Digital Audio Denmark convertors

i have had both the Digital Audio Denmark in my system and the Berkeley too.

the Denmark was in my system last spring when Crna39 (the poster 4 posts above this post) was in my room doing a recording for FIM off my Rockport tt. there was also a Pacific Microsonics Model 2 hi-rez dac being used. we did multiple tests and playback comparing my tt to these sources over a 12 hour period.

the very next week i took delivery of my Playback Designs MPS-5.

neither of these professional DAC's came close to the MPS-5 in performance using the performance of my Rockport as the common reference. the Playback Designs comes closer to sounding completely natural and life-like than the Denmark. not to say that the Digital Audio Denmark is not a fine sounding DAC in it's own right.

obviously; Crna39 owns these products and listens to them daily in his work and you can read his opinion.

a few weeks later i was given a Berkeley to compare to the MPS-5; same result. Again, the Berkeley is certainly a fine sounding DAC but not at the Playback Designs level. i did only compare redbook when i had the Berkeley.

these are just my opinions based on my listening in my system to these products.

hi Alan,

for the Denmark in my system it was mostly hi-rez 'just recorded' files from the hard-drive that was being used to store the recordings off my Rockport. these were played back and then directly compared to the Rockport played straight.

then a week later i compared my impressions of how the Playback Designs sounded on redbook and SACD to the Rockport played straight.

the Playback Designs was closer to the naturalness and overall musical involvement of the Rockport.

as i mentioned; i just used Redbook for the Berkeley comparison.

Alan,

three pro audio guys were recording off my tt into two different hi-rez recording chains. i'm not sure the exact software they were using to store the file. i'm not into such things. Bruce-Cma39-could tell us.

for the Berkeley we just used a CD played on the Playback Designs used as a transport into the Berkeley.

Let's also recognize that Vincent's first post...

I have one here in Las Vegas and I can say without hesitation that it is by far the best converter on the market and I have compared it to many highend audiophile players such as the Playback designs & the Berkeley. They don't come close, and best of all, it is cheaper than both of these.

Vincent R Sanders
VRS Audio Solutions

.....failed to disclose that he is/was a dealer/distributor for the product he touts.....and his perspective was put in the strongest terms possible.

I am not one to slam any one's product, especially on a public forum, as I feel this is not appropriate to do. There are many products that are not to my liking, and I will never, talk about them in a public forum either.

hummmmmmm. except this time? but if we want more negative stuff we can call ya?

normally Audiofeil would be on Vincent's case big time by now.

i don't know Vincent and he very well may be sincere and credible.....in fact i assume that he is. but disclosure of a commercial interest is expected. others certainly get slammed for that sort of ommision.

Vincent;

thank you for taking my communications in the spirit with which it was offered....i meant no personal offense.

unfortunately; AudiogoN is a commercial site which has decided to avoid identifing Industry affiliation. therefore it is left to the community to self police this issue. we do have a few here who do act as 'ethics police' regularly; others occasionally.

there are many industry people who do post on AudiogoN and most do respect the issue of disclosure. i would add that these 'Industry People' have much to offer in terms of information.....but must tread lightly when commenting on products they sell.

as far as optimization of digital playback, the Playback Designs MPS-5 does solve the clocking/jitter issue intertnally without reclocking devices.

for some insight into how Playback Designs approaches this issue, follow this link to some answers from Andreas Koch, the designer of the MPS-5;

Link to Andreas's comments

i use the MPS-5 as a high rez server DAC as well as an SACD disc player and Redbook disc player. it's the player i prefer at all three of these tasks i have heard. i use the Lynx AES16 XLR sound card in my server.