OMG!!!! I heard Scott Nixon's DAC tonight. . .

Hantra · « **on:** 31 Dec 2002, 02:45 am »

All:

I finally was able to get up with Scott Nixon to hear his DAC tonight. The guy lives only 3-4 miles from me, and I have been e-mailing him to see if I could audition the thing. Scott is the guy that owns Anodyne, and Audio Refinement. He has long built big daddy DAC's, and CDP's, cables, crossovers, etc. for many really big gun companies in our world, and for his own companies.

For those who are not aware of his DAC, you should familiarize yourself with it becasue it is an absolute amazing piece of engineering!

Here's a link:

http://home.triad.rr.com/scottnixon/dac.htm

Anyhow, I wish I could give you a full blown audiophile review of this thing, and give you all the buzzwords that you want to hear, but I don't think I can. This is the first time I can say that I was way, way too involved in the music to even begin to think of a review, or a way to describe this sound to others.

If you have ever been abducted by aliens, and brought back, you'll understand where I am coming from. I can imagine that you wouldn't know how to describe that experience either.

We listened for a bit to the new Johnny Cash disc, which is really good. Also we listened to some Keb 'Mo off his first disc, and then we plugged in the DAC. I didn't have any digital cables at all. I have always used PBJ for that, so that's what we used.

I have to say that the first thing I noticed with the DAC is that everything sounded so much more alive, and organic. The background was quieter, and more music seemed to flow through like a dam flowing over after a 3 day storm. More seemed to emerge from the music. I am a digital child, and have not had an analog rig, but I thought to myself "this must be what analog is like". I could not believe it.

All the noise, and harshness of digital had disappeared. I have seen Keb' Mo at a small auditorium, and tonight was the closest I have ever been to that experience.

Scott then plugged in the tubed version of the same DAC. If the other one brought forth more music like water spilling over a dam, this one was like Hoover exploding! I could not say anything! Scott must think I am wierd, but honestly I felt hypnotized almost! That was the first time I have ever been so awestruck, and mezmerized at reproduced music in my life!

I put in some Dan Crary, and I saw him not 2 months ago with 30 other people in a small venue. This took me back. Nothing has yet!

The tubed version is so amazing!!! It makes everything sound more natural to me. It has the wonderful dimensionality of tubes without taking away detail, or adding dark colorations. I had heard that folks who had DCS Elgars bought these DAC's. Now I see why. I am sure the 100 pound DAC's that are engineered like the B-2 are amazing, but this thing just approaches it from a different angle.

You know, you can make good coffee with a gorgeous, $15,000, 400 pound Italian machine with lots of gadgets. But can you make coffee as good with that pot, and all it's complexities, as a simple vacuum pot made from two pieces of glass? Some will argue all day that the $15,000 pot of coffee is better, but I know as many who argue the reverse. In reality, they may be the same, but it's how you go about it.

Same with this DAC. It is the epitome of simplicity.

It's like a 47 Labs Progression except with much better parts, and an amazing tube output stage. Ohh, and it's like $4K less than that DAC would be with a tube added.

You guys need to try this thing. You have spent more money on much worse gear. This thing grabs you, and will not let go.

Mine is being built as we speak!

Thanks Scott!

B

cjr888 · « **Reply #1 on:** 31 Dec 2002, 02:48 am »

Glad to her some comments on the DAC -- I'm been visiting Scott's page way too much lately. Waiting to free up some funds, and identify a suitable transport...

Jay S · « **Reply #2 on:** 31 Dec 2002, 02:59 am »

Drool, drool, drool...

Ever since listening to the nOrh CD-1 with the rare Sylvania Gold Brand gold pin grey plate 5751 tubes (you guys must be sick of seeing me type this long-a$$ name!), I've been really intrigued by tube output stages for CD.... Keep us in the loop.

I've got a MENSA DI/O with a Bybee power supply waiting on my desk at work, Guan's got a mega upgraded tube dac on the way, all we need is for someone else in Hong Kong to get Scott's tube dac! Just $350, what a bargain! Icefox? kennethlhc? Anyone?

icefox · « **Reply #3 on:** 31 Dec 2002, 03:42 am »

Quote from: Jay S

I've got a MENSA DI/O with a Bybee power supply waiting on my desk at work, Guan's got a mega upgraded tube dac on the way, all we need is for someone else in Hong Kong to get Scott's tube dac! Just $350, what a bargain! Icefox? kennethlhc? Anyone?

Jay,

Thanks for the head up. I certainly will do some work along that line. However, honestly, I have been busy doing homework on my analogue playback though. Don't currently have a budget for digital stuff

iCefox

Tyson · « **Reply #4 on:** 31 Dec 2002, 03:45 am »

Yeah, whatever happened to the Hong Kong Audio Mafia? Did one of the other Audio Triads wipe them out in a gang war?

Guan · « **Reply #5 on:** 31 Dec 2002, 04:05 am »

We are slowly consolidating our resources for a final push towards heavenly sound!

My DeZorel AR senior is finally here but I managed to damage my new tube dac so no comment until everything is repaired and in good working order.

Guan

Jay S · « **Reply #6 on:** 31 Dec 2002, 04:10 am »

We've been hiding in our safe houses, lurking in the shadows, building our strength in preparation for the next onslaught.

Our next gathering is still in the shadowy planning stages but we've amassed the following since our last meeting:

- MENSA DI/O with bybee'd power supply
- Custom tubed dac with built-in DACT attenuator
- DeZoral Audio Reference Senior power filter
- Bolder Quantum bybee'd power strip
- Lots of Bolder ICs (Nitro, Type 2 with bybee and bullet plugs, M-80, Dyna prototype, as well as the well-burnt in Type 2s)

I believe Icefox has gotten his SL preamp back and is working on putting together a vinyl rig too.....

If you DAM people ever have the courage to step on Hong Kong soil, let us know. We will be waiting!!!

Cheers,

- Jay

Tyson · « **Reply #7 on:** 31 Dec 2002, 04:54 am »

As you can see over in Fight Club, us DAM members are pretty rough characters, not to be trifled with. Hell, we'll even turn on our friends if the opportunity presents itself

Like Eminem said:
"You better get rid of that 9, it ain't gonna help.
What good's it gonna do against a man that strangles himself"

JohnR · « **Reply #8 on:** 31 Dec 2002, 10:30 pm »

Cool, thanks for posting your impressions Hantra. I read a couple of the threads on the GainClone forum when they were first building the dac. Great to see Scott's offering kits now, that certainly puts building one of these within much easier reach. Hm...

JohnR

Hantra · « **Reply #9 on:** 1 Jan 2003, 08:10 pm »

I told Scott I positively want to hear his amps when he gets them to the stage where they are in production. As much as I love my Audio Note, I am so impressed with the DAC, I'd have to listen to this amp.

BTW, I had a stupid spell above. I said Scott was also Audio Refinement, but I meant Reference Audio. My bad. . .

L8r,

B

Marbles · « **Reply #10 on:** 1 Jan 2003, 09:02 pm »

I PM'd Scott and invited him to post in the Market Square forum.

If he can generate enough interest he can have his own forum.

What Borg does not want is a lot of forums with little or no activity.

The venders we currently have are all high activity venders as been proven at HD, or in RAD's case, we took a chance on a new type of audio vender, a (custom) cabinet builder.

markC · « **Reply #11 on:** 2 Jan 2003, 03:44 am »

Man, you guys have too much money. I would certainly like to try a tubed dac in place of my qds15, but I'm still waiting for Klaus to call and say that my Stratos is ready to be morphed into a dm. Unfortunately, I can only afford one thing at a time.

roopaudio · « **Reply #12 on:** 2 Jan 2003, 03:59 am »

Hantra,

Glad to see another excellent zero-oversampling implementation. Scott simply avoided the problems of implementing a gain stage which can match the timing accuracy of the pure D/A - I understand this is done to meet a price point. I think if you liked the sound of this D/A, there is a large improvement when the receiver IC is removed, and the DAC is implemented in a one-box solution. If any of you guys have a CDP you don't mind fooling with, I highly reccomend trying it.

Rup

Marbles · « **Reply #13 on:** 2 Jan 2003, 04:01 am »

markC · « **Reply #14 on:** 2 Jan 2003, 04:09 am »

Quote from: roopaudio

Hantra,

Glad to see another excellent zero-oversampling implementation. Scott simply avoided the problems of implementing a gain stage which can match the timing accuracy of the pure D/A - I understand this is done to meet a price point. I think if you liked the sound of this D/A, there is a large improvement when the receiver IC is removed, and the DAC is implemented in a one-box solution. If any of you guys have a CDP you don't mind fooling with, I highly reccomend trying it.
Huh? Could you explain this in layman's terms?
Rup

roopaudio · « **Reply #15 on:** 2 Jan 2003, 04:49 am »

Mark,

Looking at Scott's DAC and list of parts, there's a receiver part "CS841X". That's basically the part that let's you select your digital input. The Crystal CS8412 chips add jitter to the signal - this is the trade-off for being able to select your digital source. That being said, the Crystal chip is among the best receivers out there. With a CDP, you only need one digital signal - this is the one coming from the transport mechanism. So you take a wire that's outputting your digital signal from the CD transport, and wire it directly to the inputs on the Philips TDA1543 chip on Scott's DAC. With a clean soldering job, this results a theoretic 50-150 picosecond reduction in jitter - meaning more data gets converted to analog. It's really difficult to obtain a measuring instrument to measure jitter to that precision. Listening, I'd say the most benefit of this comes from an increase in subtle details and "air". Sorry I didn't explain myself completely before.

Rup

Hantra · « **Reply #16 on:** 2 Jan 2003, 12:49 pm »

Quote

there's a receiver part "CS841X". That's basically the part that let's you select your digital input.

Rup:

What else could this be used for? I didn't see where there was any accomodation for the selection of digital inputs. There was only one digital input on the DAC.

Thx!

B

audiojerry · « **Reply #17 on:** 2 Jan 2003, 07:06 pm »

Mr. Borg, Hantra, or someone who has a relationship with Scott, do you think we could convince him to build a couple of demo units and set up an audition list like we just did with the Criterions? It would be easy to ship. We just need to convince him that this would be an excellent means of getting exposure for his work and potentially increasing demand for his products.

Hantra · « **Reply #18 on:** 2 Jan 2003, 07:31 pm »

Jer:

I am meeting Scott tomorrow to pick up my DAC, and I'll see if he is a player. I'm not really sure he will have time to do much with CES coming up, but perhaps after that all dies down.

I am looking forward to auditioning the Dezorel myself, and I think it's a great way to get the product in front of end users. If a manufacturer is interested in the exposure, and extra sales. Some of the DIY guys have real jobs.

L8r,

B

roopaudio · « **Reply #19 on:** 3 Jan 2003, 05:02 am »

Hantra,

Any time you use a digital cable that transmits data in PCM format (i.e. coax, optical, etc), you need a digital receiver chip to recover the timing of the original clock used by the CD transport mechanism when reading the data off the CD. The only way to avoid using a receiver chip is to not use an external DAC, meaning a complete one-box CD player. I'm pretty excited to hear Scott's DAC myself - as soon as I'm back to my place I hope to order one

.

Rup