Marvey's DAC Chart of Awesomeness

Wait, didn't GUTB use the Gustard DAC as his weapon of choice. Urgh.

 

Indeed, he did.

Of course, it's crucially important to remember that he had the exclusive* modded version including cardboard cut-out transformer mounts ("Grocery Store Box Edition"), random cotton-wrapped-wire jumper upgrade and, I think, a bypassed fuse (collectively known as the "Burn the House Down" mod).

--

*Exclusive only in that you had to be dumb enough to do it ... and dumbness on that level is surprisingly hard to come by.

 

I've never understood that either.

The MHDT DACs seem to benefit from mechanically isolating/damping their transformers. Of course, they're running tubes with some microphonic properties, so there's an easy rationale for that to be beneficial. But, if you're going to spend the time to isolate your transformers in the first place, even if it's in a solid-state device that may not actually gain any benefit from it, using a material designed specifically to address that sort of thing and that doesn't change it's behavior radically with ambient humidity and temperature, would seem to be a no brainer.

Ah ... wait ... there it is ... "no brainer" ... NOW it makes sense ...

 

You must first be able to confuse a female's posterior for a guy's, then wrap your fuse in adhesive copper tape.

 

FYI: Yggdrasil was reviewed in the February 2017 issue of Stereophile. Their tagline when sharing on Facebook was "Schiit Audio goes their own way, using obsolete 20-bit DAC chips in this converter. Yet Herb Reichert was very impressed by the sound." Speaking of obselete...

A few snippets below.

John Atkinson:

Herb Reichert (reviewer):

 

I wonder if they let the unit warm-up continuously the usual week or so...

 

1. How would Yggdrasil users describe the midrange and treble on their units? I've read raves over palpability, resolution, air and soundstage.
2. Which upgrade would you recommend if you had to choose between subwoofers for Magnepan 0.7s or a DAC to replace a Chordette Qute?

.....great thread, thanks. It's been very helpful in choosing a replacement DAC.

 

1. Roughly 200-2000Hz, and 2000-20000Hz respectively.
2. Definitely add the sub before getting a new dac.

 

Good day: Your 'performance 'list' of DAC's can be informative. Experience reveals that a simple change of I.C. or power cord offers up profound change of sound --for better or not.

That remains the challenge in presenting such a list.

Were all of the DAC's (in the comparison chart) listed:

1) All fully tested (electrically) tested
2) All on the same support structure/stand
3) The same AC power quality
4) Any change at all to Interconnect, digital cable or power cord -to establish SQ contribution or SQ changes ?

pj

 

Peter, I disliked your post not because I personally (and many here would not agree) consider all that cable stuff (especially power cables) to be audiophool bullshit... but because what you just did is like walking into a new restaurant and demanding to know if the chef can boil eggs.

You jumped in with both feet... and put both feet right in it.

We all make mistakes. Hang around. Lurk, find out about people. Introduce yourself.

Whatever... Welcome!

 

@peter jasz, I disliked it for its horrible grammar and because you're a tool.*

* Lest you assume otherwise, I'm a believer in cable sound quality differences, including with DACs.

 

I know a lot of people will jump on you for this, but from my A/B test this is true.

I tested 3 high end IC & there was very different & distinctive sound signatures from them. The only question for me is it worth paying up the nose for them.

 

Sorry to kind of interrupt an ongoing subject here, but anyway, there's a seemingly great deal on a used theta ds pro basic on hf. However, after reading a few reviews (stereophile one being one of them) I found a few things confusing, hoping that someone would have the time to chip in with a noob-friendly explanation. Is there actually some software tweaking necessary for this DAC? On top of that, what kind of adapters would I need to be able to utilize the optical connection? Is there something more you need in the chain for this sort of thing?

I wouldn't be against it knowing that the USB ports on my pc are pretty bad, but I have no idea what I should start with, to be honest. I have checked out the Lynx stuff you guys recommended in the awards thread, but I'm assuming you spend that kind of cash on high end improvements.

 

Nice timing. I was gonna ask about Theta DS Pro too since I'm eyeing one to "downgrade" my Gungnir DS.

Software tweaking, maybe no.
What you need is a Digital to Digital Converter, basically USB to other digital outs converter. In the case of Theta DS Pro, you'll need USB to coax/opt out. I'm using HiFace M2Tech BNC that I got for cheap and works just great. Other options are Gustard U12, Audio GD DI-U8, Singxer SU-1, some Mutec stuffs like MC-1.2 or MC3+, or some other internal soundcards that have coax/opt out but unfortunately I'm not too knowledgeable in that area. Maybe the others can chime in for cheaper options?
(I might be eyeing the Gustard though, might need the AES out)


Also so my question to this thread; how well is the Theta DS Pro Basic regarded nowadays?

 

Haha, it is a tempting deal indeed. I've been kinda holding off for a while after having sold some previous gear, wishing to settle on a decent setup. Are you perhaps looking for a different flavor or don't like the Gungnir? I've only read great things about that one and Thetas over the years (they also look to be built like tanks). Did you find those sorts of things in Germany or you had to go import route? Afaik my motherboard has a SPDIF out, but I'm fairly sure I've read somewhere that it's not a good idea.

 

The Theta Basic Mk1 only accepts electrical spdif and not optical AFAIK, so you will need a source that have digital output in electrical form (note the RCA or BNC connector) to use it. I recommend the ifi Nano iDSD and Singxer F-1 for budget USB -> SPDIF converters, or older Lynx/RME cards if you have legacy PCI slot.
As for software, if you have high sampling rate records (>44.1kHz), you will need a DSP to downsample them to 44.1kHz, or else they would not able to play properly. I myself use the SoX resampler in foobar2000 and get quite favorable results.

 

Hmm I actually really like the Gungnir although only DS, but mostly for its features rather than sound. I dunno, I didn't particularly feel anything special about the sound and the thoughts of downgrading to cheaper DAC has crossed my mind several times, more the so when I could use the extra fund for another CIEM.

I found a Pro Basic II that I've been eyeing since months ago on head fi and apparently the guy is in EU and he hasn't gotten it sold yet when I asked just yet.

Did you mean Mk1 as in Pro Basic I? There are too much models out there I'm kinda confused.

 

The old Theta's are nice, but you got to be a bit aware of what you are letting yourself in for. Most of them have got a couple of years on them and might require a bit of maintenance and they do have a habit of going up in smoke. The Theta DSP Pro Gen III I've got now has developed a bit of transformer hum which I'm hoping is just a bit of DC noise on the grid at the moment and hope it will disappear soon. My first thought was that it might be faulty caps in the PSU, but upon opening it, I could see that it had been recapped entirely. If you have a Gungnir I'd rather look at sending it to Schiit and having it upgraded to the multibit version.

I've also had the Basic III here for a while to try and while it had really good detail retrieval it was a bit too fatiguing to listen to for my liking. The original Basic and Gen III have more in common as far as I understand and it's definitely a bit more warmer sounding with a bit more mid bass presence which I find quite pleasant, whilst not sacrificing too much in terms of detail. The Gen V and Basic III are definitely more revealing and ruthless of source.