Well its a good five days, which others have said was a turning point in break in
I swapped out the power cord which comes with it (Cardas on watt plugs, nice cable) for my best PCs
This was a definite jump in quality, much like a picture through an SLR, after pushing autofocus.
One of the hallmarks I find of great equipment, is it makes you reevaulate your priorities in the rest of your system
Since the bass is so good with the DA2, I had to redial in the low bass, from the active 5 subwoofer system, less low bass, more deep bass
The top end was exquisite, and there is no digital harshness with this DA2, nor the DA8 I own either, a first
The biggest improvements seemed to be in the soundstage, which was now very deep, very wide, with intermediary instruments clearly in their own space
Microdetail was very good with voice chest and head naturally hear with no forwardness
I ran a number of DSD recordings 64 and 128 and 256 converted to 352.8 pcm
What became apparent was recordings that were dsd recorded sounded different from reissues in DSD
This was both revelatory and annoying, the games some record companies play
44.1 was also very good, and the reclocking, galvanically isolated usb, seemed to handle my MacBook Air with equal aplomp, to my dedicated server with linear power supply, though I need to get a good usb cable I guess
The space between istruments was grain free and hash free, and there was a relaxed quality with simultaneous detail
There were no screech violins, instead there was a lushness to strings
I can firmly say now this is the best sound I hvae had at home, though I havent put head to head with the accuphase 900/901 combo
This is a little problematic
The stealth cables I use, dont seem to like plugging and unplugging, and sound dull straight after a swap
Makes direct comparisons a bit of an issue
I will get round to it
If I could take one recording as an example
Sketches in Spain has been favourite since I first heard it and I own, cd, four lps, and computer file versions
I think the LP much better than digital
Previously i had always found the left sound stage with harp, oboe and side drums rather flattened and confused and the drums a bit of a cardboard cut out
I had heard this piece probably a hundred times, with little change no matter what i did
The moment i put this piece on
The harp floated, oboe further back and side drums right at the back with space around and air, fully fleshed out, the oboe with a good deal of that woody/reedy sound
As the double bass begins to pluck the march rythmn, it is more definitive and sure, deep and resonant, yet sharply defined than I had heard before
Miles trumpet centre and slightly back, smoother and more relaxed, though burnished
It was the most definitve I have heard it, and thats just the computer file....
Well I am off to work for a week, so no updates
The system has been powered down, other than the DA2 which I have left swithced on
I found my top of the range oyaide PCs with palladium/platinum/beryllium connectors superior to the standard cord, but the cord that comes with it, is no slouch, and a welcome change to non descript stuff u usually get
The DA2 has not given an issue, and is operationally easy, even without the reading the manual
I am hoping Emm labs will post the driver on their website, making it easy to upload to my server which runs headless
I like the big screen, which reminds me of levinson stuff I owned years ago, with the big red LED
Makes seeing status easy from across the room
Assigning quick input keys and mute and inversion buttons also very handy
The screen can be turned down if you find that annoying
Given I do a lot of digital processing and reclocking, the input freq display is very helpful to avoid glitches
I found the balanced outputs, far superior to the RCA, however, my RCA cables are not the equal of my balanced cables, and a better test would be with the same make of cable
I will post next weekend when I get back... meanwhile the system is in its little cave, with the monitored alarm turned on