[richidoo]

I use an Altmann DAC now, without the jitter reducing JISCO jitter filter circuit. I am very happy with the sound of it when used with a low jitter transport. But stock Sonos and SB3 are too high jitter, both sound bad on coax.

I am considering Chime and/or Hagclock, but I have a few questions:

1. What comes with the Chime for $549? I see a lot of SMD in the pic, are they soldered already? Does it come with the aluminum chassis pictured?

2. I don't see a HagDAC on the website - can the Chime be used without tube output? I would like to try both ways.

3. Will the Chime with the R2R PCM1704 still have the organic natural NOS sound in the treble even though it is oversampling and upsampling? That's what I love about the TDA1545. I don't want the oversampling tizz that I hear even in the highest of high end players that oversample. I don't mind using tube output, but not to cover up the tizzies.

4. What's your recemmended minimum Zin for amp following the Chime at 1kOhm Zout?  My normal system is likely 47kOhm or higher, but could occasinally be a 10kOhm input.

5. I was also thinking of upgrading my own Sonos player with HagClock and a quiet linear powersupply. If I use Chime DAC, would HagClock in the transport be any additional benefit? 

6. Has anyone ever put a Hagclock into a Sonos or Squeezebox?  I would use a larger chassis for Sonos guts, PS and clock.

All comments and opinions welcome. Thanks!
Rich

[Yoda]

With the Half Kit, you get an assembled HagDac (with all the smd's) and the Chime circuit board.  I think the HagDAC is about 80% of the $549 half kit cost.  As with the other Half kits (see Jim's description on the website) you purchase separately the components (resistors, caps, sockets, diodes, tubes, transformers, etc) to customize your board and purchase/build your own Chassis.  I think the SMD's for the usb interface are already soldered to the main cuicuit board, so you're dealing with things you can manipulate with your hands, rather than tweezers.  If you download the assembly/instruction manual, you'll get a good idea of the assembly process.  I think when I cost it out, the total expenditure for the kit and requisite parts/chassis totaled about $950.

The hagDac can be used standalone (it has SS output built on the board), but needs a power supply...and the tube circuit of the chime is really, really nice, with a very quiet background.

My experience with the Chime is that it sounds very natural top to bottom, and the reviews concur.  I have a Chime Gold unit, but tested the standard unit and loved it-especially the convenience of switching multiple sources - so much that I added input switching on mine.

You won't need to reclock your transport because the hagDac resamples the input to minimize jitter.  I can't tell the difference between various sources with the same media, and one source does have a HagClock that I used before I acquired the Chime.

Its a great product and value, and the assembly is very well designed.  If you can solder to a board, you'll be rewarded for your effort!

m@

     

[richidoo]

Thanks Yoda. I read the manuals last night, very thorough.