables and ICs are gonna be on the bright side. You may not think so until you switch them out with cables that cost a lot more. The nice people here on AudioCircle won't tell you. And don't get me started on power cords...   

[JackD]

I too am runing the very last firmware that was released for the MkI and have even upgraded the transformers to the Edcor model that Ted originally spec'd for the unit.  To my ears the DS MK1 has always been to the warmer side of neutral no matter what gear was before or after it in the chain either SS or tubes. Always used OCC copper cables with it when it resided in the main system.  At this point in it's life it is the DAC in the Family Room system where it is used for TV or Internet Radio. Though it has been bested not only by PSA's later units but with a similar voice much improved units from Aqua.

[Rusty Jefferson]

I just saw this thread, sorry for the late reply. I'm firmly in the camp that digital glare isn't inherent to the format, but rather the 'glare' (jitter) is added by us. It's on your computer (your server in this case) and on your network. A PC/Mac is the worst place to store and stream music from, especially via USB.

There are many products available to improve signal quality, too many to get into here, but here's an inexpensive product that I think will make a bigger difference than your dac swapping. It's an (actual) usb to s/pdif converter designed to reduce noise (jitter). There are more expensive/better ones available, but for $100 you may get better results than swapping out dacs costing thousands because you're still sending them the same noisy signal. If it works, you can then start looking at other products to improve your signal path. I think it's possible one of the 2 dacs you already have will sound better than your current signal path to the Amber without it. Choose 'just the converter' option. Good luck with the journey. 

https://www.schiit.com/products/eitr-2

[WGH]

A PC/Mac is the worst place to store and stream music from, especially via USB.

There are many products available to improve signal quality, too many to get into here, but here's an inexpensive product that I think will make a bigger difference than your dac swapping. It's an (actual) usb to s/pdif converter designed to reduce noise (jitter).

The OP will no longer have to downsample his DSD and DSF files to 16bit/44.1kHz. JRiver can output Native DSD over USB and the Amber 5 can input Native DSD.

The Border Patrol DAC USB input only accepts Redbook up to 96 kHz/24 bit which is why the OP had to downsample everything before converting to SPDIF. Converting a DSD256 file to Redbook would make the file size of a 4 minute song 42 MB smaller. All that resolution, dynamic range and low level information the recording engineers worked so hard to capture goes poof into thin air, lost forever. I have Sound Liason albums recorded in DSD256, DXD352-24 and PCM 768kHz-32 bit. I'm surprised the audio gods hasn't struck down his system yet.


One piece that will definitely improve sound quality is an audio grade USB card powered by a linear regulated 5v power supply.

A JCAT Femto USB card eliminates noise and jitter at the hardware level. The card eliminates motherboard noise by removing the noisy ground and 5V line with the CPU, GPU, and RAM. The JCAT card uses independent, ultra-low-noise voltage regulators and filters to block this motherboard noise from reaching the USB output. An external LPS completely cuts out the computer’s dirty switching power supply (SMPS). The JCAT cards (especially the XE or Femto versions) utilize state-of-the-art clocks right at the PCIe bus. This means the digital bits are timed perfectly before they even enter the USB cable, reducing jitter to near-zero levels.

I use a HoloAudio May KTE DAC which has a proprietary, built-in Titanis USB module that provides full galvanic isolation, filtering out 100% of the electrical noise, ground loops, and bus power spikes coming from the my PC based server.

So yes, a PC based music server can deliver state-of-the-art sound over USB without any noise or jitter.

[Rusty Jefferson]

No flames, but I don't think that directly addresses the OPs reason for starting the thread, a glare he's not able to shake with multiple dac changes. I believe he has an issue with noise/grunge on his network. I've seen it many times before and have helped several friends eliminate it. There are many things that could be done but I'm trying to start slowly and inexpensively. And yes, adding jcat usb and ethernet cards along with a lps could be an excellent upgrade down the road, but I wouldn't put them in an old PC, they would deserve a dedicated server also running on a lps.

If a simple more direct path with a better usb to s/pdif converter reduces the glare some (or potentially a lot), he may be more interested in pursuing further upgrades to finding the Nirvana you have.