State-of-the-Art Digital

[spiritofmusic]

It's interesting how guys previously at big hitters audio companies are now finding (more) success w concerns at the more affordable end.
Schiit MD from Theta.
Uptone MD from Hovland.
Exogal MD from Wadia.

 

[Joe Whip]

Schiit is doing very well. mike and Jason deserve it. I still have my Theta DAC and I still used it when I sent my Yggy back for the Analog two upgrade. Love that MM bass.

 

[Al M.]

It's interesting how guys previously at big hitters audio companies are now finding (more) success w concerns at the more affordable end.
Schiit MD from Theta.
Uptone MD from Hovland.
Exogal MD from Wadia.

That's where the future of the high end is headed. Not ridiculously expensive stuff for guys like us who are on the way of dying out anyway.

But perhaps by the time the younger folks are as old as us, they will also buy ridiculously expensive stuff. Or perhaps not, we are speaker guys, now you have the headphone generation.

 

[spiritofmusic]

Add Soundsmith carts, Zu spkrs to that list.

 

[jespera]

But clearly the middle segment is where all real innovation is introduced. Always has been. All hifi classics are from that segment.

Quality engineering costs. But not that much.

The really expensive stuff is generally just pimped or glittered middle segment gear.

Anyways, once this corona huha settles I’d love to shoot out my dac against a top lampizator. Anyone in Copenhagen? Or london?

Jesper

 

[rblnr]

Yes Robert, but how does the Tentation do it? I'll be damned if I know.

I asked them at the time and didn't get much of an answer They didn't want to divulge much.

 

[spiritofmusic]

From what I can gather, it's this hugely effective Gyropoint isolation on the laser/spinning disc, and critically some secret sauce at the output stage.
My Emm Labs CDSA SE made fantastic strides w German transport upgrade and output stage mod. But the Eera leaves it in the dust.
Remains totally analogue-like in being zero etch, zero fatigue, even top to bottom, saturated, effortless, self effacing...w none of these attributes translating to blandness or dynamics-blunting smoothness.

 

[rblnr]

Well put and yeah, there's definitely something special w/the output stages.

 

[spiritofmusic]

Robert, it was your phrase that music poured out of the spkrs when cds played on the Eera. Like there was less drag factor. I couldn't work out what you meant, although it sounded cool. And then as I started listening on my trial period, those piano strikes just resonated in the room followed by the harmonic of the note. And your phrase immediately chimed w me. Digital music was literally emerging in the room, harmonically complete and fully saturated. And the closest thing that matched it was superior analog and live music.

And that quality is evident to this day. The only other components in audio that have had such overwhelmingly positive first impressions alongside the Eera are the Koda K10 preamp I had in on trial, and a particular demo of Cessaro Liszts.

For me, the Eera totally deconstructed for me previous bias as to how compromised digital was and simultaneously showed me where my analog was being shortchanged and where things had to improve.

 

[analyzer]

My Emm Labs CDSA SE made fantastic strides w German transport upgrade and output stage mod. But the Eera leaves it in the dust.

I'm Just curious... My Emm Labs CDSA-SE is also one of a very few items which received the output stage mod. (X-upgrade os something similar). Since I purchased It from a seller in Great Britain maybe that this unit was in your hands before?
My best
Marco

 

[spiritofmusic]

Maybe Marco. Look after her Lol.

 

[jh901]

Has anyone heard the EERA Autographe (flagship single box) or Meister/Staccato pair?

Seems worth an audition.

 

[spiritofmusic]

Jh, reach out to JackD201. I believe he's heard the Autographe and still felt the Tentation shaded things.

He's heard the new range too. FWIW, the Tentation is a product to spoil you for life. I would have laughed at you a decade ago had you told me a cdp would be a keeper and satisfy on multiple levels. The feedback online a decade ago was so different from the comments posted for most other digital, and refreshingly has been proved to be free of hype.

 

[Kingrex]

That's where the future of the high end is headed. Not ridiculously expensive stuff for guys like us who are on the way of dying out anyway.

But perhaps by the time the younger folks are as old as us, they will also buy ridiculously expensive stuff. Or perhaps not, we are speaker guys, now you have the headphone generation.

I feel like music has changed. Even the glamor of being in a band. Groupies are a potential lawsuit waiting to destroy you. Music has few musicians anymore. Its a singer and a keyboard making everything else. Nothing much to really listen for. I just don't sense any excitement about music from my niece and nephews. They play video games and chat. They don't hang together and play albums. I don't know any of them know who Beethoven is. IMO high end audio will be impacted from a lack of interest. At least in the USA. West Coast perception here. California, Oregon, Washington. Not sure the climate East or Central USA or Europe. My perception is from West Coast middle class to upper middle lass families.

 

[Kingrex]

Why is this thread almost exclusively about DAC. Why is no one concerned about servers. Haven't any of you gone from a laptop to a top tier Aurender, Innuous, Mojo, Sound Galleries. The impact is massive.

IMO, a good to great DAC mostly gives that last bit of subtle inflection that makes the instruments more alive. More real and natural. The DAC can also make or break fatigue. The server provides a lot of the pace, rythem and timing. The server is all about getting rid of grunge, noise and providing clarity. To only chase a DAC will make it hard to ever find the top of digital. Its forgetting about the source. The source is king. Like you vinyl rig. You have to have a good record, then work from there. With digital you have to have a good file, then a good power supply, then a good server, then a good DAC. If any is wrong before the DAC, your hobbled out of the gate.


State of the Art digital is a System. Its not a component.

 

[spiritofmusic]

Kingrex, I'm approaching this w conflicting feelings.
Taken yrs to sort optimal tt and cd replay, let's start over again with a "new" format.
The OCD on streamed is really jarring (multiple boxes incl LPSs on everything).
And now I hear that get yr system JUST right, cookin' REAL nice...only for those OCD computer code guys at Roon to Roo-in the whole experience.
Right now the impression I'm getting is if Emile wasn't adept enough to sort Extreme-owners' recent Roon downturn in SQ, they would be truly unhappy.

 

[Al M.]

Why is this thread almost exclusively about DAC. Why is no one concerned about servers. Haven't any of you gone from a laptop to a top tier Aurender, Innuous, Mojo, Sound Galleries. The impact is massive.

IMO, a good to great DAC mostly gives that last bit of subtle inflection that makes the instruments more alive. More real and natural. The DAC can also make or break fatigue. The server provides a lot of the pace, rythem and timing. The server is all about getting rid of grunge, noise and providing clarity. To only chase a DAC will make it hard to ever find the top of digital. Its forgetting about the source. The source is king. Like you vinyl rig. You have to have a good record, then work from there. With digital you have to have a good file, then a good power supply, then a good server, then a good DAC. If any is wrong before the DAC, your hobbled out of the gate.


State of the Art digital is a System. Its not a component.

Agreed. The issues that you cite, and my experience with servers, have made me shun servers so far. I know how much of a pain it is to get them sound right (I have experienced the drama over the years in friends' systems), even though it certainly must be possible. I stick with my truly excellent transport.

I do view my digital as a system. That is also why I paid attention to the interconnect between transport and DAC. It is an important component of the system as well, and my expensive AES/EBU digital interconnect does make a substantial difference, too.

It is more expensive than my transport, and almost as expensive as my DAC. It allows for the extraordinary resolution and natural sound from these components to shine.

(And yes, the DAC itself also provides a lot of rhythm & timing, not just the digital source.)

 

[microstrip]

Go for a 30.5 instead...(...)

Then we have to get also an ML31.5 transport. The DAC alone was a good DAC, but the pairing was really very good sounding - surely using the purple MDC cable!

If it was not for long time maintenance issues I would love to have them in a system. Do you remember the feeling of the cover lifting?

 

[Mike Lavigne]

Agreed. The issues that you cite, and my experience with servers, have made me shun servers so far. I know how much of a pain it is to get them sound right (I have experienced the drama over the years in friends' systems), even though it certainly must be possible. I stick with my truly excellent transport.

you mean like Emile remotely doing the update while i'm at work?

that pain?

and having multi-million tracks at my fingertips?

that pain?

 

[spiritofmusic]

But Mike, Emile is going above and beyond. Would you expect the same service if you'd plumped for a Pink Faun 2.16 one- or two-box at $17-30k, or an Innuos Statement at $12k?

That's a serious Q. So, I look at putting effort and not a small sum into optimising streaming, and this Roon malarkey comes along to ruin my day. Yes, it's so bad that CK cancelled his switches mass comparison session.

Of course, this is one of the greatest sales tools a digital designer could ever boast of...defeating the computer code whizzkids. I wonder if Emile has a lucrative secondment to the US govt Lol.