What's wrong with my Cal Delta/Sigma?


I recently purchased this transport/dac combo. Help me upgrade this set up. My soundstage is muddy, highs and mids are veiled, bass is punchy, and I am not getting that tube "glow" that I expected to get from using this set up.

My amp/pre is Aragon 8002/Nakamichi Ca-7a, Speaker is KEF 103/4, cables are AQ Emeralds and Argents, and using a Monster reference2 as digital coax between the dac/trans (recently ordered a silverserpent from bettercables.com yet to be received).
yohjixme

Showing 2 responses by ton1313

I have an Alpha/Delta combo, and I just replaced the tubes with 1963 GE large plates. This has opened up my soundstage immensly. Also, the analog cables and the powercord are custom made by a guy on ebay. Do a search for Cableplex. The Nirvana cables are the best I've heard, they beat out a pair of $400 straightwires, for only $75 per 1 meter pair. His powercords are top notch, both the alpha and the delta have one. As far as the digital cable, I contacted CAL, and they told me their perferred method is the digital coax. I have two that I perfer, one is the ZuCable Firemine and the other is a custom cableplex. I can hardly tell the difference between the two, but I perfer the ZuCable. The Cableplex Digital is only $20 and it is better in my HT than a $200 Tara Labs.

as far as cables, the Interconnects made the biggest difference, and the powercord on the DAC.

The Tubes are available at www.upscaleaudio.com, I think they were around $20 each. They have a whole lot more if you want tho spend $$$. As far as increased soundstage, I think all of the upgrades, tubes and cables, made a contribution to the sound quality. I had the tubes recommended to me by Matt, the guy who makes the Cableplex cables. I am not familiar with the PS Audio, but for the money I think you will not regret anything from Cableplex. I have an Audiophile uncle who just upgraded his entire HT, and His daughters HT, to the cableplex Nirvana cables. This includes a special subwoofer cable.

As you can tell, I can't say enough about the cables, this is my personal opinion and the biggest enhancement to my system.

Good luck with your decisions