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Which DAC measurements do you like to see next?

Ron Texas

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36-26-36
 
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amirm

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hese units not only sound great but have a look at the insides [!] (for instance ONKYO NS-6170 with DUAL AK4490 and uncompromised implementation) - maybe it is not a bad idea to test one of them ?
Looks nice indeed. But at $1,000 and not distributed in US it is a tough buy for me. :) Does anyone own one that wants it measured?
 
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amirm

amirm

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As for DCS ring dacs, maybe it would be nice to measure one of old ARCAM CD PLAYERS with first batch of ring dac inside & silly price (but there might be the issue with cheap tuning inside after many different owners or strong elements deterioration like caps on the PCB etc It may affect the output signal, the test piece would have to be in great condition & untouched, from last possible batch, like ARCAM CD23 FMJ series for instance, because alpha 9 might be quite old and not easy to get these days)
Thanks. John Dawson, founder of Arcam is an old industry colleague of mine. They definitely knew what they were doing, producing some of the earliest HDMI AVRs with excellent jitter response.

I did a quick search for the CD23 on ebay but nothing popped up. The other models are fetching lots of money. Let me know if you see one on the cheap. :)
 

Ron Texas

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I never thought sex would get into this discussion! :D
Wine. women and song. We trust you for the song, Trader Joe's for the wine. I just thought I would throw in a little extra something..
 

bona998

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Thanks. John Dawson, founder of Arcam is an old industry colleague of mine. They definitely knew what they were doing, producing some of the earliest HDMI AVRs with excellent jitter response.

Arcam alpha 9 cd player was one of the first cd players that showed me, how natural, lifelike sound can be. I used to spend whole nights by changing CDs and couldn't stop. It was so involving and natural, very emotional sound without any fireworks in it. Never heard anything like this later. Maybe some good, old multibit cd players.

CD23 FMJ is very popular in EU and it's about 600$ when it's available
Alpha 9 CD about 400$

Btw I think that when you have a chance to test some unit, it could be great idea to never get one from manufacturer that knows you're gonna test it. That can be staged and specially prepared/tuned to get best possible results thus have free, global advertisement.

Best possible scenario would be to go to the shop as anonymous person, take one from the shelf, go back to your lab and do your tests. But hey, I know this is real world and there has to be some kind of compromise regarding units availability, gathering funds etc

How about getting units from the shops with sending them back after tests paying only restocking fee like 10% value of the unit ???? You would have then easy access to lots of units from the market. In EU there is even a law allowing you to send back the unit within 10 or 14 days from the date of purchase without any reasons, getting full refund - perfect for the testing purposes.

Another interesting units might be:

NUFORCE ICON HDP (old, good ak4396 probably - because the chip has been wiped out on the top, but it looks like it is, by having a look at the pcb, components around and schematics :> )

Last ES CD player from SONY - SONY XA-5400ES SACD

I regret that I am from EU, I had a lot of stuff in the past, I could have sent it all to you to check what it's worth (from measurement point of view of course)
 
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amirm

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Btw I think that when you have a chance to test some unit, it could be great idea to never get one from manufacturer that knows you're gonna test it. That can be staged and specially prepared/tuned to get best possible results thus have free, global advertisement.
Agree and vast majority of the units tested here are those that I purchased or loaned from members. I always note this at the start of my reviews.

That said, there are some manufacturers that are anxious and interested to see their products measured. With due notice, I will do that too.
 

Thomas savage

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I would like to see one $10k plus DAC for reference. Whether a good or bad reference at least a reference.

dcs would be nice. Or MSB. Anybody out there with such an exalted DAC they could ship to Amir for a measurement???????

Or for gawd's sake, at least a Benchmark or Lavry.
If we had a uk measuring division someone could measure my TAD.
 

bunkbail

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Oh, I didn't realize you were not in US. :) So don't worry about it. Remind me in a week or two and I will purchase this DAC to test.
So, is this still in your plan? It has been a month already :p. I'm curious to see if its claim of nearly 5Vrms line output is accurate or not. If its true, it is pretty darn good for a USB-powered DAC/amp. And I'm also curious to see how well its TPA6120 implementation measures since that it apparently has 0.1 ohm output impedance (almost every TPA6120 implementation out there has 10 ohm output impedance).
 
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Blumlein 88

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If we had a uk measuring division someone could measure my TAD.
Maybe Amir could send you a hand me down AP unit. Then you could become the UK measuring dude. Btw, a word of advice, don't measure any Schiit!
 

Thomas savage

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Maybe Amir could send you a hand me down AP unit. Then you could become the UK measuring dude. Btw, a word of advice, don't measure any Schiit!
I didn’t train @amirm up only to suffer the indignity of having to do the measurements myself, besides we both know being the only guy doing the measurements with his AP and all makes amir feel special. It would be cruel to take that away from a man of his advanced years..
 

Thomas savage

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So what we really need is an Amir vs atomicbob measurement show down.

AP vs Dscope.

Send unbranded devices to have both measure the same device and see how close the measurements are.
What about if they wrestle it out, circle 4 meters across and a tub of lard to grease up with.... clothing optional.
 
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amirm

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So, is this still in your plan? It has been a month already :p.
:)

I have an incredible backlog of products to test right now. Let me get through those before purchasing more equipment that I can't yet test. :)
 

bunkbail

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:)

I have an incredible backlog of products to test right now. Let me get through those before purchasing more equipment that I can't yet test. :)
No, it's fine. There are lots of other audio gears that are more exciting to look forward to such as the DAC3. Looking forward to see more reviews from you in the future!
 

ynnhojz86

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Yes, I am interested in this category. I have been loaned the pixel 2 adapter cable so plan to test it.

I takes me longer to get motivated to do tests of this types since I have to use my phone, different audio playback, etc. which makes it hard to run tests. :)

You can try with a usb c-to-a adapter, they're UAC compliant IIRC.
The pixel 2 is known to work on PCs, so the other generic realtek ones probably will too.


Apparently, the pixel adapter will default to max digital gain which results in higher distortion. When using android or linux, you can set this parameter with ALSA, though I'm not sure how to do it on windows. Another interesting point is the absolute volume of the distortion stays the same even when the volume decreases. These were found out in this measurement thread, post 11 and 25.

These things are so cheap I may pick up one. Curious how they deal with noisy desktop USB power.
 
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