So, with all this talk about ultra analog and other PCM63 chip ladder dacs, I got curious about a mark levinson 30.5 which came up on sale locally.I first went to listen to it through speakers (and ML preamp / power amps) the past week end, marvelous experience.I was getting myself ready for the irrational decision: spending 4 thousand bucks for a 20 year old DAC that might dye on me any day and a mere 3 months warranty from the shop.I did pace myself however and decided to go back there today, this time bringing my whole rig so I could compare with my phones and against my current DAC (a Yamamoto YDA-01 which nobody knows about, even here in Japan actually).Well, I will be brief: it was a total letdown. Using the same SPIF (MBP with OS X mavericks / Audirvana+ > Wyrd > Audio-gd D/D converter), I just could not find anything that my existing DAC could not do. Even worse, it even sounded better overall. I was looking for the usual suspects, cymbal shimmer, soundstage depth, instrument positioning and air around them, dynamics, handling of busy sections with multiple instruments / wide dynamic swing. Nothing.The good news is that I save a lot of money by taking the time to drag my rig to the store today and also free from anxiety of owning a piece of equipment that might let you go any day. But, I was really surprised considering the 30.5 redefined the DAC's ranking system when it came out in 1994. Apparently, all subsequent iterations from Madrigal (moving away from the crazy separate box power supply and ultra analog days) were steps toward more resolution but not necessarily more natural / smoother. I went back through my notes from 1 year back when I had a TotalDAC D1 at home for a short day, which I also A/B against my Yamamoto dac. At that time, the Yamamoto sounded like a toy in comparison to the total DAC, it was agressive, compressed, poorly staged and simply sounded worse no matter what the music I threw at it. I was expecting the same experience today, especially since listening to it a week before through speakers sounded very promising. Oh well. The thing is, Marv's comments about the Iggy being sensitive to quality of recordings was a big turn off to me. I know the TotalDAC sounds great with average recordings and absolutely stunning with great recordings. Once you've listened to that kind of sound, it's very hard to forget / give up upon. I was expecting this much from the Iggy, it being a ladder dac. But D/A topology isn't probably all, far from it. I have a strong feeling I am also of the non oversampling camp (which TotalDAC does), and more tempted than ever to byte the bullet with a D1-dual or D1-integral. It's absurdly expensive though, I can't get my mind away from the crazy price tag.Now, I don't think that means my current DAC is really great. All I can say though is that, for all the DACs I have compared against it until now (very few actually), only the D-1 was a real game changer. Theta / Sonic Frontiers and other Classe DACs are not available here in Japan AFAIK so I can't really compare to you guys experiences, I guess I have to bet on someone around taking a shot on the Iggy. Otherwise, any chance Schiit might listen to your comments Marv and, for example, offer alternative filter that might give away some of the resolution for a bit more sweetness for those recordings that need it? Arnaud
Pics plz. Thx.
Otherwise, any chance Schiit might listen to your comments Marv and, for example, offer alternative filter that might give away some of the resolution for a bit more sweetness for those recordings that need it?
Of what?
No chance in hell. I prefer Schiit's take it or leave it approach rather than offering us the option of 8 different filters, 6 of which sound like shit, and 2 are different but decent. It's DAC. Not a Mercedes Benz....If you wanted to make Yggy more forgiving, you could maybe decimate or randomize some of the LSBs in software. The decreased accuracy would result in a less resolving or more forgiving sound. Or perhaps add a tube buffer, warm SS buffer, or even capacitor between the Yggy's output and the amp. The Yggy's very clean and clear sound is probably the result of the line output stagee being a simple buffer - nothing particularly complex because the digital to analog conversion process results in a high voltage output (nothing new here - just stuff that has been said on HF)....Also, things are different with speakers for some people. I for one can't make out headstage as well as Clem, Maxvla, Anaxilus, others here. Had I stuck with headphones, I would have been fairly happy with the AGD-M7.
Have you tried one of the good tube DACs? Sounds like they may suit you well. My experience with tube DACs have been just as you describe especially the bit about making average recordings sound good. Not in the sense that they mask the imperfections but instead that they push their flavor onto you which isn't always a bad thing.
So what's an "average recording" to you? If it's something like Adele or Florence and the Machine Unplugged, I'd submit you prefer to color bad recordings to make them sound 'good'. They sound horrible because they are horribly recorded. If Mike or Jason added a filter to make crap like that sound forgiving, take my name off the Yggy list cuz there's a zillion other DACs I could get to do the same thing. For the record, I like the songs and performers, the recording quality is just unforgivable.Why not just get an MSB DAC instead of asking Schiit to turn a transparent DAC into one?
