So initial listening...just 3 songs...seems like when I did this a few years ago with my Scarlatti direct. It's more transparent direct and maybe quicker. It sounds great. However misses some weight on the notes and depth and 3 dimensionality with my preamp in the chain. Possibly better dynamics with preamp too. Will listen more today...these are just quick impressions...
DCS Vivaldi
- Thread starter MylesBAstor
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Best amps I've ever had in my system. And they should be given the $$'s. (so vs BAT VK150SE's, Ayre MXR's, Ayre MXR20's, Nagra VPA and Classic amp) They have just a beauty top to bottom with a resolution that is astounding to me along with emotionally drawing you in. I just don't pick em apart .... just enjoy.
The meters seem to pretty much stay under 10 watts...which means they are in class A all the time (specs say class A up to 30 watts...then AB to 500-1000 depending if 4 or 2 ohm load)
That seems to match my experience. Going direct once in a while is a good refresher on what is actually coming out of the DAC - to ensure the additives from the preamp aren't coming at too high a cost.
Thanks for that feedback. I still intend to run this test with my Rossini setup, just need to stay at home for more than a week
.For the app, I've been using the LUMIN app to control playback from my NAS and Tidal as I cannot stand the dCS app UI.
So I set up a minimserver on my NAS and compared a few tracks. Easy to compare because I have two IOS devices, one running the minimserver and one running Roon. Start playing a track on one, then restart the same track on the other (going back and forth as necessary).
I cannot hear a difference. I don't know whether to be happy or sad. I'd hate to give up the convenience of Roon... but if the minimserver sounded better, I'm sure I would use it (at least some of the time).
That said I'm not playing the tracks very loud since I have guests this weekend. I'll do some more comparisons during the week.
My suspicion is that hardware could play a factor.
I cannot hear a difference. I don't know whether to be happy or sad. I'd hate to give up the convenience of Roon... but if the minimserver sounded better, I'm sure I would use it (at least some of the time).
That said I'm not playing the tracks very loud since I have guests this weekend. I'll do some more comparisons during the week.
My suspicion is that hardware could play a factor.
Observation:
I'm listening yesterday and everything sounds soft, loss of focus, little depth, compressed. What is going on??
Well I start poking around and my Upsampler is set to DSD2x. Putting it back to DXD and everything is back to normal!
Not sure who or how setting was changed.......but I did have company over the weekend.....
I'm listening yesterday and everything sounds soft, loss of focus, little depth, compressed. What is going on??
Well I start poking around and my Upsampler is set to DSD2x. Putting it back to DXD and everything is back to normal!
Not sure who or how setting was changed.......but I did have company over the weekend.....
Coincidentally I tried DSDx2 yesterday for the first time. I agree that DXD sounds better.
What mapper are you (and kingsrule) using? And filter...?
I've been on map 1, dsdx2 f5 mostly. When I do DXD I typically switch to mapper 3 and F5
Map 1 here. For the upsampler I was using Filter 1, but this morning I noticed that the recommended filter is 2 and switched to that.
I'm using the recommended filters in the DAC. I cannot really hear differences between the filters to be honest (at least not like I could when I used HQPlayer).
I'm using the recommended filters in the DAC. I cannot really hear differences between the filters to be honest (at least not like I could when I used HQPlayer).
I think unbalanced is generally +6dB on all equipment, at least for mine it is. I haven't used unbalanced out of the Vivaldi but I know on my preamp I have to be careful when switching from a balanced input to an unbalanced to ensure the volume is down first. I learned that the hard way!
I have measured it using a 1kHz 0dB CD track and I got the same amplitude - exactly what is specified in the settings - in the RCA, XLR pin 2 and pin 3. This means that the balanced amplitude will be the double of the RCA. The RCA output is independent of the XLR's .
When you say substantially, could it your software version? Reason I thought of this is one of the recent software updates identified a bug that was resetting the RCA output to 6v accidentally....
Interesting. I'm now certain that the RCA output is louder, but perhaps it is a bug. I'm certainly encountering other bugs with the Vivaldi software (often my iPad app doesn't show the right setup values, nor does it let me change them; I have to reboot the DAC).
Has there been an update recently?
Hmmm, no, I don't - at least not since I moved my rack a couple weeks ago. Thanks for the tip!
Is the RCA set to 6v when you thought you had it lower? If so, could this this... I'm at DAC sw version 2.01, and upsampler version 2.01 also...
On your iPad have you clicked the update button (while inside the dcs app)? If you click on the gear icon (upper right) then click on information, then on version, you'll see a check for updates at the bottom.
I'm on app version 1.4 ...
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