The dB Audio Labs Tranquility DAC - Wow!

satfrat · « **Reply #280 on:** 2 Mar 2010, 06:22 pm »

Quote from: Danny on 2 Mar 2010, 06:03 pm

For what it's worth:

I demo'ed a Locus Axis USB cable that belonged to one of my customers, and compared it to the Ridge Street Alethias. It was actually pretty close and very give and take. It could go either way depending on the system.

I guess in short, that cable was very good. Even if I thought the Ridge Street edged it slightly, it was only slightly.

The Axis cable was a lot less expensive than the Alethias and worth considerations or auditions.

FWIW, the Nucleus USB cable is in a whole nother league than the Axis. Then again so is the price.

As for Lee's new Cynosure cable,,, I don't even want to go there.

My whole point was to answer Borism's skepticism that IMHO, USB cables do make a stark improvement over standard USB cables on these USB DACS/Transports and that improvement is relative to it's pricetag from the cables i've demo'd from Belden, Cardas, Ridge Street, and Locus Design. I ultimately chose Lee's Nucleus as it's clarity & sound stage depth/instrument sepaeration was the best I could find for the money I was willing to spend. I totally refuse to sample his Cynosure cable.

Gotta draw line somewhere,,,,

Cheers,
Robin

cryoparts · « **Reply #281 on:** 2 Mar 2010, 07:45 pm »

[blush] Thanks guys!

Robin, you are not allowed to try the Cynosure!

Peace,

Lee

satfrat · « **Reply #282 on:** 2 Mar 2010, 10:27 pm »

Quote from: cryoparts on 2 Mar 2010, 07:45 pm

[blush] Thanks guys!

Robin, you are not allowed to try the Cynosure!

Peace,

Lee

Bless you for that Lee.

TheChairGuy · « **Reply #283 on:** 3 Mar 2010, 10:08 pm »

Alright guys....a little meandering is allowed on a topic....but quite a bit of the last 2 pages was devoted to something other than the db Audio Labs Tranquility DAC.

Please let's keep on that path.

It's no one's 'fault' in particular - so don't anyone get offended - I'm simply trying to keep the topic on target.

Thx, John / co-Facilitator The Critic's Circle

trianglezerius · « **Reply #284 on:** 3 Mar 2010, 10:47 pm »

I'll start a new post for discussion about the Essential USB Cable -

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=78546.new#new

Tom

borism · « **Reply #285 on:** 6 Mar 2010, 02:18 am »

I've been using the Essential USB cable with the Tranquility DAC for 5 days now. The difference to my Virtue cable has been subtle but present. I did not expect to hear much difference. To me the soundstage has increased in all dimensions while paradoxically the focus has sharpened. There is more sense of air. It is a very musical and involving presentation. The Essential cable was developed with the Tranquility DAC in mind and possibly by some of the same people so system synergy is probably part of the design. This combination has been a joy to listen to. For now, everything is staying in my system.

chadh · « **Reply #286 on:** 2 Apr 2010, 06:15 pm »

I've had a Tranquility DAC for about a week, and now have a big smile on my face.

It's been a slightly rocky road. But a minor setup problem has been sorted, and the music sounds magnificent.

Right now I have about five different digital sources in my house in various states of functionality. Apart from the tranquility DAC, theres an Audio Sector USB DAC which won't work (I think it needs to go back to Peter for a new USB receiver chip), a Bolder modified Squeezebox 2, an Ultra-Fi iRoc DAC and a Peachtree Decco (which has a USB DAC, as well as all sorts of other stuff). Direct comparisons between these are tricky, as I use a single input pre-amp and they all display different amounts of gain. But just going from my doubtlessly flawed aural memory, the Tranquility sounds far superior to any of the others. If break-in improves things, this is going to get really good.

This morning I tried a little casual comparison between the iRoc and the Tranquility. The iRoc, which I thought sounded just fine, suddenly seemed thin and and sort of sterile. The Tranquility had more body, and gave a more 3-dimensional soundscape. Some things sounded so real, just jumping right out of the music, it was quite astounding.

I made this comparison while listening to the remastered Abbey Road. To give you an impression of how big a difference there was between the two DACs, I thought the improvement from moving from the iRoc to the Tranquility was more satisfying than the improvement from the remastering of the classic album. In fact, I'd say this might prove to be the second biggest single improvement I've had in my system (where the biggest improvement came from introducing a four-piece subwoofer system with an active crossover).

I don't know what state-of-the-art digital sounds like. But the Tranquility DAC is making a big improvement in a system I thought was sounding pretty good to begin with.

Chad

roscoeiii · « **Reply #287 on:** 2 Apr 2010, 06:28 pm »

Chad,

I'd be interested in hearing your impressions of how the Tranquility sounds in comparison to the Peachtree. The Peachtree's Sabre chip gets a lot of praise, and I bet I'm not the only one curious how the Peachtree's DAC sound compares to the Tranquility.

chadh · « **Reply #288 on:** 3 Apr 2010, 12:37 am »

Quote from: roscoeiii on 2 Apr 2010, 06:28 pm

Chad,

I'd be interested in hearing your impressions of how the Tranquility sounds in comparison to the Peachtree. The Peachtree's Sabre chip gets a lot of praise, and I bet I'm not the only one curious how the Peachtree's DAC sound compares to the Tranquility.

Sorry, I'm not going to be able to help you on that one. The Peachtree unit I have is one of the first generation of Deccos, which came withe a Scott Nixon tube DAC circuit rather than the Sabre chip. It's also a little trickier for me to make that comparison since the Decco doesn't have a line out for the DAC - it just has the pre-amp out. So to make any comparison I need to switch my pre-amp out of the system.

Chad

roscoeiii · « **Reply #289 on:** 3 Apr 2010, 12:55 am »

Ah, I see. Gotcha. Glad to hear that you are enjoying the Tranquility so much.

laserboi · « **Reply #290 on:** 5 Apr 2010, 04:28 pm »

I just placed my order for a Tranquility DAC and USB cable with Eric this morning. I still have a whole lot of ripping to do so I will report back once it has arrived and is burned in. Eric was very personable over the phone and to say I'm not excited about the DAC would be a terrible understatement.

Regards,

Pete

Big Red Machine · « **Reply #291 on:** 5 Apr 2010, 04:44 pm »

So in order to use this DAC you have to use some sort of software and feed it directly from a computer versus feeding a Squeezebox? And what sort of computer software do you need on the computer to feed this DAC as using Squeezecenter is pretty darned convenient.

ctviggen · « **Reply #292 on:** 5 Apr 2010, 04:47 pm »

Could you use Squeezeplay and configure the computer to send the digital over the USB to the DAC?

genjamon · « **Reply #293 on:** 5 Apr 2010, 04:58 pm »

It doesn't have to be any particular software. You can use anything you want, such as Foobar, MediaMonkey, Itunes, Winamp, Windows Media Center. Squeezecenter may also be compatible, but I've never used it and don't know how it works. You only need to set the settings to USB audio output as opposed to outputting to your computer's default sound card. Windows, Mac, and linux all have built-in USB-audio drivers.

In the case of linux (which I use), you have to go to a command prompt and use some asoundconf commands to redirect audio output. In the case of Windows and Mac, usually you just have to go into your music playing software's settings and change a drop-down tab to USB audio instead of whatever the name of your computer sound card is.

Pretty simple, and no proprietary drivers required.

Big Red Machine · « **Reply #294 on:** 5 Apr 2010, 05:03 pm »

Okay, sounds simple enough for me to use. Now I'm curious as to its sound compared to the upcoming Wyred unit. Hmmmm.... I know Eric so I'll have to give him the once-over.

genjamon · « **Reply #295 on:** 5 Apr 2010, 05:05 pm »

Oh yeah, and I do actually have a Peachtree Nova and have compared to my Tranquility. I found their reproduction to be very similar, but the Tranquility removes a bit of graininess, improves on detail retrieval and spatial cues. They seem to be cut from the same cloth, relatively speaking, but Tranquility is better to my ears.

Some may not hear the difference, or the difference may not be justified given the extra expense. I have high ambitions for my system, so it's worth it for me. Preamp and amp upgrades are currently on the way. The Peachtree is a lot of bang for the buck, but as a package it's not going to take you to truly high end sound. And I also can't justify keeping it for only its preamp or DAC section. Although I'm considering keeping it for a second office system at the moment.

This was using the Peachtree as preamp for both DACs, swapping between internal USB input to the Peachtree and line level output from the Tranquility going into the Peachtree line level inputs for its preamp section.

Big Red Machine · « **Reply #296 on:** 5 Apr 2010, 05:10 pm »

Is the Peachtree tubed or SS? I like the idea of the tubed EE dac, trust the Wyred folks a lot, and know Eric. I'm concerned about a SS "sound".

srb · « **Reply #297 on:** 5 Apr 2010, 05:34 pm »

Quote from: Big Red Machine on 5 Apr 2010, 05:10 pm

Is the Peachtree tubed or SS? I like the idea of the tubed EE dac, trust the Wyred folks a lot, and know Eric. I'm concerned about a SS "sound".

The Peachtree Nova has a tubed preamp, solid state DAC and solid state amplifier.

Steve

roscoeiii · « **Reply #298 on:** 5 Apr 2010, 06:31 pm »

And Peachtree has a standalone DAC in the pipeline as well, though I don't know the timeline for it. Not to mention that Eric has reported being hard at work on an SPDIF implementation of the Tranquility...

db audio labs · « **Reply #299 on:** 5 Apr 2010, 09:50 pm »

Hi guys,

Some great discourse here regarding the many facets of computer audio playback. In regard to solutions like the Peachtree and the Squeezeplay, we are a bit different. Our Tranquility solution was developed from the outset with a "sweat the details" approach. As to a couple examples of how we are different, the Tranquility's output capacitors are probably 20X the cost of those products caps and the gain stage's output jacks are probably 30X the cost. We wanted to offer you guys true statement level digital performance without the statement MSRP pricing. Thus, this is how we are different from multi-faceted digital products due to our desire to focus on getting the best sound quality as opposed to offering a multitude of feature sets.

With the above explanation of our Tranquility in mind, our DAC is meant to be used as a stand alone DAC. Your computer (hopefully a Mac Mini) will then will be acting as your high end transport connected via a USB cable. In our research, we tried all sorts of connection schemes and digital chipsets before finalizing our own solution incorporated into the Tranquility solution. We even built our own Sabre dac as a testbed to see if that solution prevailed. In actuality, it would be MUCH easier for us to sell and market a dac with the Sabre chipset due to all the heroic technical hype associated with it. Unfortunately, the end sonic results of all our exhaustive dac building, comparisons and circuits led us toward another digital chipset solution entirely. Should we have chosen a different path other than going for the absolute best sound? We strive to win comparisons based on our comparative sound quality. Crazy idea for sure

Cheers,

Eric