I will copy a post from a different thread:
In the past two weeks I have had the:
Ack!, Scott Nixon TubeDac and Empirical P3a (got the Tubedac Monday and the Empirical Wednesday)
Previously (in the last 3 months) I have had the Bolder Mensa Plus D/IO, and a Stan Warren modded Aiwa/MSB.
In order of preference for me in my system it would be:
Empirical P3a
Scott Nixon TubeDac ..... Stan Warren Aiwa/MSB tie
Bolder Mensa Plus
Ack! *
*There must have be an incompatiblity in my system with this low output dac.
The Empirical stands above the rest by a good bit in my system, but it's also MUCH more expensive.
Notes, the Tubedac only has 3 days break in on it.
the Ack! had a week break in
The rest were well broken in.
I also use an Empirical modded Sony DVP S7700 as a transport.
I could easily live with this Empirical modded P3a with Superclock (not 2) for a VERY long time.
To add to that earlier post. Normally when I listen critically to a new component it's easiest for me to pick out weakness's, then I try to pick out strengths.
With the Empirical I started out listening for weakness's, but was sucked into the music within a VERY short time, like 20-30 seconds. I stopped listening critically and just started to get into the music. I haven't found any weakness's yet.
On the original Empirical I listened to a few months ago, I thought from time to time it could have better PRaT, but this clock upgraded model fixed that (in spades)
When you know it's right, you know it's right...this is the right one for me.
I did no try any similarly priced models. They were all much less expensive than the P3a.
