Hi,
Just thought I'd chime in. Sorry for the long post, but bear with me. Been following for awhile. I'm an old audiophile - was in the business "back in the day" - 70's actually, and into the early 80's. Have heard and sold some great stuff. Been away for awhile but finally started upgrading a 20 year old Dahlquist based system about a year ago. I'm still on a strict budget, but have done lots of reading during the entire time since I left and began making some choices within the past year. My Dahlquist's were due for replacement. I actually started by replacing them with some used Vandersteen 2CE's. Nice - they do alot right - but one day I'll probably go the planar/electrostat route. Since, in some ways, I missed the entire CD era- having owned nothing more than run of the mill big box store machines, and since I had been downloading music since the late 90's, I began to search for a digital format that made sense for me. I also have an extensive record collection, and even after letting my Linn go, I still had and had taken good care of my first turntable - a vintage Thorens TD- 160, from 1975 - stock with a new birch bottom and some homemade feet. Anyway, I settled on a Squeezebox early this year, with an eye to eventually purchasing an outboard DAC. Nowadays, I rip CD's, using EAC (Exact Audio Copy) into WAV or Flac files. And I recently turned my old computer into a dedicated music server. In the meantime, I purchased a Conrad Johnson MV 60SE on Audiogon, fulfilling an old dream of owning some tube gear. I'm happy with it, and it is certainly an improvement over the amp sections of the vintage NAD and Yamaha integrateds that I had left over from before. But this meant that I still only had the NAD or Yamaha's preamp section to run the CJ through. After lots of reading and listening in local shops in the Seattle area and lots of thinking about what I really wanted to do (what about home theater etc..), I decided that I really wanted to go with the simplest signal path I could find. I started checking out, reading about and listening to passives and stumbled onto the TVC method. I read about the Music First, the Paradesia etc. and somewhere in there, stumbled onto the Promitheus TVC. After a number of emails with Nicholas, I finally took a leap of faith on a basic Promitheus TVC SE, with 4 single ended RCA inputs. I live in an apartment, second floor with thin walls, so I have to keep the volume down quite frequently. As soon as I placed the TVC in my system it was apparent that I had made the biggest improvement to its sound to date. And, as you may have read, by design, it sounds great at lower volumes. (Of course, I like it loud too and with my relatively small room, I could create plenty of spl's with this setup).
I had lots of ideas about what to do next, and had originally thought about upgrading my analog gear, but finally settled on simply getting a new cartridge and an entry level Cambridge Audio phono preamp for now, due, in part, to my continued emails with Nicholas, who kept encouraging me to try his DAC. Nicholas is a gem of a person to work with. Incredibly patient with questions about inputs and options. Bottom line is that I finally decided to take a second leap and give it a whirl. Customer service goes a long way with me.
It arrived last week, and straight out of the box, the sound of music coming out of my system with the Promitheus DAC is orders of magnitudes better than the stock DAC in the Squeezebox. Perhaps at this point you're saying 'well, geez, I hope so!', but really, we audiophiles tend to spend a lot of money for what, at least from a big picture point of view, is nearly infinitesimally small amounts of improvement. This is not small. With selections I'm very familiar with, I hear nuances, new instruments and additional voices that were simply not audible in any previous version of any of my systems over the years, and immediately apparent compared to what I had a week ago! It's early, but I only expect this to improve.
At this point, I'm contemplating stopping for awhile and just enjoying the music for the first time since I started upgrading. The sound is dynamic, smooth, not bright or muffled - just excellent timbers of acoustical instruments, great slam on electric or electronic bass and very realistic vocals. Separation of individual instruments are way improved, and my sound stage is much, much higher, as well as wider and deeper. It does not take an audiophile's ear to hear most of these differences, in my opinion.
The latest version of my system is still not super hi- end, but it's well respected, and well rounded, and now, very musical. Nick's DAC and TVC are remarkable. Being a vinyl fan, yet not dogmatic about it, I had still preferred my vintage analog system for a good portion of my collection in which I had both analog and digital versions. Now, only a very few, if any, analog versions of my collection are likely to be preferred over their digital counterparts with the Promi DAC in place. The pace, the PRAT (as they say), the homogeneity of sound is all their with the Promitheus equipment in place. The TVC was a big improvement in my system, but the DAC was even bigger. For now, I have no tweaks planned internally for either, but, in time, perhaps. I've listened to a few other DAC's locally, but I'd venture to say that my experience with other DAC's is not as extensive as some. However, my ears are still good and I trust them and comments from others who have casually dropped by during my latest rounds of upgrades have continuously commented on the improved sound. I know I'm on the right track. I have no reservations whatsoever recommending Nicholas's DAC (and his TVC too)!
Thanks!
