It's been 2 weeks since my Ultra DAC arrived. I do better listening over a period of time to a piece of gear, rather than what jumps out at me upon first listening.
A little history. In '91, when I went from Dahlquists to the Carvers I had to make the switch to CD. The Dahlquists were rated -3db at 37Hz, the Carvers, -3db at 20Hz. In my room I wasn't able to get the turntable isolated enough. I liked the improved dynamic range and lows form the Cd's, alot, and along with the Carvers, I finally had that lower octave that I had longed for since '77. Most of my listening by then was live concert tapes but as I began replacing my vinyl, there was something missing or lacking or just different with the Cd's. Then in '94, there were some lifestyle changes, our daughters sports "career", and some volunteer stuff, besides just busy life, and it got to where I rarely listened. Occasionally I would recall an old record, CSN&Y, Santana II,.....buy the CD and give it a listen and be disappointed with the sound. I'm not following anything with audio during this time.
A few years back my brother started really praising all this new gear he got. Asked if I remember this guy they talked about at the high end store we frequented back in the '70's, the guy that modified the Dyna 400, that TAS recommended, that his 416 was supposed to be based on. Also my brother is one of those people that couldn't listen to Cd's, too harsh, too dry, too analytical, too fatiguing........
and I can see this is getting too long.
He loans me his T5, I'm blown away, I buy a Super Pas 3i on eBay, and lay out a 4 year plan to upgrade my whole rig. But it's a 2 year plan now, got the amp and preamp in the spring and the DAC actually on 9/11.
I've already written about the T8 and the 550. Now the DAC. I wasn't convinced I needed a DAC. My brother loaned me his Transcendence R DAC for a month during the summer. (yes, he tried a few Cd's w/o it, but mostly just listened to FM during that month). I hooked it up and left it in the system and just listened except for a couple A/B's the first couple of days. After I returned the DAC to my brother it only took me 2 weeks of listening without it to order my own.
My first impression was WOW, just the difference between my brothers DAC was a little startling. His seemed to soften the transients a bit, and definitely didn't have the low end extension or dynamics of the rest of my other AVA gear.(No Ultra analog stage or 6N1P's). The soundstage dramatically increased. My Carver speakers had very narrow dispersion before the AVA amp and preamp. You were painfully aware that the sound was originating from the 2 ribbons. After the addition of the amp and preamp, the ribbons disappeared and the stage was completely filled from ribbon to ribbon. Now it extends 2 feet beyond the speakers but the depth is where the biggest increase is. It's as if the air around each instrument or vocal is 360 degrees. What was gray before is now black. The low end and dynamics are even better than w/o the DAC. My main listening buddy commented that "it seems there was still a bunch crap there that is gone now". It's hard to put into words all that it does, or does not, do. BrianM's review is more articulate, actually MUCH more.
Very rich (liquid), NO dryness or (digital) grain
MUSICAL, real
They did get all that was on the record onto the CD, and more! I guess it's always been there if it was done right in the first place.
More resolution and definition
More extension and way more air
More dynamic
Some have commented that the DAC might be Frank's best piece of gear, could be. Or, I've always heard that the closer you are to the source the more noticeable changes will be.
Now my "in my VERY humble opinion" comment: Recently, there has been some talk of Frank's 16 bit processor being outdated. I wonder how many TRUE 16 bit processors there ever were. The significant improvements I heard between the Ultra and the Transcendence DA C's were improvements made in the analog section. Specs, the right ones, are really important to the engineer. A whole lot of specs may imply something but in the actual final sound mean nothing, especially with no standards in place, or even agreement on what matters. This guy, Frank Van Alstine, after 35+ years, knows alot about what matters. Does he know everything, no, and he doesn't work like he knows everything. He just keeps at it. Just in the couple of years I've been aware of his products he's had a couple of upgrades on his products, and each one has been significant and some with no price increases. I really believe many in audio "major in the minors", and it seems to be getting worse.
Back to my first impression, WOW, I'm really impressed with this DAC.
