DAC Reviews

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DAC ReviewsPreamplifier/DAC Reviews
TAD Evolution Series D1000MK2 Disc Player (Black Edition)
Michael Lavorgna  |  Jan 04, 2018
"It's her nose." Imagine reading a critical analysis of da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" and said analysis of the painting's enduring popularity was pinned on her nose. Ridiculous right? (the answer is yes, that's ridiculous). Imagine reading a review of a DAC and the critical analysis pinned its performance on the D/A chip. That's equally ridiculous.
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DAC Reviews
AudioQuest Beetle
Michael Lavorgna  |  Nov 16, 2017
Nothin' Bugs Me

To my way of thinking, if you want a DAC that offers USB, Optical, and Bluetooth inputs and you want it to sound good without deciding between it and a car, I have news for you.

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DAC ReviewsMiscellaneous Software Reviews
BACCH4Mac 3D Audio Playback System Follow-Up
Michael Lavorgna  |  Sep 21, 2017
Short & Sweet
As promised, I am here to talk about 2 other variations on the BACCH4Mac theme; using the included RME Babyface as DAC, and going USB out of the BACCh4Mac-housing Mac into my DAC. Please consider the review proper recommended since I will not be re-hashing the BACCH story.
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DAC ReviewsPreamplifier/DAC Reviews
Wyred 4 Sound DAC-2v2 SE
Steven Plaskin  |  Sep 14, 2017
It's hard to believe that over three years has passed since I last reviewed a Wyred 4 Sound DAC. At that time, I found the DAC-2 DSDse to have "flawless function and performance that was a joy to experience." I now found myself very curious to see what E.J. Sarmento has come up with for today's computer audiophile. For those of you that aren't acquainted with E. J. Sarmento's California company, Wyred 4 Sound not only builds DACs, but offers power amps, preamps, integrated amps, music servers, along with cables and numerous accessories for the audiophile marketplace. The DAC-2v2 SE is Wyred 4 Sound's latest design that builds on their DAC-2v2 by adding many improvements to the basic design.
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DAC Reviews
Aqua Hifi Formula Optologic DAC
Michael Lavorgna  |  Jul 20, 2017
Opto-logic
It means light. Light is used to couple the digital to the analog boards instead of metal/wire so that electrical noise stays away from the analog circuitry where it can do all kinds of harm we can hear. The "A" in DAC stands for Analog which seems to go without saying but some people get stuck on the "D" making the false assumption that digital is "perfect". As perfect as free-range unicorns.
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DAC Reviews
Holo Spring DAC Level 1
Alex Halberstadt  |  Jun 28, 2017
"If it measures good and sounds bad—it’s bad. If it measures bad and sounds good, you’ve measured the wrong thing." —Daniel R. von Recklinghausen, Chief Engineer, H.H. Scott.

The main thing I’ve learned after an adulthood of listening to recorded music is that we still don’t really understand what makes it fun. What I mean is the factors that make music reproduction emotionally engaging (as opposed to accurate sounding) remain, to a significant extent, a mystery. This is especially true of digital. Which makes sense—the phonograph disk has been around since Emile Berliner introduced it in 1889. Digital encoding arrived nearly a century later, and after three-decades-and-change we’re still getting our heads around how to make it sound like music.

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DAC Reviews
Aqua Hifi La Scala MkII Optologic DAC
Ola Björling  |  May 04, 2017
photo credits: Aqua Hifi unless otherwise noted

In my day job I interact with people holding PHD's in various tech fields, including audio. Any faith these folks have in my cognitive faculties has a tendency to ebb quickly when they find out I prefer music on vinyl, even if—and, perhaps, especially if—it's mastered digitally at 16/44.1. My response is to regurgitate a spiel on how music exists for the purpose of pleasure, and I simply tend to receive more of that through vinyl, measurements be damned. Depending on the degree of hostility I might also opt to say that signal to noise ratio is not a genre I care for, and try to change the topic.

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DAC Reviews
HoloAudio Spring DAC LEVEL 3 "Kitsune Tuned Edition"
Michael Lavorgna  |  Mar 16, 2017
R2R, NOS/Or Not
The discrete R2R HoloAudio Spring DAC offers two main operating modes; non-oversmapling (NOS) and a chip-based oversampler (AKM AK4137). You can switch between these modes of operation by simply pushing the front panel "OVER SAMPLING" button. This button offers 4 choices; "NOS" mode which bypasses that AKM chip, "OS Mode" where PCM and DSD are each upsampled to higher rates but remain PCM and DSD, "OS PCM" where all data is "oversampled to PCM", and "OS DSD" where all data is "oversampled to DSD". If you are anything like me, you'll leave the Spring DAC in "NOS" mode, avoiding that Asahi Kasei Microdevices chip like the plague.
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DAC ReviewsPreamplifier/DAC Reviews
exaSound Audio Design e32 DAC
Steven Plaskin  |  Feb 23, 2017
When I recently heard that exaSound Audio Design had released a new model replacement for their e22 DAC, I immediately contacted George Klissarov, President of exaSound Audio Design, to see if I could get a review sample of the new e32 DAC for an AudioStream review. I was very enthusiastic about the e32’s predecessor when I reviewed the e22 in 2014. At that time, I found the e22 to be an excellent sounding DAC and one that did a first-class job playing DSD files. The e22 was built around the ES9018S Sabre32 reference DAC chip and utilized exaSound’s custom ASIO drivers that allowed native DSD256 support for both OSX and Windows.
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DAC ReviewsPreamplifier/DAC Reviews
T+A DAC 8 DSD
Michael Lavorgna  |  Dec 29, 2016
Skip The Bits
"Hey, you put DSD in my DAC! You put DAC in my DSD!" The buzz surrounding the T+A DAC 8 DSD is all about octuple-rate DSD; DSD512 (512 times that of CD)/22.5792 MHz. The idea being you use Signalyst's HQPlayer software to convert all of your music to DSD512 before sending it to the DAC 8 so that the latter's "True One Bit DSD Converter" can work its magic. Yea, magic.
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DAC ReviewsPreamplifier/DAC Reviews
Mytek Brooklyn DAC
Michael Lavorgna  |  Sep 22, 2016
Brooklyn
The new Mytek Brooklyn DAC does not sport a slicked back undercut, big beard, skinny jeans, a plaid shirt, and tattoos. Wrong neighborhood. What this Brooklyn sports is a preamplifier, a DSD256- and MQA-capable DAC, two headphone jacks which can be paired with a 4 pin XLR to 2 1/4 inch jacks for balanced headphones, a freakin' phono input (MM/MC), and a sculpted aluminum front panel in black (for a touch of Brooklyn) or "frosty silver".
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DAC Reviews
AudioQuest DragonFly Red and DragonFly Black
Michael Lavorgna  |  Sep 01, 2016
A DragonFly Tale
[Parental Advisory Warning] I had an email exchange with my friend Joe about music and movies, as is our wont, and asked—
Me "What are listening through?"
Joe "I have two pairs of Shure 580 in-ear headphones, which are very good headphones and also sit in the ear and cut out 90% of outside noise. About as fidelity as I get."
Me "I like those Shure in-ears too. So you plug them into your computer?"
Joe "Yeah, I just plug them into one Apple product or another."
At the time, I was rich in Dragonflys, having my original and the V.1 version. So I sent Joe the original. Here's the first email I received from Joe after the DragonFly landed at his place:
Subject: Damn!

Fuck Me! Dragonfly!

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DAC ReviewsMedia Server ReviewsPreamplifier/DAC Reviews
Playback Designs Sonoma Series: Syrah Server, Merlot DAC, and OpBox
Steven Plaskin  |  Jun 16, 2016
Andreas Koch, Founder, CEO, and Engineer along with Bert Gerlach, Engineer have recently released the new Playback Designs Sonoma Series that includes the Syrah Server, Merlot DAC, and OpBox conversion kit for the Oppo103 Blu-ray Disc Player. Another component in the Sonoma series is also slated for release called the Pinot that is an Analog Digital Convertor. I’m sure a number of you have noticed that the Sonoma Series has named the products after fine wines. Andreas previously worked for Sony developing the first native DSD recorder and workstation. Sony’s chairman at that time felt that DSD’s potential and performance was similar to a good wine; hence the name Sonoma for the workstation. Andreas’ view of musical experiences and fine wine:
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DAC Reviews
EMM Labs DAC2X Stereo D/A Converter
Michael Lavorgna  |  Feb 11, 2016
Engineering Cred
Ed Meitner, the man behind EMM Labs, has some serious engineering credentials. These include a number of patents and a few decades' worth of product design and innovation including preampfification, amplification, and all things digital (like the Meitner Intelligent Digital Audio Translator (IDAT) digital processor from 1993). I owned and enjoyed the Museatex Meitner STR55 Stereo Amp back in the '90s when I was living the life of an IT guy by day and loft-living painter by night in NYC. I can still remember loving the ST55's design and sound, a nice change from the behemoths populating the floors of high-end shops like immovable metal heat generating odes to speaker design gone awry.
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DAC Reviews
Metrum Acoustics Pavane
Michael Lavorgna  |  Dec 24, 2015
Extreme NOS
The Metrum Acoustics Pavane is the company's flagship DAC. Like the recently reviewed and well loved Musette (see review), the Pavane relies on Metrum's own Transient R2R ladder DAC One modules to convert Ds to As. While the Musette uses two, the Pavane employs a total of eight DAC modules, four per channel. Unlike the Musette, the digital data feeding those DAC chips passes through the company's FPGA-resident "forward correction module". What's it correcting?
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