JackD201 - Version 2.0

So sorry for slacking off gds, I'll get to it. But first, the Sources.

CH Precision Basic Digital Stack - D1, C1, X1 Dual Board

What I have presently is part of the original CH runs. The C1 is fully loaded with all of the optional boards of the time and the units likewise have the firmware of their generation. By that I mean they do not have the newer CH-Link boards and until I upload the new firmware which I already have onn a USB stick, they can't be seen by the current CH App. By Basic I mean I have the stereo as opposed to mono layouts and I do not have the T1 clock yet.



Can someone please rotate this for me? I have no idea why it did this!

My preference when it comes to digital playback is a little bit different. While I have been a tube guy for the majority of my immersed audiophile life, I have always gone for SS DACs. This is not to say that there aren't any tube DACs that I could very well live happily with. There have been a few I have been enamored with like those from Zanden and Lampizator.

I suppose this is the case because while I did my share of analog recording, mixing and post, I spent far more time in the digital domain with Protools and Neve. The challenge was always to get the sound glitch free and natural since I was doing sound for TV and film mostly. I guess that imprinted on me a set of standards for digital playback where I really want to hear what the engineers did. That is probably why I used EMMLabs for a very long time. Yet, later still, I figured my preference lay in Ladder architecture by a slim margin over Delta Sigma converters just as I am the oddball that likes DSD for what it is but generally prefer 24/96 for general listening.

I won't go into the features of the stack as the website is pretty thorough as well as the fact that many reviews have been written about this generation of CH products. They lock on easily with any input and are simply hassle free once you get a hang of the concentric ring controls.

Sound wise they are quite transparent/colorless as is my preference. They are brutally honest. The downside to this honesty is that it will spill its gutts not just about the recordings but will do so with regards to how poorly or how well you've address your power. Classic studio equipment behavior. Great recordings sound great and bad ones, well, bad.

The D1 playing discs beats my W20 albeit I use the W20 much more often because of pure convenience with regards to where the heck I put my CDs and SACDs in the first place. Besides I am a vinyl guy first when it comes to hunkering down so my standards adjust accordingly. Suffice it to say that the C1 shares the CH house sound and it is a sound I like. The Da Vinci Dual is more weighty and dense just as the EERAs are but again the CH wins out on spatial projection. That bears repeating here because this spatiality is the offshoot of the unit's very high level of resolution.

While the sound is truly digital, as opposed to some other DACs that are voiced to sound more like good analog, it bares the care taken in every recording or transfer. It is also good enough that I can swap between LP and Digital with only minor mental adjustments just because I think the units play to digital's strengths while mitigating a lot of the weaknesses. The X1 mitigates these further as will the addition of the T1 clock which adds density and weight. The T1 will definitely be in the cards for me when my poor bank account recover.

The key is to dial it down a notch and let yourself ease into it. Ch's ultimate strength is in the finest subtleties as opposed to outright character. You'll get it then Ked.

Once one can find that zone, finding that zone in succeeding listens becomes effortless.

Next time you should come Gian