Hello all. My name is Doug, I'm from Surrey, BC, Canada, and I recently took delivery of the Vision Hybrid DAC. It's not often that I post comments on audio equipment, but in this instance I think that doing so is justified.
I've owned AVA gear for quite a number of years because of its outstanding performance and value, and the new DAC is no exception.
My system includes an AVA T8 preamplifier with phono, an AVA Ultra 550 power amplifier, Monster HTS 5100 MKII Powercentre, Virtue Audio interconnects and speaker cables, modified Newform Research R645 loudspeakers and a pair of Paradigm Servo 15 subwoofers crossed over at about 30Hz. The digital source is a PC using a low EMI/RFI power supply and EMU 1212M sound card for playback and recording vinyl. The software player is Foobar2000 with the kernel streaming plugin. My analog source is a Linn LP12 turntable with an Akito tonearm and Audio Technica AT150MLX MM phono cartridge.
I don't want to go into a lengthy and flowery description, but within moments of turn on I could tell that the Vision Hybrid DAC is very different from the AVA Ultra DAC that it replaces. After an hour of system warm up it was clear that it is extraordinary and far superior in every respect to Ultra DAC.
Improvements in the bass made the immediate first impression. Despite experimenting with speaker placement and using bass traps the system continued to suffer from ill-defined and relatively sloppy and boomy bass. With the new DAC most of these problems are greatly diminished or eliminated. The low bass is now highly defined and has greater transparency, extension and articulation. There is much more apparent energy in the lower octaves. In fact, the new DAC solves many problems that I thought were associated with room acoustics and/or loudspeaker placement/deficiencies.
The sound stage is much larger, and more open and three dimensional. In fact it is enormous. Dynamic range seems increased. Horns have much more bite, much closer to the real thing, and brush cymbals have a very nice sizzle and just float.
The DAC has tremendous resolving power. Instruments are much more clearly delineated and placed. When playing Danny Boy from the Five Songbirds CD, Jacinth's breath is clearly resolved and her voice hangs palpably between the speakers, with proper decay and acoustic character. In fact I can hear what sounds like the walls resonating in response to her voice - one of many qualities that are missing with the old DAC. There is so much more that I can hear now, and so much more that just gets out of the way, and it's just wonderful.
Is it a vinyl killer? Perhaps, in that it is simply transparent and in my opinion adds little character to the signal. I've come to believe that most if not all of the alleged deficiencies in digital can be traced back to the production process. The DAC can't correct a poorly produced piece of music, but a well recorded 44.1/16 CD sounds superb. The importance of production was driven home by a Pink Floyd 96/24 stereo SACD which was an underwhelming experience. There was little if anything I noticed that made it stand out, and at first it made me question the value of higher resolution recordings, that is until I compared samples of digitized vinyl recorded at 44.1/16 and 96/24. All else being the same the higher sample rate/bit depth recordings are clearly superior, and in many ways the DAC improved on the vinyl experience because I no longer have to worry about feedback and other acoustic interactions with the turntable system when listening to the digitized versions.
I think Frank Van Alstine's description of the new DAC are on the mark. It is thrilling to listen to. How it stacks up against the competition is for others to determine, but to my ears given a good recording it just disappears and leaves the music. I'm very happy with it. Great job, Frank!
