After a week of running the DAC with my second system, I connected it to my main system about a week ago and ran it through its paces. My audio system consists of:
1. Eastern Electric Minimax CD player (used both as CD player and as transport)
2. Monarchy Audio DIP
3. Promitheus Audio non-OS DAC (factory-installed upgrades: silver upgrade, AES/EBU input, Burson Audio Op-amps, XLR output)
4. Promitheus Audio TVC & Balanced Stepped Attenuator [using 4-section stepped attenuator, XLR in/ out]
5. Aleph 30 clone with both single-ended and balanced inputs (made by Tim Rawson)
6. Promitheus Audio solid-state OPTs
7. Mission 752F speakers
Three impressions stand out using a fully balanced connection throughout:
a) Top-to-bottom cohesion and a sense of continuousness about the music. No part of the audio spectrum stands out, and rather than focusing on brilliant highs, smooth mids, etc., what I hear is the sheer flow and momentum of music. I've tried this out with both jazz and classical CDs.
b) Overall cohesion doesn't mean that pace, rhythm and timing are sacrificed in any way. Listening to Paul Galbraith's guitar transcriptions of Bach's Sonatas and Partitas, fast passages are conveyed with absolute integrity.
c) It's easy to follow complex orchestration without losing the sense of the whole: i.e., the DAC is not overly analytical, but none the less does not blur things together. I've been listening to both the Mahler's symphony #2 (Otto Klemper's 1963 version with the Philharmonia orchestra) and Shostakovich's symphony #7 (Leonard Bernstein with the New York Philharmonic), and the sense of scale and drama of the music is something to hear.
General Observations:
1. Overall the sound is better when I run the SPDIF out from the CD player to the Monarchy Audio DIP and use the AES/EBU out from the DIP to the AES/EBU input of the Promitheus Audio DAC. Also the XLR output is marginally better than the RCA output, in terms of image stability and bass. I would say that people should request these as standard upgrades when ordering, along with the Burson Audio op-amps.
2. No doubt, the Promitheus Audio blows out of the water both the DAC built into the Minimax CD player, which by the way has been highly praised by reviewers in 6moons.com, DAGOGO, etc., not to mention my other non-OS DAC the Shek D2, which seemed very satisfactory until I got the Promitheus Audio DAC.
3. I don't particularly like equipment that is 'ruthlessly revealing' etc., it just suggests that the item in question is a bit cold and analytical. So I won't say the Promitheus Audio DAC is 'ruthlessly revealing'; it just makes music enjoyable. I'm drawn into the music and have found myself going with the flow. This is really good stuff.
Congratulations to Nicholas for another stand-out piece. Now, I only wish I had ordered the Promitheus Audio TVC with balanced connections. My Ref 3 (2 silver RCA inputs, outputs) is for sale and I'm already saving for a Ref 4 or maybe even the C-core TVC.
