Outstanding Simon. I just realised after watching this how I have taken all of the varying input connections (coax, spdif etc) for granted without ever really knowing the differences between each! There was something in this for both newbies and seasoned audiophiles alike... Great stuff!
Hello Simon, I really do love and appreciate your audio reviews. It’s hard to put into words but to me you come across as an honest and genuine person. Thank you for sharing, Brian
Wow Brian, thanks so much for the vote of confidence. All these comments like yours really do keep me going as I do need to feel appreciated when videos take so much work. BW Simon
Thanks very much Michael. Doing one on inexpensively improving sound quality from a MacBook next week. Gonna make it shorter as this one was a marathon as did so many After effects clips like the revolving cd etc.
Wow! The best dissected explanation of a DAC. To know why the best way forward is separates. The description and explanations of inputs, outputs, design, and DAC types really helps newbies like myself. Thanks
Dear Simon, this is a great video. Really enjoyed all the insights and comparisons you provided. Also loved your laid back, chill at home style. Cheers
Thank you Panagiotis for supporting my channel and such nice comments as always. Lots of music recs coming on new videos I know you like. Wanted to get one out this week but haven’t been that well. Doing one on cheap headphone amp and dac add on’s for laptops etc. Bw simon
I sat down and wrote down all the variables for picking a system and there are easily 70 questions to answer. It's an insane amount of decision making. Thank you for helping to clear some of it up.
This was Brilliant I've never had anyone get so detailed about inputs and the advantages , very much appreciated I liked the way you explain things and look forward to more videos so I Subscribed.....Thank You Simon ...
Just perfect, Simon. Just the right amount of detail to teach things to newbies and long-time audiophiles alike. The fact that "implementation of a technology" is much more important than the "technology itself" cannot be over-stated. Oh, and your video clip of RC airplanes brought a smile to my face; this was my Dad's biggest hobby throughout his life!
Thanks Brent for your lovely comments. I totally agree regarding implementation, sometimes audiophiles get way to caught up in tech which alienates people away from audio I think. I had another model like this in 1/4 scale - 105 inch, streamer petrol engine. This is a DB sport and Scale piper cub from the British kit and well known aero-modeller (of his time) David Boddington. Uses an OS 70FS surpass four stroke.
@@brentnaylor8406 I stopped as I no longer have the space to build them. I have a few electric foam models but nothing Ive built any more. Multiplex Cularis 3m glider with an electric brushless motor is great for thermalling. In my Dad's loft I have one of these Flair Tiger Moth's. Huge at 84 inch for a bi-plane. (1/4 scale) which could probably fly a small dog around. lol. ruclips.net/video/fxPcCBFchgQ/видео.html
Hi there, watched this video on my TV and loved it so much felt I just had to jump on the app on my phone to say "absolutely brilliant informative review" subbed wish I had watched it before I ordered the Mojo2 would have spent a bit more for my first DAC. Top man thanks you 😁
Very well done! I wish your video would have been existed when I was trying to learn about DAC’s sometime ago. You would have saved me weeks, maybe months LOL. Even if I’m not a newbie anymore, I enjoyed every second of it. Thank you.
Thank YOU Simon you really spelt it out for me about the different connector and their formats another great little film, and the simple but best advice ever, don't worry about the DAC Format Just get on with listening to your music 😊😀👍🎵🌞
Nice job. Without any question the analogue output stage of any DAC is paramount to the quality of audio you will hear. The most problematic aspects of purchasing a DAC is the fact that this is a constant, and quickly changing landscape of technical evolution. So, how much to spend on a DAC today knowing that in just a few years there will be better, and cheaper products available?
Fabulous Simon! Everything I needed to know as a start. Only started dipping my hand into digital the past 2 months & reigniting my hifi enthusiasm during the past 12 months after a long hiatus. I’ve never stopped collecting music though. But wow, it has been so confusing w digital and all the platforms emerging. DACs, cables, music formats! Which streaming service to choose? But this video essentially summarises all that I’ve learned so far. I hadn’t been watching your previous reviews as I wasn’t familiar w the brands then. Loved the Node2i video. Short & sweet. All essential info packed in 5mins. I’ll watch the Roon video next. Haven’t really come across anything that explains it clearly. I’ll drop a few questions next time. Just wanted to say that it has been quite an enlightening Saturday morning watching the above videos & the 2020 top gear.👊
Awesome review like all the ones u do ! I was wondering if you tried and tested the NAD 658 and if so what did you think about it ? Thanks and keep up the awesome work
Thank you very much. I haven’t tbh, but I get on well with the pr people of lenbrook who own Bluesound and nad, and I’m trying to get the new node atm, but hopefully I’ll look at more nad products which might include that one.
Excellent video again Simon! Do you have any intentions to review any of the DAC's from Topping, Gustard, SMSL or other Chinese manufacturers producing delta sigma based models? It seems that in the sub $1500 market they're building some truly well measuring equipment compared to what we saw just a few years ago. Thank you!
I listened to the Denafrips Ares 2 and I immediately sold my Chord Qutest. The Qutest is way too analytical for me and I was not relaxing with it. Then I listened to the Denafrips Pontus in OS mode. I can sit down and feel all the pressures of the day float away. I could never go back to a Delta Sigma DAC. Denafrips are fantastic.
@@13thnotehifireviews7 Yes! I finally decided last night that it is a keeper. I was having trouble wondering why it did not sound much better than the Ares 2. I have been using it in NOS mode for a month and last night put it into OS mode. What a difference. Strange, as I preferred NOS in the Ares. Now I am very happy with my Pontus. (Now I want the Venus.....sigh).
@@13thnotehifireviews7 You're so right! Did you keep your Venus? I received the Denafrips Iris yesterday but unfortunately it was dead on arrival when I tried to use it. I'm waiting for another to arrive so I can try using I2s and see what it sounds like compared to the USB input on the Pontus.
Hey, I appreciate your review but I ask myself which DAC should I buy. I have the Arcam A19 amplifier with NAD Bee515 CD player (just an entry level model for 300€) and I want to upgrade the NAD by using an external DAC. What do you think is a proper DAC to improve the music quality (with respect to clarity, smoothness etc)? Regards from Germany :)
Simon: Truly a great video, especially around not going down a rabbit hole around perceived superiority of Hi-Res, etc.! QUESTION: I have an in-built DAC in a Marantz SACD player + two outboard DACs. I've read that in comparing DACs, listeners tend to think the loudest one sounds best - and this is often true for me. ~~~ All three DACs are connected thru my preamp, and I'm interested in having all of them play at the same volume - in order to compare quality of sound. I have an old, lo-cost sound-level meter from RatShack, and just based on listening itself, one outboard DACs has a noticably lower volume. ~~~~ So what's the correct way of matching volume between 3 DACs? Not sure, but I imagine that I'll need to use the sound-level meter and then mark 3 different gradations on the volume knob, perhaps with Post-It Notes with pen-written arrows. Should I get a special CD that has continuous/monotonous tones to use with the meter? What CD type and method do you advise? Thanks!
Thanks very much Geraard. Very kind. My attitude is don’t do that. If the three DACs sound similar with your gear, you know what - they probably are. You don’t need level matching to discern differences in a good system if you are used to the system and what the changes bring , if anything. The general rule is double the spend to get a good improvement and that tends to work as a good adage I find
Thank you Simon. Is the economic law of diminishing returns applicable to DACs in your view? Your review of the dCS Bartok DAC at around £12k led me to this question.
@@13thnotehifireviews7 I thought you might. Many folk search for Nirvana at far too great a cost relative to incremental audible improvements and their means (aside from the bored & well-heeled). Best wishes.
You hit one some important points. Folks should not concentrate on which format it will play. When the majority of the people will listen to is standand Redbook (16/44l than eventing else is moot. Another thing is how dac manufacturers keep increasing their was to 32 bit /384/768 blah blah. It's all marketing. Until music exists in these formats they need to stop. Talk to most recording studios and most do 24/96. They see very little in going higher. Not to mention the increased computer horsepower requirements for each of those channels when recording. Most any dac chip or fpga dac can be made to sound good. It's all about the implementation of it with proper power supplies, jitter reduction and analog output stage. As a experiment get a used high end dac for years back and chances are it's still better than the one made today for same or more $$. You just might not get the flexibility with usb, or hi resolution support. Thanks!
I agree with your comments although there are technical reasons for high sample rate, I think, but in any case it has to meet the ear test which is how all hifi should be bought.
Yes you can in all likelihood if it has analogue inputs which most do. There will be banks of left and right white and red RCA plugs with cd/aux and so on. Hook the dac to one of those and select the appropriate input whether aux or cd etc.
MQA can be considered a format. It plays little tricks so that it supposedly delivers up to 24/196, and it does so by packing info into the first "folds" displacing "irrelevant" and leaving "space . That's why MQA can never be truly "Master". Some people notice that things are missing and others don't.
Thanks for comments, what I was getting at is that the MQA PCM files/codecs are, I don’t think, unique. That doesn’t mean MQA isn’t good as a format. I tend to concentrate on how DACs deal with cd quality streams or CDs tbh.
There isn’t much to say about cd transports tbh. A cd transport just reads the digital and spits it out for a DAC, as I covered in a video segment in this film starting at 16:31 . Did you get that far?
I watched your whole video...just wondering the difference between a Cyrus dedicated transport vs a Rega CD player as a transport...something along those line. Also why are some transport super expensive?
Oh ok thanks, I know the Cyrus ones use what’s called ‘servo evolution’ which is a means of reading discs. They spent around £200k on developing tech on some accounts. Some problems with earlier players but now pretty much sorted. The cd Xt signature for instance uses that tech. I think the Rega ones use bog standard transports but I might be wrong. Tbh the differences of transports in higher prices, go up in very small increments on most systems, but DACs a different story - obviously as my theme of the video. A much better dac with a BLU ray player versus a top Cyrus transport with a cheaper dac, will be a lot better sounding. Eg BLU ray (or node 2i) with a Denafrips Venus 2 against Cyrus cd Xt signature with the chord Qutest . Both set ups cost similar ballpark money.
Thanks mate...anyway, I'm from Malaysia...got a Denafrips Pontus DAC...worldwide distributor is just down south in Singapore. Hardly use my no longer in production player, an Oppo UDP-205 (more like my display pampered piece now 😁)...hence contemplating the notion of a new gear - a 'real' transport...Thanks again, your info has been very helpful.
@@zamkezambo my advice is keep the oppo. They are good albeit no longer trading . My friend has one and have tested with him. My advice is if you buy a different transport buy it where the sound can be better from advantages of using servers with quiet solid state drives, like what innuos / melco do etc. Also better power supplies used. That’s what the Cyrus cd Xt sig will do, with its better power supply, but you are still getting more soundwise from dac changes on equal spending.
@@13thnotehifireviews7 ... got EP and GP. El Cheapo to 100cc. Sebart, Extreme Flight, Kyosho and more. About 15+ years ago I converted a 1/4 scale into EP. Was running 10s. Was one of first in the region to do it. Friends said I was nuts. 🤣😂
@@13thnotehifireviews7 ... that’s a big plane for 1/4 scale. Must be a beauty. I wish I could own a Albatross D.V in 1/4 scale. Stick on a nice gasoline engine and putter around. 😬
I bought my Cambridge audio dacmagic plus second hand , and only use the coaxial and rca with the Bluetooth dongle , what would be a good upgrade with bluetooth for streaming ,without as you say all the inputs I don't have a use for , , great video by the way
Thanks for your nice comments John. had a dac magic plus a few years back. A decent dac and a slight improvement on the Cyrus 6dac’s dac I had at the time. Look at double the spend would be my recommendation. The RME adi 2 is a great dac but is around £800 and quite a bit more expensive than the dac magic plus. One option if you like detail, which is the Cambridge audio way, with the way they tune the DACs to be slightly lean with treble, is to look at Mytek. They have a new liberty 2 dac coming out in a few days and the old model is obsolete which means prices will tumble of the old stock. Just an idea.
Hi thanks for your response and I will look at your reccomendations , by the way my amp is an icon audio 20pp marantz cd6006 with the klipsh rp600m , , keep the good work up
Oh, one more thing that I don't understand! My Pontus can run as NOS or OS. I understand that NOS uses the R2R ladders but does the OS oversampling mode still use the ladders? Thank you for a wonderful video.
@@13thnotehifireviews7 You are very welcome, thank you. That’s good, I just wanted to know that no delta sigma was involved with over sampling. I could not agree with you more - I think the quality of the DAC is vital. I love my Pontus!!
Thanks for your comments and feedback. I just checked that on an iPad with an iPhone db meter and the sound level was similar with the vocal and music. Listening on headphones the track is louder but I always check the music and vocal levels in headphones when I edit and I want the music sections to be a bit louder for emphasis. Equally if they were the same level as the vocal, people might be saying I should turn the music up, especially listening on tablets and PCs etc. So loudness wins.
@@mladenbasic1 oh ok see what you mean, I can understand that. I think some av amps do have a volume limiting/equaling function to stop that, as I remember having it on an av amp, but sorry if telling you how to suck eggs so to speak. Ps I like the idea of me being played in surround sound.
Thanks for your comment. To my way of doing the film and my general approach that is all academic stuff and wouldn’t have helped keep it simple I felt. Keeping to my theme in the film, that a dac and its quality can make or break the sound, not formats. A full unfold is lossless with MQA so it depends which way you look at it. But as I say, I try not to get embroiled in the ‘which format is best’ debate, simply as there isn’t one against the quality of the DAC and I don’t scrutinise which format is best. Some hires sounds bad, some sounds great. I try to pick music on what I like at whatever quality so long as it is lossless, and if the recording is better I’m pleasantly surprised. The music first audiophile approach I geuss.
@@13thnotehifireviews7 I agree, a berger dac makes all the difference and can make Redbook sound wonderful. MQA being lossless is debatable. I know they claim it is, I've seen many claims and testing that say it's not. I'm not a fan of how it sounds regardless add I've found turning it off and up-sampling to return better results
I don’t think it’s really possible to tell in real world listening situations even with DACs like the dCS. I could make it out in some DACs, but if I wasn’t doing A to B I wouldn’t know and it’s still small in any event, to even bother worrying. It is good and well beyond the usual compressed suspects like MP3 but that’s as far as it goes, in my reckoning. Just like comparing tidal versus Qobuz, they are both good but much of a muchness. The point isn’t a dac makes red book sound wonderful, but a good dac and red book is all you need
@@13thnotehifireviews7 that would imply that hi-res has no place and I disagree. The same recording in hi-res sounds better than Redbook. A bad recording in hi-res still sounds bad. I have compared MQA versions of tracks and albums to both qobuz and locally ripped CDs or SACDs and MQA loses every time for me. Not night and day differences but obvious and repeatable
@@Coolesttech what dac and system do you have out of interest? I’m not saying it doesn’t have a place, particularly as getting a source of music, but often it is just different - not just better which is very subjective when changes are small with formats, and what you can achieve between two DACs of the same price, and definetely between DACs which are double the price, is much more profound than any consideration of hi res v cd. That’s the point. I’m interested in changes that aren’t tiny but starting with good lossless format, like cd, decent changes. That’s my beef with all the MQA this, and dsd that. It detracts from the character of different components and real profound changes in performance that components bring. Instead people get too embroiled in hires formats being a necessity for DACs and buying based on that and chips etc, and you can easily change DACs of same and different prices and get a sound you prefer even if I said you can only play cd on the new dac. For instance a Qutest versus a Denafrips ares 2, similar price. Cd may be all you need on the ares to make it better for you. That’s the point. Audiophiles of course get into the tiny changes but sometimes it’s taking it too far, and it’s about making changes that give more ‘change’. Do you see my point. It is the luxury of trying lots of hifi gear I didn’t get to do before, you realise the format ‘wars’ are largely inconsequential.
Outstanding Simon. I just realised after watching this how I have taken all of the varying input connections (coax, spdif etc) for granted without ever really knowing the differences between each! There was something in this for both newbies and seasoned audiophiles alike... Great stuff!
Thanks very much Anton. Definetely the idea to appease both. Hope I did that well.
Hello Simon, I really do love and appreciate your audio reviews. It’s hard to put into words but to me you come across as an honest and genuine person.
Thank you for sharing,
Brian
Wow Brian, thanks so much for the vote of confidence. All these comments like yours really do keep me going as I do need to feel appreciated when videos take so much work. BW Simon
Another very complete video review produced at a high level of production - kudos Simon!
Thanks very much Michael. Doing one on inexpensively improving sound quality from a MacBook next week. Gonna make it shorter as this one was a marathon as did so many After effects clips like the revolving cd etc.
Wow! The best dissected explanation of a DAC. To know why the best way forward is separates. The description and explanations of inputs, outputs, design, and DAC types really helps newbies like myself. Thanks
Thank you
Dear Simon, this is a great video. Really enjoyed all the insights and comparisons you provided. Also loved your laid back, chill at home style. Cheers
Thank you Panagiotis for supporting my channel and such nice comments as always. Lots of music recs coming on new videos I know you like. Wanted to get one out this week but haven’t been that well. Doing one on cheap headphone amp and dac add on’s for laptops etc. Bw simon
I sat down and wrote down all the variables for picking a system and there are easily 70 questions to answer. It's an insane amount of decision making. Thank you for helping to clear some of it up.
Thank you, then when a review goes on about so many technical factors how the hell is anyone new going to want to get into hifi?
This was Brilliant I've never had anyone get so detailed about inputs and the advantages , very much appreciated I liked the way you explain things and look forward to more videos so I Subscribed.....Thank You Simon ...
Thank you very much. So pleased you appreciated it 😀
Just perfect, Simon. Just the right amount of detail to teach things to newbies and long-time audiophiles alike. The fact that "implementation of a technology" is much more important than the "technology itself" cannot be over-stated. Oh, and your video clip of RC airplanes brought a smile to my face; this was my Dad's biggest hobby throughout his life!
Thanks Brent for your lovely comments. I totally agree regarding implementation, sometimes audiophiles get way to caught up in tech which alienates people away from audio I think. I had another model like this in 1/4 scale - 105 inch, streamer petrol engine. This is a DB sport and Scale piper cub from the British kit and well known aero-modeller (of his time) David Boddington. Uses an OS 70FS surpass four stroke.
@@13thnotehifireviews7 Do you still build and fly?
@@brentnaylor8406 I stopped as I no longer have the space to build them. I have a few electric foam models but nothing Ive built any more. Multiplex Cularis 3m glider with an electric brushless motor is great for thermalling. In my Dad's loft I have one of these Flair Tiger Moth's. Huge at 84 inch for a bi-plane. (1/4 scale) which could probably fly a small dog around. lol. ruclips.net/video/fxPcCBFchgQ/видео.html
Hi there, watched this video on my TV and loved it so much felt I just had to jump on the app on my phone to say "absolutely brilliant informative review" subbed wish I had watched it before I ordered the Mojo2 would have spent a bit more for my first DAC. Top man thanks you 😁
Great stuff. Great videos. Keep it up. Love the posters on the wall behind too. Cheers from Australia.
Thank you. Gonna do one like this on amps I think.
Top Dollar Video Editing. Excellent content. My best Hifi review channel in 2021.
Wow that’s saying something Kiniti . Thanks so much 👍😀
Very well done! I wish your video would have been existed when I was trying to learn about DAC’s sometime ago. You would have saved me weeks, maybe months LOL. Even if I’m not a newbie anymore, I enjoyed every second of it. Thank you.
Thank you, You're very welcome!
Thank YOU Simon you really spelt it out for me about the different connector and their formats another great little film, and the simple but best advice ever, don't worry about the DAC Format Just get on with listening to your music 😊😀👍🎵🌞
Definitely - audiophiles often get caught in the technicality to the exclusion of music, I feel
Your videos are awesome man. Keep doing these!
Thanks very much Mario!! 😀
Nice job. Without any question the analogue output stage of any DAC is paramount to the quality of audio you will hear. The most problematic aspects of purchasing a DAC is the fact that this is a constant, and quickly changing landscape of technical evolution. So, how much to spend on a DAC today knowing that in just a few years there will be better, and cheaper products available?
Thank you. I think the sweet spot is around the grand mark for audiophile DACs. From there onwards you tend to get big diminishing returns.
Simon back at it again with the goods!
Nice one mate, great video
Thanks very much.
Fabulous Simon! Everything I needed to know as a start. Only started dipping my hand into digital the past 2 months & reigniting my hifi enthusiasm during the past 12 months after a long hiatus. I’ve never stopped collecting music though. But wow, it has been so confusing w digital and all the platforms emerging. DACs, cables, music formats! Which streaming service to choose? But this video essentially summarises all that I’ve learned so far. I hadn’t been watching your previous reviews as I wasn’t familiar w the brands then. Loved the Node2i video. Short & sweet. All essential info packed in 5mins. I’ll watch the Roon video next. Haven’t really come across anything that explains it clearly. I’ll drop a few questions next time. Just wanted to say that it has been quite an enlightening Saturday morning watching the above videos & the 2020 top gear.👊
Thank you very much Neil. Hard to put myself in others position sometimes with beginner vids but I hope I did ok with this one. 👍
Awesome review like all the ones u do ! I was wondering if you tried and tested the NAD 658 and if so what did you think about it ? Thanks and keep up the awesome work
Thank you very much. I haven’t tbh, but I get on well with the pr people of lenbrook who own Bluesound and nad, and I’m trying to get the new node atm, but hopefully I’ll look at more nad products which might include that one.
@@13thnotehifireviews7 THat would be greatly appreciated !
Excellent video again Simon! Do you have any intentions to review any of the DAC's from Topping, Gustard, SMSL or other Chinese manufacturers producing delta sigma based models? It seems that in the sub $1500 market they're building some truly well measuring equipment compared to what we saw just a few years ago. Thank you!
Thanks very much Joseph. Definitely will try those brands especially Topping which is well revered.
Thanks Simon for a very informative and useful video.
Thank you Christopher.Glad you enjoyed it. 😀
I listened to the Denafrips Ares 2 and I immediately sold my Chord Qutest. The Qutest is way too analytical for me and I was not relaxing with it. Then I listened to the Denafrips Pontus in OS mode. I can sit down and feel all the pressures of the day float away. I could never go back to a Delta Sigma DAC. Denafrips are fantastic.
Hi Jim, did you buy the Pontus in the end?
@@13thnotehifireviews7 Yes! I finally decided last night that it is a keeper. I was having trouble wondering why it did not sound much better than the Ares 2. I have been using it in NOS mode for a month and last night put it into OS mode. What a difference. Strange, as I preferred NOS in the Ares. Now I am very happy with my Pontus. (Now I want the Venus.....sigh).
@@nespressoman there is always one up in hifi. lol. We are all on the upgraditus thing! 😁😂
@@13thnotehifireviews7 You're so right! Did you keep your Venus?
I received the Denafrips Iris yesterday but unfortunately it was dead on arrival when I tried to use it. I'm waiting for another to arrive so I can try using I2s and see what it sounds like compared to the USB input on the Pontus.
Excellent content as always 👊👏👏👏
Thank you Mark. Any time you want to suggest anything I always take ideas onboard.
Brilliant review. Thank you!
Thank you very much
great video, thanks for this!!!!
Hey, I appreciate your review but I ask myself which DAC should I buy. I have the Arcam A19 amplifier with NAD Bee515 CD player (just an entry level model for 300€) and I want to upgrade the NAD by using an external DAC. What do you think is a proper DAC to improve the music quality (with respect to clarity, smoothness etc)? Regards from Germany :)
Simon: Truly a great video, especially around not going down a rabbit hole around perceived superiority of Hi-Res, etc.!
QUESTION: I have an in-built DAC in a Marantz SACD player + two outboard DACs. I've read that in comparing DACs, listeners tend to think the loudest one sounds best - and this is often true for me. ~~~ All three DACs are connected thru my preamp, and I'm interested in having all of them play at the same volume - in order to compare quality of sound. I have an old, lo-cost sound-level meter from RatShack, and just based on listening itself, one outboard DACs has a noticably lower volume. ~~~~ So what's the correct way of matching volume between 3 DACs? Not sure, but I imagine that I'll need to use the sound-level meter and then mark 3 different gradations on the volume knob, perhaps with Post-It Notes with pen-written arrows. Should I get a special CD that has continuous/monotonous tones to use with the meter? What CD type and method do you advise? Thanks!
Thanks very much Geraard. Very kind. My attitude is don’t do that. If the three DACs sound similar with your gear, you know what - they probably are. You don’t need level matching to discern differences in a good system if you are used to the system and what the changes bring , if anything. The general rule is double the spend to get a good improvement and that tends to work as a good adage I find
Thank you Simon. Is the economic law of diminishing returns applicable to DACs in your view? Your review of the dCS Bartok DAC at around £12k led me to this question.
Thanks too. I think so with all hifi tbh.
@@13thnotehifireviews7 I thought you might. Many folk search for Nirvana at far too great a cost relative to incremental audible improvements and their means (aside from the bored & well-heeled). Best wishes.
You hit one some important points. Folks should not concentrate on which format it will play. When the majority of the people will listen to is standand Redbook (16/44l than eventing else is moot. Another thing is how dac manufacturers keep increasing their was to 32 bit /384/768 blah blah. It's all marketing. Until music exists in these formats they need to stop. Talk to most recording studios and most do 24/96. They see very little in going higher. Not to mention the increased computer horsepower requirements for each of those channels when recording. Most any dac chip or fpga dac can be made to sound good. It's all about the implementation of it with proper power supplies, jitter reduction and analog output stage. As a experiment get a used high end dac for years back and chances are it's still better than the one made today for same or more $$. You just might not get the flexibility with usb, or hi resolution support. Thanks!
I agree with your comments although there are technical reasons for high sample rate, I think, but in any case it has to meet the ear test which is how all hifi should be bought.
Ok this is the first time I’ve ever heard of a dac can I hook it up to my receiver? I’m sure it’s a dumb question I’m only a minute in the video
Yes you can in all likelihood if it has analogue inputs which most do. There will be banks of left and right white and red RCA plugs with cd/aux and so on. Hook the dac to one of those and select the appropriate input whether aux or cd etc.
MQA can be considered a format. It plays little tricks so that it supposedly delivers up to 24/196, and it does so by packing info into the first "folds" displacing "irrelevant" and leaving "space . That's why MQA can never be truly "Master". Some people notice that things are missing and others don't.
Thanks for comments, what I was getting at is that the MQA PCM files/codecs are, I don’t think, unique. That doesn’t mean MQA isn’t good as a format. I tend to concentrate on how DACs deal with cd quality streams or CDs tbh.
Superb fella. Would you upgrade a Sonore Microrendu or Hegel HD11 DAC?
Thanks very much. See comments section.
Next...Beginner's Guide To CD Transport...Cheers 🙂👍🏼
There isn’t much to say about cd transports tbh. A cd transport just reads the digital and spits it out for a DAC, as I covered in a video segment in this film starting at 16:31 . Did you get that far?
I watched your whole video...just wondering the difference between a Cyrus dedicated transport vs a Rega CD player as a transport...something along those line. Also why are some transport super expensive?
Oh ok thanks, I know the Cyrus ones use what’s called ‘servo evolution’ which is a means of reading discs. They spent around £200k on developing tech on some accounts. Some problems with earlier players but now pretty much sorted. The cd Xt signature for instance uses that tech. I think the Rega ones use bog standard transports but I might be wrong. Tbh the differences of transports in higher prices, go up in very small increments on most systems, but DACs a different story - obviously as my theme of the video. A much better dac with a BLU ray player versus a top Cyrus transport with a cheaper dac, will be a lot better sounding. Eg BLU ray (or node 2i) with a Denafrips Venus 2 against Cyrus cd Xt signature with the chord Qutest . Both set ups cost similar ballpark money.
Thanks mate...anyway, I'm from Malaysia...got a Denafrips Pontus DAC...worldwide distributor is just down south in Singapore. Hardly use my no longer in production player, an Oppo UDP-205 (more like my display pampered piece now 😁)...hence contemplating the notion of a new gear - a 'real' transport...Thanks again, your info has been very helpful.
@@zamkezambo my advice is keep the oppo. They are good albeit no longer trading . My friend has one and have tested with him. My advice is if you buy a different transport buy it where the sound can be better from advantages of using servers with quiet solid state drives, like what innuos / melco do etc. Also better power supplies used. That’s what the Cyrus cd Xt sig will do, with its better power supply, but you are still getting more soundwise from dac changes on equal spending.
Great video! I’m also into RC planes. Still got about 30 planes in the hobby room. It’s an addiction. 😂🤣
Which ones hush puppy ki ?
@@13thnotehifireviews7 ... got EP and GP. El Cheapo to 100cc. Sebart, Extreme Flight, Kyosho and more. About 15+ years ago I converted a 1/4 scale into EP. Was running 10s. Was one of first in the region to do it. Friends said I was nuts. 🤣😂
That’s cool, I’ve got a quarter scale tiger moth, but built lots of flair kits - piper cub, puppeteer. Also balsa USA 1/4 piper cub kit.
@@13thnotehifireviews7 ... that’s a big plane for 1/4 scale. Must be a beauty. I wish I could own a Albatross D.V in 1/4 scale. Stick on a nice gasoline engine and putter around. 😬
hushpuppykl since I stopped we used to use big OS four stroke engines FS120 I had (20cc) which made a lovely sound.
So, with moderate hearing loss, should I sell my Zen dac v2, and get the Denafrips Ares 2?
Don’t know you are gonna have to try is honest answer
I bought my Cambridge audio dacmagic plus second hand , and only use the coaxial and rca with the Bluetooth dongle , what would be a good upgrade with bluetooth for streaming ,without as you say all the inputs I don't have a use for , , great video by the way
Thanks for your nice comments John. had a dac magic plus a few years back. A decent dac and a slight improvement on the Cyrus 6dac’s dac I had at the time. Look at double the spend would be my recommendation. The RME adi 2 is a great dac but is around £800 and quite a bit more expensive than the dac magic plus. One option if you like detail, which is the Cambridge audio way, with the way they tune the DACs to be slightly lean with treble, is to look at Mytek. They have a new liberty 2 dac coming out in a few days and the old model is obsolete which means prices will tumble of the old stock. Just an idea.
Hi thanks for your response and I will look at your reccomendations , by the way my amp is an icon audio 20pp marantz cd6006 with the klipsh rp600m , , keep the good work up
Oh, one more thing that I don't understand! My Pontus can run as NOS or OS. I understand that NOS uses the R2R ladders but does the OS oversampling mode still use the ladders? Thank you for a wonderful video.
Yes I think you can't avoid the R2-R ladders Jim. thanks very much for saying so.
@@13thnotehifireviews7 You are very welcome, thank you. That’s good, I just wanted to know that no delta sigma was involved with over sampling. I could not agree with you more - I think the quality of the DAC is vital. I love my Pontus!!
Simon, if I use Is2, is my DAC using its clock? Thank you.
Thank you
The volume of your voice should be at least double. I had to keep turning the volume up and down when the music kicked in.
Thanks for your comments and feedback. I just checked that on an iPad with an iPhone db meter and the sound level was similar with the vocal and music. Listening on headphones the track is louder but I always check the music and vocal levels in headphones when I edit and I want the music sections to be a bit louder for emphasis. Equally if they were the same level as the vocal, people might be saying I should turn the music up, especially listening on tablets and PCs etc. So loudness wins.
@@13thnotehifireviews7 I guess it is ok on smaller speakers but I was watching it on my home theatre system. In that case the difference was extreme.
@@mladenbasic1 oh ok see what you mean, I can understand that. I think some av amps do have a volume limiting/equaling function to stop that, as I remember having it on an av amp, but sorry if telling you how to suck eggs so to speak. Ps I like the idea of me being played in surround sound.
I agree, listening with a pair of Genelec G1's and talking voice is low, music/effects on the other hand are too loud.
@@raitsa5834 thanks for feedback. As I say I want the music to be louder tbh.
Would have been good to clarify that MQA is a lossy method of streaming music
Thanks for your comment. To my way of doing the film and my general approach that is all academic stuff and wouldn’t have helped keep it simple I felt. Keeping to my theme in the film, that a dac and its quality can make or break the sound, not formats. A full unfold is lossless with MQA so it depends which way you look at it. But as I say, I try not to get embroiled in the ‘which format is best’ debate, simply as there isn’t one against the quality of the DAC and I don’t scrutinise which format is best. Some hires sounds bad, some sounds great. I try to pick music on what I like at whatever quality so long as it is lossless, and if the recording is better I’m pleasantly surprised. The music first audiophile approach I geuss.
@@13thnotehifireviews7 I agree, a berger dac makes all the difference and can make Redbook sound wonderful. MQA being lossless is debatable. I know they claim it is, I've seen many claims and testing that say it's not. I'm not a fan of how it sounds regardless add I've found turning it off and up-sampling to return better results
I don’t think it’s really possible to tell in real world listening situations even with DACs like the dCS. I could make it out in some DACs, but if I wasn’t doing A to B I wouldn’t know and it’s still small in any event, to even bother worrying. It is good and well beyond the usual compressed suspects like MP3 but that’s as far as it goes, in my reckoning. Just like comparing tidal versus Qobuz, they are both good but much of a muchness. The point isn’t a dac makes red book sound wonderful, but a good dac and red book is all you need
@@13thnotehifireviews7 that would imply that hi-res has no place and I disagree. The same recording in hi-res sounds better than Redbook. A bad recording in hi-res still sounds bad. I have compared MQA versions of tracks and albums to both qobuz and locally ripped CDs or SACDs and MQA loses every time for me. Not night and day differences but obvious and repeatable
@@Coolesttech what dac and system do you have out of interest? I’m not saying it doesn’t have a place, particularly as getting a source of music, but often it is just different - not just better which is very subjective when changes are small with formats, and what you can achieve between two DACs of the same price, and definetely between DACs which are double the price, is much more profound than any consideration of hi res v cd. That’s the point. I’m interested in changes that aren’t tiny but starting with good lossless format, like cd, decent changes.
That’s my beef with all the MQA this, and dsd that. It detracts from the character of different components and real profound changes in performance that components bring. Instead people get too embroiled in hires formats being a necessity for DACs and buying based on that and chips etc, and you can easily change DACs of same and different prices and get a sound you prefer even if I said you can only play cd on the new dac. For instance a Qutest versus a Denafrips ares 2, similar price. Cd may be all you need on the ares to make it better for you. That’s the point. Audiophiles of course get into the tiny changes but sometimes it’s taking it too far, and it’s about making changes that give more ‘change’. Do you see my point. It is the luxury of trying lots of hifi gear I didn’t get to do before, you realise the format ‘wars’ are largely inconsequential.
Neat.
🙏🏻👍🏻
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