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Hey Guys,I have finally decided to take the plunge on an Audio Sector DAC, however Peter has not responded to several e-mails sent to him over the last few weeks with a couple minor questions. This is a bit disheartening, but understandable if he has a lot of orders.Do I have his e-mail address right: 'phdaniel@sympatico.ca'? Is there a better way to reach him other than e-mail?He has set up an easy ordering system for his chip and other amp offerings at his Audio Sector website, but not for the DAC options. Anyway thanks for any suggestions you might offer. I am trying to purchase an assembled DAC with a coax input, transformer, Cardas dual RCA's, and assembled on a wooden board. Similar to the pix Viggen posted and Peter has posted on DIY Audio, except with a coax input not a USB input.Cheers,Rogernature boy
Peter has been very responsive to me in the past. He might just be on vacation for a couple of weeks. It wouldn't hurt to send him another email in case it got lost in the mountain of email that he probably gets from time to time.As for more reviews:In a previous post in this thread, I compared the AudioSector USB DAC to the Isabellina. I said the Isabellina was better, but you know, the Isabellina is also 4x-5x the price of the AudioSector.I've heard a lot of DACs over the past couple of years. The Wavelength Brick, the Electrocompaniet ECD-1, the iRock, the built-in DAC of the Bel Canto S300iu, the Benchmark DAC1, the CityPulse, the Zhaolu, the Channel Islands VDA2, PS Audio DLIII. A lot of DACs. I haven't tried them all, but I've tried an awful many of them.I've had the pleasure of recommending the AudioSector USB DAC to a number of people, and so far the praise is effusive. Here's part of an email that someone wrote to me a number of months ago regarding the AudioSector USB DAC recommendation I made:"Peter was very helpful and built the DAC in a few days. The DAC looks even better than pictured. Fit and finish are first rate. I like the compact size and that it runs fairly cool to the touch. And the sound is truly amazing!!!!!. Right out of the box, this DAC is stunning. Music is much clearer and better resolved with excellent tonal quality. I didn't know my speakers were capable of such awesome bass response. And nothing bright or edgy about the sound either....... just nicely balanced."My system has never sounded better, and I have total control over music selection with some great looking, new gear. Thanks so much for your suggestions and help along the way."
Depending on your personal tastes there are a few things you can do to make the PD Dac fit the bell just as much as the Iss ( I bet)The noise floor on PD's ideas for power supply drops to black with good AC power filtering, at least with my experience. A Felix would be ok, but a lot more capacitance would be better. The Iss has built in power filtering via battery so of course it has some better characteristics out the box.Also you can play with the PD by removing certain plastic on certain capacitors, and then grounding the can (my new experiment that has gone very well with a PD amplifier with Blackgates which have isolated cans). That is another discussion perhaps because there are concerns which may or may not be concerns. You can check for voltage but it should all be inducted and have so low of amperage it does not matter how much voltage or how you attach a ground (to star, or whatever you run). Try at own risk. As of right now I would ONLY recommend it on the two output caps until further notice because I need to review schematic.I do fully intend on a buffer line amp, the output of the PD is only 2v. Plus most amplifiers' input is way to low of gain for the 2v tops. I changed mine on my PD amp and had way better results.
Quote from: Destroyer of Smiles. on 16 Nov 2008, 07:52 amDepending on your personal tastes there are a few things you can do to make the PD Dac fit the bell just as much as the Iss ( I bet)The noise floor on PD's ideas for power supply drops to black with good AC power filtering, at least with my experience. A Felix would be ok, but a lot more capacitance would be better. The Iss has built in power filtering via battery so of course it has some better characteristics out the box.Also you can play with the PD by removing certain plastic on certain capacitors, and then grounding the can (my new experiment that has gone very well with a PD amplifier with Blackgates which have isolated cans). That is another discussion perhaps because there are concerns which may or may not be concerns. You can check for voltage but it should all be inducted and have so low of amperage it does not matter how much voltage or how you attach a ground (to star, or whatever you run). Try at own risk. As of right now I would ONLY recommend it on the two output caps until further notice because I need to review schematic.I do fully intend on a buffer line amp, the output of the PD is only 2v. Plus most amplifiers' input is way to low of gain for the 2v tops. I changed mine on my PD amp and had way better results. Interesting.But.Did you try yourself connecting to ground cans of the 2 output capacitors on the PD dac? To wich ground (I mean where)?Thanks.
