Battery powered DAC

Thanks for your contribution Piedpiper. May I ask what are the sonic differences you heard between the Ack and the Nixon? Which Nixon did you audition? And, briefly, what's your system like?

Sold my MF A324 and kept the Ack!Dac. You can search AA and read my review. It's great.

Dear Viggen, I was outa town.

I can't remember which Nixon. It was tubed and in a black plastic case. Incidently, Pierre Sprey of Mapleshade would insist that it would sound much better in a maple wood box. He's very strong about the negative qualities of plastic as a dialectric. I just was discussing the ack and the cap mod with him and he suggested that the extra 5 microfarad on each channel was most likely unnecessary, stating that the DynamiCap and particularly the bypass might have been the real poiint here. I don't remeber whether I added the second 5 or the bypass first. I'll revisit it.

I did the Nixon/ack comparison with stock units of both. The Nixon was softer, grundgier, not as clear, not as silent a background. I didn't take alot of time with it because it was pretty clear to me which I prefered. It's not suprising to me given the battery and simpler circuit of the ack.

My system consists of the above mentioned transport and dac into a modified Cary SEI LX20 giving 20 watts single ended into modified Gallo references using all Mapleshade/Insound cables and power cords; pretty tweeked and well set up, halfway into the long length of the room with the listening position fairly nearfield at the apex of a right triangle in a 13x24x9 room with roomtunes.

Another thought, gleaned from musings on the Sutherland PhD: it seems there would be great sonic and logistical advantages to having a cheap AC/DC supply that could be simply switched in for convenience listening and to keep the circuit warmed up. The sonic advantages of batteries are huge and way cheaper to boot than a properly designed AC PS. It's a no contest if you ask me. Until you've heard a battery supply you won't get it, perhaps.

For 11 months I've been listening with the Scott Nixon tube dac+ and for about 2 weeks with the Ack dAck! The transport and the amp have been the 47 Labs Shigaraki, though sometimes I stick in my Decware Zen Zen amp or my Consonance 2a3 push push. Speakers have been the single full range Jordan JX92s in a transmission line that goes to a solid 50 Hz. At first, I was taken aback by the more laid back, less round and airy midrange of the dAck! Okay, I told myself, it doesn't have a tube so doesn't sound like a tube machine. With the dAck! the background is so quiet and black it spooked me and I thought, at first, that it did not have subtle detail. Took me a week to convince myself that the dAck! could reveal the hall acoustics, but it can. During the past couple of years I've really pursued a digital front end (within my budget). I've had an Ah!Tjoeb99, Sony SACD-777es, Cary 308, conrad-johnson Premier 9 and DR-1. The Scott Nixon with his better power supply and the nice Shigaraki transport was easily better than the above. Now the dAck! It excells in speed and timing--but perhaps a less responsive amp might not reveal this; the Nixon would sound better with a tube amp--sharing the good qualities of tubes in the midrange. The dAck! can throw hard and deep punches when the music calls for this--bruising my ears with the discovery of new erogenous sensations. The massed violins of an orchestra play melodically to an amazing degree though the dAck! The string basses too. The sweep of strings with the viola and cello slide lush and whole. Percussion: wow, was that snap my solid hardwood speaker cabinets cracking? The waves of the sea of dynamics hypnotize with crests and troughs, then splash one in the face with passionate surprise. Each musician can be heard listening to the other musicians, so precise is the timing (one would swear there exists telepathic communication between masterful musicians). The Ack! dAck! is !!!