[kyrill]

Thanks for explaining Tinker

of course a good dac with your solutions to get a good signal cannot correct a bad player. But I was asking Larry to apply his critique to a moderate mainstream player, which I do not consider to be a bad player..
And bad recordings or cd's are for me outside the frame of the discussion.

The DAKSA is a technical device as good as it can be, focused on the S/PDIF out what the transport can provide regardless of what kind of cd is playing. It is not aimed at a market with cheap bad cd players. By the way stand alone transports are rare for the mainstream market and are already "special". Most, if not all are more expensive than a complete mass market step in cd player incl dac. The chance to find a bad stand alone transtport is slim and should be avoided

And then my question: given a moderate to better cd transport and a dac like the DAKSA3 "who makes it practical "jitterfree"(also LF jitter introduced by transport power supplies ) or a transport reasonable "jitterfree" already <10 ps  can you still hear or experience the (other) errors of the transport, except jitter induced errors? And I do not mean the errors of the recording or a dirty cd.
It is not the aim to create a perfect world or objects, but to need them to create a perfect experience out of it. Isn't it?
: )
Kyrill

[AKSA]

Kyrill,

Some time back you asked about the DAKSA timeline.

You, and several others, particularly Mervin Beng in Singapore, Mal Fear in Sydney, Romeo Tiu in Brindisi, Steve Kessisoglu in New Jersey, and Peter Pesheck in Minnesota (to name just five, and there are others too numerous to mention here, forgive me.....) deserve an answer, so here it is......

Largely because I'm enthusiastic and love what I do, I've followed a policy of informing Aspen forum members of new projects, and anticipated delivery dates.  This has the advantage of signalling new products, building anticipation, and hopefully setting up a new product launch for instant sales.  And this has largely been true, as every time I've released a new product, AKSAphiles have stepped forward and bought kits immediately.  In fact it is so successful that I sometimes wonder if I'll ever get out of the R&D cycle!!

However, this policy has come unstuck with the DAKSA.  While the design has been tricky and long-winded (but achievable), the implementation is proving problematic.  This is 1 mutha of a pcb, the size of an A4 sheet.  Much of it is now complete, but integration remains the primary task, particularly power supplies and ground plane.  But there are other problems of a strategic kind.

Both Ben and I are burning out.  Ben is deeply involved in his PhD, which has reached a very difficult phase, and R&D is very costly, both in time and dollars.  I'm now realizing that I must initiate a strong marketing push to sell my core products;  the amplifiers in particular.  To move forward, and bring the business to the next level, I need to sell at least five amplifiers each week;  one per day, and since this is a thoroughly mature, time-proven product, I really should move as quickly as possible.

Ben and I somewhat reluctantly reached this decision this morning over breakfast.  We will postpone release of the DAKSA until December this year, and proceed slowly at a less immoderate pace.  It's for the good of the business, as right now R&D is unsustainable, and there is a need to consolidate.  Consider the facts:  Inventory will be around $AUD8K;  documentation costs will be around $AUD2K, and significantly, service/backup, as with the GK1-R, is likely to be around 6 hours per sale since this will be a fairly complex piece of gear with many opportunities for creating faults during assembly.

We would expect about eight sales of DAKSAs in the first month, and perhaps four each month thereafter.  These figures are deliberately modest.  To recoup investment costs would therefore take around six months, and this is too much load in the short to medium term, since I must now build a large and quite expensive shed on my property to house the production side of the business.

So, accordingly, I have decided to postpone release until December.  This is a difficult decision, but one forced by circumstance.  I'm dragging the chain on the GK150 release at present - difficulties with cosmetics for the front panel - and this fully assembled, retail product must surely be my priority.

I'm very sorry to inform you all of this news;  things are not in any way bad, and both of us are still smiling, but prudent decisions on R&D and project investment are fundamental to continuing survival, and pivotal to future prosperity.  I personally don't feel I have a choice.    

I must strongly express my gratitude for the huge support I daily receive from all AKSAphiles here present, and my hope for your continued support into the future.    

In closing, my sincere thanks to Ben for his quick apprehension and his untiring efforts to support Aspen's product range.  Bloody marvellous, Ben, thank you sincerely.....

Cheers,

Hugh

[kyrill]

Good thinking Hugh

Be aware though the power of the internet
There is a critical mass to be reached for the number of people who will experience your amps and by mouth and mouth spread the word and then....
@@** KABOOM***@@ the business will roar and explode and you will be soooo busy, and hatefully you must admit you cannot answer anymore 234 emails a day, and we will loose your personal touch to be replaced by a "professional" anonymus helpdesk . Sales continue to raise and you are forced to move into a new location where you will open an official 'ASPEN " plant/manufactury with much more shelve space at the edge of town.
You will become an integrated multi disciplinary  manager and CEO of a company of almost 55 people, still growing every year. You suddenly need a management team to lower your span of control. You will have official distributors in too many countries calling you almost daily that customers only want to be helped by you.. As they have old copies of this forum on their Multimedia PC. Your daughter will see you much less and her friend want to have a high salary job at ASPEN. Shall I continue?
No breakfast meetings anymore in a pub. You have to use your own cantine at the factory, as it was already expensive enough....

Cheers
K.

[Larry]

Hi Larry,

Good to see you back!!  Your points are always clearly put, and well thought out.

I trust life treats you well!

Cheers,

Hugh

Hi, Hugh,

Yes, I have been busy with my other hobby, computers. To report it back to you, during my absence from this forum, I have upgraded my home network and got a networkable Linux-based digital sat decoder to play with. A lot of fun too to upgrade software just like upgrading capacitors. So a lot of programming rather than soldering recently. Though not much on audio, the GK-1 has never been turned off.     Probably too happy with the GK-1, my effort has all gone to computers lately.

The first time when I sent a message to the TV screen in the lounge where my son was watching a cartoon,  my son was really puzzled why the TV was showing a message to ask him to go to bed.  Now he also know how to do that from the Internet. All in the house know the tricks now and no one would get excited anymore.

Hence, I am back here.

Cheers,
Larry

[Larry]

Hi, Tinker,

I agree with you that the priority should be on jitter and the transport could do something to the music worse than the errors on CD might do.  In fact, that was my opinion too. Just a bit of funny that the discussion headed to the disc pressing errors.

Cheers,
Larry

[kyrill]

Theoretically, no matter what one has done to the DAC, the impact of the transport on the sound will still exist.. . . . .while it's impossible to design a DAC to make the sound independant on the transport quality. The impact of the transport on the sound can only be improved by improving the transport, logically speaking. There are many more areas in the transport than the jitter that impact on the sound....

Don't be mad at me Larry, I only want to understand
your remark that Tinker acknowedges: ..and the transport could do something to the music worse than the errors on CD might do. " I cannot see this back in his remark
His whole response was of the transport induces jitter, jitter which can be minimised with technical tricks (almost or complete under the hearing treshold, being uner -60 db is practically enough) PArt of this jitter are what he called "slop in precise transport speed" but again this can also be taken care of by the DAC depending on how good the PLL is. And of course this jitter on the clock frq by the protocol of S/PDIF should theoretically be 100 % seperable of the info signal but

Tinker speaks of "signal depending artefacts can still intrude on the recovered clock in a number of ways, and since the two systems are effectively synchonised these artifacts are of the worst kind - signal correlated"
As I understand it is that even a good PLL may not be enough to "seperate" some jitter as it so "buried" in the musical signal. But again it is not about zero's and ones on the wrong place. So then it is jitter related. And of course I acknowledge that jitter exist as artefacts of transports. But also  the DAKSA will address this as good as modern technique allows. But My whole point is Larry's remark:
"..There are many more areas in the transport than the jitter that impact on the sound....

Which of those not jitter related transport artefacts will reach the input of any DAC? And of course I don't mean bad designed transports if they exists.
And info errors on the cd and or dirty cd's so the error correction sy gets tilted, is a different topic

[Jens]

Hi Hugh and Ben,

Congratulations on a very sound marketing decision!  

It would seem you have stopped just short of the point where things become very tiresome - to the point of hate - and have reset to lower revolutions (a car image for the benefit of Hugh). Goodonya!

For my part I have no problem waiting till the end of the year for such a promising product. Imagine guys, being able to use a mid-priced DVD player for a transport, but getting high-end sound! This is to die for, I'm sure.

Good luck with the marketing efforts for the exisiting products!  

Cheers,

[PSP]

Hi Hugh,
I agree... time to stop, sell some amps, let ideas percolate a while.  Sometimes, when it's quiet, solutions to problems emerge like deer coming out of the woods at dusk... when it is very quiet, suddenly there they are, come seemingly from nowhere.  Too much noise and "activity"... all you see is trees.

I'll buy your DAC whenever you are happy with its design and sonics.  Take your time, relax, do your magic.

Take care,
Peter

[Seano]

I'm with the others.  Kick back, consolidate your business and have some fun. In the meantime, those of us with your gear will more than likely do whatever they can to spread the word.

I'm happy to wait for anything.  I'm still waiting for my GK-1 to materialise but I'm fairly confident that the Aussie spring is looking very good for me in that regard.

The DAKSA remains a bit of a dream as yet for me.  I think I'd prefer to get another 100w first. Plus give the early adopters a chance to do their majick on the DAKSA so the rest of us mere mortals can go to school on their experience.  This methodology is working for me with regard to the GK-1!!

[AKSA]

Hi Folks,

NEWS UPDATE just published today on the Aspen website......

http://www.aksaonline.com/news.html

Ciao,

Hugh