New to the hobby...question

[jperls]

You'll need now to go through the Audio MIDI setup for the device, item by item, and check what it should be. If you have volume control sliders in Audio MIDI, for example, you'll need to set those to 199% as well. Make sure the speakers are set up as two channel there as well. Since I can't see what settings you have, I can't tell if anything is wrong.

For software, you could try a trial version of Audirvana, which is an expensive product to buy but works around some of the Mac audio shortcomings. Of course, you'll just need to know how to set that up instead!

If those suggestions don't work, you may need to turn to a level matched blind test to confirm what is different. And you can search for Mac on this forum to see what other solutions people have tried and used.

There is, of course, also always the headphone out socket to try with a converter to RCA and see what that does!

OK well it's not the cord (thank goodness)...just checked with USB-C to USB-C and no difference. Went item by item and all is as you suggested in audio-midi setup. I will look at Audirvana maybe....or spend the money on CD / ask friends for their old CDs.

But let me put it this way...if my friend (who does not have much of a musical ear)...can hear the difference...then something is definitely going on and it is no a figment of my imagination / placebo effect of new gear (actually she heard this when I had the old Sony DVD/CD player hooked up to the DAC)
.

 

[jperls]

And I fixed the problem...thought of all the sound enhancing applications I had downloaded (bitperfect, boom2, soundsource, etc.) and double checked there were no outstanding preferences or other .plst files that might be telling the computer something was going on. Deleted whatever artifacts were left over...then ran a maintenance program to clear all caches and do some other maintenance stuff (called OnyX by Titanium software)...and this seemed to do the trick...sound quality has jumped up and sounds very just like CD quality when playing from lossless imported file. So I think I am all set.

 

[Angsty]

Thanks for the detailed response...so I will keep the Yamaha...it sounds much better than the DVD player (a lot less noisy) and it looks great with the Yamaha amp (which I run in pure direct mode all the time to bypass the internal dac of the amp).

FWIW, I don’t hear a difference when listening to my Integra CD player RCA out and the digital coax out to my Bryston DAC. Or to my Topping DAC (except that the Topping has a higher output level with balanced outputs).

Don’t be overly concerned that your CD RCA output will sound worse than your Modius DAC output. You can test for yourself; the odds are heavily favored that the audible difference will be in volume level. The integrated amp itself has a THD of 0.019%.

 

[Galliardist]

And I fixed the problem...thought of all the sound enhancing applications I had downloaded (bitperfect, boom2, soundsource, etc.) and double checked there were no outstanding preferences or other .plst files that might be telling the computer something was going on. Deleted whatever artifacts were left over...then ran a maintenance program to clear all caches and do some other maintenance stuff (called OnyX by Titanium software)...and this seemed to do the trick...sound quality has jumped up and sounds very just like CD quality when playing from lossless imported file. So I think I am all set.

Glad to read this!

Since I’ve never tried software like those I tend to forget about their existence…

 

[jperls]

So I received my Deanfrips Enyo (Aries II with 12th anneversary firmware update)...HOLY COW...WHAT AN INCREDIBLE DIFFERENCE...Thta is all I am saying...say what you want about the SINAD...the smoothness and realism delivered by this DAC is unbelievable. In love at first note.

 

[jperls]

Glad to read this!

Since I’ve never tried software like those I tend to forget about their existence…

And of course this just occurred to me this morning as a final measure...reset the core audio preference and also the NRAM (formerly known as PRAM) and that made sure no artifacts were left over...noticed the difference right away.

 

[Galliardist]

And of course this just occurred to me this morning as a final measure...reset the core audio preference and also the NRAM (formerly known as PRAM) and that made sure no artifacts were left over...noticed the difference right away.

So I received my Deanfrips Enyo (Aries II with 12th anneversary firmware update)...HOLY COW...WHAT AN INCREDIBLE DIFFERENCE...Thta is all I am saying...say what you want about the SINAD...the smoothness and realism delivered by this DAC is unbelievable. In love at first note.

The reset may well have helped further, but it's unlikely there's a massive difference in sound iust from your new DAC really. However, in this case I don't recommend you go searching for any other causes of difference or start blind testing, just say "good" and move on.

Just use what you learn here as a defence against the real snake oil stuff, and you've learnt that SINAD is only one thing that has to be considered with performance.

Are you going on to your speaker project from the other thread now?

 

[jperls]

The reset may well have helped further, but it's unlikely there's a massive difference in sound iust from your new DAC really. However, in this case I don't recommend you go searching for any other causes of difference or start blind testing, just say "good" and move on.

Just use what you learn here as a defence against the real snake oil stuff, and you've learnt that SINAD is only one thing that has to be considered with performance.

Are you going on to your speaker project from the other thread now?

Not yet with the other build...might be a bit...but down the road...again next "upgrade" is get a better listening room (read as find a house or upgrade to a two bedroom apartment)

 

[Galliardist]

Not yet with the other build...might be a bit...but down the road...again next "upgrade" is get a better listening room (read as find a house or upgrade to a two bedroom apartment)

Stuck with a not so good one myself (and each room I've had has been worse than the last, for various reasons) I'll agree that's the best way forward any day
And most expensive, for most of us in cities these days, anyway

 

[Angsty]

I’d agree that the biggest audible upgrade to make is to move to a better room.

I inherited an antique piano which had nowhere else to go but the room I use for listening. The room acoustics have never been as good since then.

 

[jperls]

Ok...so it has been almost a year of having my current setup...and the upgrade itch is starting to hit again...thinking of looking at different speakers (specifically Wharfdale Evo 4.2 3-way system...though I am willing to wait for a couple of months and possibly splurge on the Wharfdale Aura 2). Thoughts? Current setup is Yamaha AS-501 Amplifier, Denafrips Enyo DAC, and SVS 1000 Subwoofer.

I mainly do my listening from my laptop (via USB) to the dac..but once in a while I will listen via my Yamaha CD player.