OP
- Thread Starter
- #21
That looks fun. I might just have to buy it and send it to Amir for shit's and giggles.
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Cheapest transparent DAC with optical?
- Thread starter tsanguine
- Start date
That looks fun. I might just have to buy it and send it to Amir for shit's and giggles.
I see that you have the A-100. Have you tried it with your HD6xx with the jumpers engaged?
OP
- Thread Starter
- #24
I've seen that one but I have to agree with Olli. Wiring that thing would drive my OCD crazy.
Then bring it home and blind test it to see if you can hear a difference over this vs the CCA DAC.
OP
- Thread Starter
- #26
That was a recent aquisition that I haven't tinkered with. You have likely opened up a pandora's box by telling me there are jumpers I can play with. It sounds pretty damn amazing how it is. I got it off of Craigslist for $125.
OP
- Thread Starter
- #27
I wonder if I can train my three year old to swap cables. Would be a good test.
It makes a difference with high impedance headphones and planars.
The direct drive mode which is engaged by the jumpers are its claim to fame. It does increase the noise floor, so there is a slight hiss, but it also unleashes the full power of that amp. The direct drive mode (which uses the jumpers that are included) has these specs
8 Ohms: 50 watts / channel
33 Ohms: 12 watts / channel
47 Ohms: 8.5 watts / channel
150 Ohms: 2.6 watts / channel
300 Ohms: 1.3 watts / channel
600 Ohms: 0.6 watts / channel
So your HD 6xx (150 ohms) and the HD600 (300 ohms) have HUGE amounts of power on tap.
They should also sound great with your planar magnetic fostex which is rated for a max input power of 3000 mwatts. Lots of punch and power.
OP
- Thread Starter
- #29
I will try it out. I wonder if I will be able to notice.
OP
- Thread Starter
- #30
Looks like Amir has already done a basic measurement and it resamples everything into 44.1kHz. I don't think I'd be any better without it.
OP
- Thread Starter
- #31
At this moment the SMSL M100 looks to be the most promising and inexpensive for my needs. I still want to do a double blind test between the SMSL 10th anniversary and the build in CCA DAC but not sure when I can yet.
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...eview-and-measurements-of-smsl-m100-dac.8842/
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...eview-and-measurements-of-smsl-m100-dac.8842/
This might give you some data point to consider when you conduct your test between the SMSL and the built in DAC in the CCA...
So I fed the optical out of the CCA into my newly acquired D50s and the difference to my 50+ yo ears (drum roll, please) is *not* exactly day and night. My downstream equipment consists of a Parasound HCA-1500A and B&W CM5s. This is quite surprising, at least to me, considering the SINAD difference between the 2 DACs is almost 20 dB according to amirm's measurements. Note that this is not a double blind test and I had only tried to match the levels as best as I could by ear.
If there is one thing I could learn from this and was already told many times from the forum is that: if one wants a different and better sound, invest on something else other than a DAC ;-)
So I fed the optical out of the CCA into my newly acquired D50s and the difference to my 50+ yo ears (drum roll, please) is *not* exactly day and night. My downstream equipment consists of a Parasound HCA-1500A and B&W CM5s. This is quite surprising, at least to me, considering the SINAD difference between the 2 DACs is almost 20 dB according to amirm's measurements. Note that this is not a double blind test and I had only tried to match the levels as best as I could by ear.
If there is one thing I could learn from this and was already told many times from the forum is that: if one wants a different and better sound, invest on something else other than a DAC ;-)
I do too. And AES/EBU. No USB, though.
The only reason I got the HAD-1 (DAC/AMP) is the features. Optical-in, analogue in and out, USB, Volume knob and headphone out. There is not enough difference between the CCA and the HAD-1 analogue outputs. Did some blind tests, volume matched as far as I could and I couldn't hear any difference.
But why? The analogue out of the CCA is good enough.
Worth it just to keep CCA from turning off high dynamic range mode.
HUH?
None of my units does (at least the ones that's using the analogue out).
Care to elaborate?
My house thermostats are on schedule, and my summers reach 120F, with indoor temps hovering around 100F while I'm at work. In those instances, CCA sometimes freeze up. Requiring a power cycle before it starts working. Sometimes the power cycles causes it to turn off "full dynamic range". Also when you first setup a CCA, or do a factory reset, it'll also turn it off. I've observed this behavior in 4 separate units.
But when CCA is connected to an external DAC by optical. It'll always use full dynamic range mode, even when it's greyed out in the Google home settings.
But when CCA is connected to an external DAC by optical. It'll always use full dynamic range mode, even when it's greyed out in the Google home settings.
