Millennia Media imersiv D1

Time will tell @yyzsantabarbara . And I did read your earlier  recounting of skipping the preamp as well as immersiv’s own comments about this on their website.  Of course, that’s not an option with the CODA CSiB, but I might try it with my Rowland, but will also try it into the Corus preamp.  (If the interwebz are to be believed, many users of the D-1 seem to report no issue going into their pre-amps, so it may all be very system dependent.) 

Well, I spent 3 days listening to the D-1 (on a variety of filters and 2d harmonic settings, but obviously not all 2500 possible combinations; and only with upsampling turned off) in both of my systems and the results were a bit startling to me.

The TL;DR version is that in the Rowland 625 S2/Corus/Power Storage run system with a Aurender N20 and DALI Epicon 6 speakers, the D-1 showed more detail (quite a bit more) and a quieter noise floor than with the LTA Aero (in this case with rare GEC 12 volt B36 NOS tubes, that sound as good or better to me in general than TungSol black glass round plates), but on pretty much all types of music the net resulting sound was less pleasing to us. It was less “sweet” with less of the lit from within quality that I’ve come to count on from this system. This was particularly evident with classical guitar (e.g., Julian Breem playing Bach), string quartets, and cello piano duets (e.g. the amazing 1968 recording of Schubert’s Arpeggione Sonata (D. 821) by Rostropovich and Benjamin Britten accompanying his cellist friend on the piano), but also with Joni Mitchel, Betty Carter, Ella, and even Who’s Next.  There was also what i perceived as the tiniest bit of harshness in the upper midrange and treble from the D-1 compared to the liquid sound of the Aero’s tubes.

Interestingly (to me at least), when i put the D-1 in the dining room system (JA Perspective 2 Graphene, Innuos Stream1 plus the standalone Phoenix USB reclocker and CODA CSiB V2 integrated amp), the result compared to the Aero (in that case with 12 volt TungSol black glass round plate tubes) was much closer. Again, more detail, but only slightly it seemed.  Also less obvious hard edged sound.  In fact, although i didn’t try a blind A/B test, my suspicion is that i would not have been able to reliably tell the difference blind.  I am not sure what to attribute this difference to, other than a synergy of R2R tube NOS DAC and the Rowling electronics in the living room system (or perhaps room acoustics, but both rooms are untreated and fairly reflective due to lots of floor to ceiling windows (more of that in the living room, however).  It is the case that when both systems have Aero DACs in them, the dining room one does sound more “neutral” or “clean” and less “sweet”. Definitely does not create what i am calling, for lack of better vocabulary or technical knowledge, the lit from within glow that is quite noticeable in the living room system. Presumably this is due to the CODA’s famed neutrality.  

So, while this was only a relatively brief try-out, I did listen for many hours each day, both in focused listening mode and while doing other things in those rooms, and obviously a highly idiosyncratic take, I would definitely support @audphile1 ’s advice to test out this DAC before committing to buy it. I suspect many ( @yyzsantabarbara obviously) will love it, perhaps especially if your room is better acoustically treated than mine, but for me I am sticking with R2R NOS for now.

(I should note that i could not bring myself to bypass the CORUS & PSU and connect the D-1 directly to my 625 S2 amp; so perhaps the D-1 would have sounded better had i done that, but I know that i would not buy a DAC that doesn’t play well with that preamp and its power supply.)

I got a chance to audition the D1 in my system for a while. Long story short, I did not like it. It was unnatural sounding, not able to relax with it. Maybe it was bad synergy with my system. Not sure. I could not play DSD files- they were truly broken sounding. The DAC also stuttered and skipped when used with my streamer, a playback mps-x, which has been rock solid with every other DAC I’ve tried it with. I tried direct with laptop as USB source running Roon and still had odd issues with track to track stuttering and wonkiness. Maybe the D1 was defective. 

The D-1 is going to be limited going through an integrated amp like the CSiB (I owned it). I say this because the most resolving preamp I have heard is the Benchmark LA4/HPA4 and when I connected the still breaking in D-1 into it the sound was not particularly outstanding. It was better than the Schiit Singular DAC I also had on the preamp (both by XLR) but not by much., However, I was told by my friend, Danny who sells this thing, to go direct to amp because the designer told him that was the best way to hear the difference of the D-1 compared to other DACs. 

When put the D-1 directly into my CODA #16 amp and Yamaha NS5000 speakers the improvement in resolution was immediately evident. I put my HPA4 up for sale the next day. I have owned the LA4 or HPA4 since about 2012 and have heard it with many amps and sources. It was never the weak link until the D-1.

I sold my CODA #16 last week (still pending) and I will be using the D-1 with my CODA #11 amp and my Class D Audio GanFet 6.5 amp. Both have XLR and RCA inputs on the amp. I use XLR from the D-1 into either amp. I have a long Benchmark XLR cable to the Livingroom. I will only listen to the D-1 on my best system.

On my office system, Magnepan Mini + GanFet 6.5, I also have a Schiit Valhalla 3 OTL/OCL tube preamp + audiophile RCA switch to listen to 2 tuners and an RME DAC (for SACD's). The Valhalla 3 goes into the GanFet amp by RCA. The nice thing about the GanFet is that it automatically switches between RCA and XLR.

None of this is particularly convenient but the sonic difference of the D-1 makes it worthwhile for me.

I got my CODA #11 back from CODA. Doug Dale at CODA said this was the cleanest amp he had ever seen (30 years old) and that the only upgrade needed was the new speaker binding posts that all new CODA amps use.

He also adjusted the bias a bit and I am now getting more Class A and the amp is running a bit hotter.

The sound with the imersiv D-1 is spectacular. The #11 is a bit warmer than the CODA #16. Not warm like a PASS or the KRELL Duo XD lineup, but a bit warmer than the #16. I dropped the second Order Harmonic distortion on the DAC to Level 2 from Level 4 on Filter B. The higher the number the warmer the sound.

I loved the #16 amp, and a new owner is getting it delivered today. Great amp, but I like the #11 a bit more with the imersiv D-1. 

The point of this post is to suggest a slightly warm amp with the D-1. I seem to love Class A amps with this DAC, #16, #11, Schiit Aegir v1.