verdantaudio
Responses from verdantaudio
| dCS Bartok Apex vs any similar priced DAC The Playback MPD-8 lacks the on-board streamer. That said, I had a customer do a direct compare (in-home demo) of the Bartok Apex vs the MPD-6 from Playback and he opted for the Playback. His perspective was that detail was a push but the stagin... | |
| DAC Shootout Starts This Weekend @earthbound Thank you for the kind words. This is energizing and makes me want to test more gear. | |
| DAC Shootout Starts This Weekend @pgastone So...I have the 204 but have yet to do a critical listening test. It is fully broken in as the unit has been out to a couple customers. It will be back this week. I did spend a brief period of time with it and it is very good soundi... | |
| CD Transport Did you know that Bricasti just released the M19 SACD transport that will work with your M1 S2? it is not inexpensive at $10K list but will match aesthetically and supports SACD and CD. Just thought I would share since this is pretty new news. I ... | |
| Best Dedicated Streamer I have physically had the Grimm vs Antipodes. Grimm is lovely but has limited outputs (AES only) and is at its best upscaling. I don’t know the Canary DAC well. If it is best with a bit perfect signal that is not upscaled, Grimm is a poor choic... | |
| CD players, 5-6K I would check out the Marantz SA-1 which, although a little older, is a killer device. Another option is the CANOR CD 1.10. Very good DAC with a tube output stage and a quality transport | |
| DAC Shootout Starts This Weekend @richh84 I don't have a plan right now to test the Berkeley DACs. I am not a Berkeley dealer and have not had a chance to get one in on trade. I have heard very good things about them but can't say I have ever heard one of their DACs. | |
| DAC Shootout Starts This Weekend @richh84 So...this is tough. My feeling is the Playback MPD 8 with the MPT 8 transport is going to give you the most musical experience. There is something incredibly musical and soulful about the Playback DACs and they are at their very best wi... | |
| Preamp shootout: Linear tube audio, Modwright, etc. Sorry I missed this guys. The stock tubes from AVM are good sounding and extremely quiet but are not great in terms of detail and imaging. Staging is enhanced with good NOS tubes in every direction. I find depth is most enhanced by Mazdas. ... | |
| DAC Shootout Starts This Weekend Here is a new review of the Topping D90LE. I am sure this is going to annoy a segment of the community here and they are not going to want to hear this. I found this demo supremely disappointing because of the hype associated with this product. If... | |
| DAC Shootout Starts This Weekend @metaldetektor Sorry for the delay in responding. It has been a hectic week here. I am using the "Direct Connect" via ethernet from my Antipodes Oladra server. This should be virtually identical to feeding it from an Antipodes K41. I test... | |
| DAC Shootout Starts This Weekend Weiss Helios - I have had this unit in for several weeks and have spent time with it. A few things stand out. The unit is obviously much larger than the 501. It is 2x the price of the 501 so the question is, is it worth that upcharge. Obviousl... | |
| Any one use Grimm MU1 with Aries Cerat Kassandra ? I was going to say the same as @cfa88. Aries Cerat is optimized for USB. Grimm is definitely not my first choice of streamer with it since no USB. The Grimm is at its best when upscaled and needs to be paired with a DAC that is optimized around... | |
| DAC Merry Go 'Round- why I stopped at Weiss I am going to second JPlay. It is solid. Not as stable as Roon on a local server but lightyears better than MConnect. It sounds very good. I have tested it with my Helios which recently arrived and it is not as good as my Oladra but better tha... | |
| DAC Shootout Starts This Weekend Lampizator Amber - I am going to preface this by saying I am testing this unit with stock tubes. I have no interest in rolling and optimizing as I have no plan to keep this unit for myself. Lots of threads in other forums on tube optimization fo... |