The design is not without issues - the impedance matching makes them problematic for certain (usually) Solid State designs. And what is interesting is that it is said to be better exactly where it should not be - in the treble! Yes there is ultrasonic noise without a filter (inaudible however) - or I suppose audible and more agreeable since their proponents tend to feel it sounds a lot better than well "everything else" including SACD. So perhaps they have good reason for their choice of the TDA 1543 and their 1865N in their upper models. If there is one thing I know about Peter and crew they experiment - you can be sure that they've tried every single chip that is available to try.Ĭould they provide a technical reason for their choice - I dunno but I've never heard a CD player that uses a TD1541 that sounds better than an AN CD player - Nor a boom box. There is a difference.Īs for DAC Chips Audio Note's team prefers the TDA 1543 over the TDA 1541 since the chips are about the cheapest thing in the machine it's not like they couldn't choose the TDA 1541 instead. It, and I realize the terms suck the sucky big one, sounds more "natural." Fluorescent light versus sunlight. Maybe someone else will take a shot.Ĭlick to expand.Please note that when I say dots connected that is a subjective listening term since it doesn't sound like a paint by numbers dot to dot drawing of a picture. It seems to me that you may be able to meet your goal well short of your budget, with all of the advancements and proliferation of choices in the DAC world lately, but I can't point to a must-try with respect to vinyl sound. To be honest, all of them sounded pretty good, with the Saturn lagging a little behind, still conveying choruses and reverberent info well, although through a bit of tizz. I heard "new things" with both the Dragonfly and the V90, and it was a pleasant introduction to hi-res for me. In between were the Dragonfly still sorta brighter than the MF V-90, which seemed perhaps more neutral than the rest. At the other end was the Rega Saturn, bright by comparison with either. The Marantz was closest to this tonality, with it's accompanying smoothness and ease. My vinyl setup is definitely the darkest of all five when switching through, although it doesn't seem dark at all to me by itself. The main differences I found were in tonal balance. I was playing Fleetwood Mac''s Tusk using a Benz Micro Wood SM on a Jelco 12" tonearm on a Teac TN-400 turntable, through a Cinemag 1131 SUT into my Luxman L-505u integrated driving Quad ESLs with, I confess, two Hsu STF-2 subs right behind them towards the inside. I am not qualified to speak about what I would consider expensive DACs, but I can tell you what mine sound like compared to vinyl because I recent did just that comparison. I only need standard Redbook resolution playback (44.1K/16 bit), but the ability to play higher resolution files is fine (most of the music I listen to is not available in high resolution downloads). I appreciate all advice, but please don’t tell me to just go with actual vinyl– I just can’t get more than half the music I want on vinyl, new or used, and what I can find often costs 2-3 times that of a CD. Then there’s the Absolute Sound review of the Bryston BDA-2, where the author keeps hinting at his experience with a turntable. One dealer, who sells both the Synthesis Matrix and the Audio Note DAC 3.1 Balanced II, said the Synthesis sounds slightly better, but I don’t know what transport or music server they were using. Bob Neill from Amherst Audio claims on his website, the Audio Note “4.1 Sig is the first DAC I’ve heard that truly does enable digital to compete on an even playing field with very good if not state of the art analogue.” I believe this DAC is $25,000, and is performs much better with a very high quality (expensive) transport and digital cables (which probably means it is especially sensitive to jitter).Īssuming Bob is correct about the AN 4.1 Signature, do other DAC’s exist that do what vinyl does for something I can afford (under $5,000 used)? I am looking at the Audio Note DAC 3.1 Balanced II (about $5K used), the Synthesis Matrix ($3,500 new), and the Bryston BDA-2/BDP-1 or BDP-2 music server/DAC combo (just under $5K new).
I am looking for what I suppose everyone else is looking for – a DAC that sounds like vinyl. I’m a new member here and am glad I found this place.
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