Aries Cerat 3 DAC Stack Comparison.

[Terry0]

Just thought I'd share this pic, not to sure whether these three stunning DAC's have spent time in the same rack being listened to together back to back before or not?

Over the last couple of days I had the absolute pleasure of again spending time with another What's Best member at his place doing a back to back comparison of the three pictured DAC's in his rack, that being the Ithaka, Kassandra 2 Limited Edition and Kassandra 2 Reference.
Come to think of it now if I'd had the room in my old Land Rover I should have also taken along a Helene, that would have made for a great Aries Cerat four DAC picture opportunity.

Anyway at the end of our time together comparing these three most excellent AC DAC's and having the pleasure of being able to listen to some great music in his amazing Horn based system two of the DAC's are now packed up and in the back of my Landy, including his original Kassandra Ref that I was originally lucky enough to be able to provide a couple of years back.

As is always the case the most important thing in building any high end Hifi system is system synergy and the SQ and sonic preference that one enjoys from the combination the most.
In this case being able to compare all three quickly proved which DAC sounded the best in his particular system and it also provided an opportunity to know if a step up to a limited edition level was a worthy move, hearing is knowing and this time around it was the Ithaka that clearly stood out and shone and if I can say truly sounded freaking amazing in his system.

cheers,
Terry

 

[acg]

Many thanks for all your efforts Terry. It is no small thing to lug those AC boxes up the hill and then up my stairs! There is no better way to make a decision like this than having all the contenders in your own room simultaneously. You know at the end of the process whether the sound delta is worth the expenditure or not.

Stavros, I don't know how you do it but these dacs certainly have different sounds, and not subtle differences either. My experience is that as you go up the AC dac hierarchy you are not questioning small changes as you often do between other brands and in other price brackets, they are major changes. There were no "that is pretty close" thoughts during the audition, just "wow".

A few years ago Terry and I did a similar weekend where he brought up a number of dacs of various brands including Kassandra Ref II and Helene, and I chose Kassandra as the best value for my system at the time. The Kassandra Ref II still sounds fantastic, and I could be very happy with it going forward, but the LE just gives more of that Kass sound. More dense, more beautiful, just more...

In my experience here and listening elsewhere, Kass LE is a more forgiving dac than Ithaka in terms of the remainder of the system. Room acoustics not so great, the LE may be the dac you pick. Cables rubbish or wrong, the LE still makes a lovely sound. Speakers not well setup or compromised in other ways then LE may be the dac to chose. I've only heard Ithaka in good rooms, but I have elsewhere compared it to a LE with rubbish demo cables in a good room and when things were not optimised Ithaka had some catching up to do. How Ithaka responds to system improvements is like nothing else I've ever heard...it leaps where others just step. In the end here on my horns, Kass Ref II to Kass LE was a large delta and worthwhile, but the delta between LE and Ithaka was even bigger.

 

[Willgolf]

If I had the space, Ithaka would be in my system. However, I am satisfied with the Kassandra Reference 2, along with the rest of my AC components.

 

[BlomAUdio]

I replaced my Ideon Absolute E DAC and Clock for the Ithaka DAC. Althoug IDEON is a fantastic brand, and a fantastic sounding DAC, my audio soul melted upon hearing the Ithaka DAC. I have it in my system for 6 months now (i know, i have to update my picture) and there is no way back for me. I am now thinking of repalcing my NAGRA HD and EMM MTRX for AC pre/power combo. For me, AC is my "end of the line" electronics. And ...... Stavros is a very nice guy to talk with and very very knowledgeable. BIG BIG fan of the AC brand.

 

[BlomAUdio]

If I had the space, Ithaka would be in my system. However, I am satisfied with the Kassandra Reference 2, along with the rest of my AC components.

I've read and seen your journey into AC components. What an incredibly beautiful set you've created. Fantastic!

 

[acg]

@BlomAUdio

Ithaka is wonderful! Also trialed here was the new Legend series Aether Preamplifer...now that is really something special! I've never heard anything like it...or close to it really...and do not recommend demoing it unless the dealer is willing to leave it there once you make up your mind. I needed to do some arm-twisting to to convince the distributor to leave it with me (and in the end I think Stavros saved the day).