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Six DAC Comparison

I am in the middle of comparing the sound of six different DACs in my system. I own them all (I know weird) but one of them is still within a trial/return timeframe.

Not to share specific comparisons today, but a couple of observations so far are that first, they all definitely sound different from each other. On one hand, they all sound pretty good and play what is fed to them without significant flaws but on the other hand there are definite sonic differences that make it easy to understand how a person might like the sound of some of them while not liking others.

Second, raises the observation that most of them must be doing something to shape the sound in the manner the designer intended since one of the DACs, a Benchmark DAC3 HGA, was described by John Atkinson of Stereophile as providing "state-of-the-art measured performance." In the review, JA closed the measurements section by writing, "All I can say is "Wow!" I have also owned the Tambaqui (not in my current comparison), which also measured well ("The Mola Mola Tambaqui offers state-of-the-digital-art measured performance." - JA). The Benchmark reminds me sonically of the Tambaqui, both of which are excellent sounding DACs.

My point is that if the Benchmark is providing "state-of-the-art measured performance," then one could reasonably presume that the other five DACs, which sound different from the Benchmark, do not share similar ’state-of-the-art" measurements and are doing something to subtly or not so subtly alter the sound. Whether a person likes what they hear is a different issue.

mitch2
brbrock's avatar
brbrock
166 posts
 

@mitch2 You are stepping things up a bit with the upgraded SMc audio VRE-1C.  I just received my SMc TLC-2 a few months ago.  I asked Patrick where it landed in terms of all the preamps and he said better than the old VRE-Models but not as good as the new one.  So I am pretty happy.  So refresh my memory again you are running the SMc Mono's also and what speakers do you have?  I pay close attention to your thread because our systems seem very similar.  I don't have the mono's but I may upgrade to the mono's in the future.  

mitch2 OP
4,738 posts
 

My system page is mostly updated except for the VRE-1C, which is supposed to get here next week. Patrick is enjoying it this weekendlaugh  my monos are pictured on SMc’s home page - the ones with total black faces.

Mine is one of the newer VRE-1Cs and then Patrick did a bunch of stuff to it, including a thing or two they are doing with their VRE-2.  I am really looking forward to it.

fuzzbutt17's avatar
fuzzbutt17
97 posts
 

@NO-REGRETS (and everyone else)

Our Mystique Z NC (the same model mitch2 has) will be in room #661 with Volti Audio at the Capital Audio Fest next week.

Greg got a burned in demo on Monday and he's been listening to it compared to his X'25 NC.

Long story short Greg is trading in his X'25 NC on the new Z NC so from now on Volti Audio will be exhibiting with our new Mystique Z NC. 

For those of you who are interested in hearing our new Mystique Z, both Volti Audio and Mojo Audio will be at AXPONA next April.

I'm not 100% sure but I believe Volti will be at the Florida show as well.

As for mitch2's comparison you should all keep in mind that he has one of the rare Mystique X NCZ DACs with the AD1862N-Z DAC chip upgrade. There are only about a dozen of our DACs in the whole world that have those rare AD1862N-Z DAC chips. 

Whatever differences mitch2 is hearing will be significantly more compared to most of our X DACs that have the more common AD1862N-J DAC chips. I would estimate the differences would be something like double whatever mitch2 is hearing. 

One thing is for certain: everyone who has made the comparison is telling us how much more midrange bloom, musical flow, and emotional expression our new Mystique Z has over any of our other DACs.

BTW, we're catching up with our back orders.

Current lead time is about 2-3 weeks.

By the end of November we're hoping to have inventory for immediate shipment. 

mitch2 OP
4,738 posts
 

Hey all, if it wasn’t clear, I believe what Benjamin meant was:

"Whatever differences mitch2 is hearing will be significantly more less than what is heard when compared to most of our X DACs that have the more common AD1862N-J DAC chips."

IOW, while Benjamin and other listeners believe the Mystique Z sounds better than the Mystique X line, the differences are likely to be less between my X SE NCZ and the Z, because of the premium AD1862N-Z DAC chip upgrade that I have in my X SE DAC. The sonic performance delta between the Z and the majority of Mojo Audio's X line-up of DACs (that do not have the premium Z chips) is likely to be greater than what I am hearing.

BTW, I had to take a short hiatus from listening this week and will get back to listening to the Mystique Z this weekend.  Based on my listening so far, I am confident of what I am hearing from the Mystique Z but I want to spend more time directly comparing it to my Mystique X SE NCZ.  After that, I plan to compare to the sound of my Aries Cerat Helene DAC but that will be more easily done through my new SMc Audio VRE-1C preamp that just shipped out today, since that preamp has a phase switch so I won’t need to flip-flop speaker cables to account for how the AC Helene inverts polarity.

mfisher702
49 posts
 

“Sonic Delta”. Good band name. 

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