New DAC Arrives

Well I finally got a DAC that had been on my wish list.

Earlier this year I had an Audio Magic Kukama DAC on loan for about a month. It killed me to have to send it back. Changed my perspective on CD playback. So I finally broke down and ordered one. It arrived today, and is in the process of warming up.

The Kukama is a multi bit DAC, one of the few being produced these days. Talk about a high rez piece, it really makes redbook an eye opening experience. It makes 1 bit DACs that I have heard sound dull and lifeless.

Well, my sytem was configuired for a mellow sounding front end, so now I have to go through my tube selection and fine tune the system.

So now I have re-cabled, and changed the front end. Need to wait for some cabinets to be completed so I can finish the Audio Nirvana 12" full range speaker system I have chosen.

Regards
Mister Pig

Hi Mr. Pig,

I´m thinking of adding a DAC to my rig, and your post got my attention.

Any chance you could provide a link to that manufacturer?

www.audio-magic.com

There isnt alot on the website about the unit itself. You are probably better off giving them a call.

Regards
Mister Pig

From what I have read, it will smooth out even more after about 24-40 hrs of play time. Not sure I could hear the difference. but oh well. I got a cheaper DAC, and its an Entech. you can look them up on ebay for under $100. and they made a very nice change to my setup.

elroy

What a difference a night makes.

I kept the Audio Magic/Phillips stack on repeat last night. I woke up this morning, fired up the coffee pot and put some tunes on.

Everything smoothed out nicely. Last night I ended up rolling some tubes through my power amp in an attempt to get the treble to be not quite so over the top. I havelf wondered if the silver cabling and the DAC would be a bit much in this listening room. I moved since the last time I had the Kukama in the system.

My concerns were unfounded. After a night of simmering, the Kukama sounds exactly like I remember it. It's the best sounding digital piece at a sane price that I can remember hearing. It's not cheap, but being able to use an inexpensive DVD player as a transport helps alleviate some of the sticker shock.

What is interesting is that it is based on old technology. Uses the only Burr Brown multi-bit chip set in production. Yet smokes the vast majority of single bit machines I hear. Of course, this doesnt mean that any multi bit machine is going to be automatically superior to a single bit. After all, there are no absolutes in audio.

Well back to listening to some tunes. I wonder what will happen when the Audio Magic digital interconnect arrives?

Reegards
Mister Pig

Dingus swears by the optical out. in direct comparison to the coax out. I havent heard the comparison, but it might be worth a try.

erloy

I agree. My own haphazard comparisons have shown a bit less noise and no ground hum issues with optical as opposed to coax (half the time it sounds bad when I try it).

- JP

You might be surprised how much difference the transport makes. Last weekend Scott & I did some A/Bing of my Yamaha CDX-10000 & a mid-level Denon through Scotts DAC. There was a significant improvement in the sound when using the Yamaha as the transport.

I agree. My own haphazard comparisons have shown a bit less noise and no ground hum issues with optical as opposed to coax (half the time it sounds bad when I try it).

- JP

The Kukama is optimized for co-ax. Designer doesnt want the unit used with optical if at all possible. To run optical you have to take the top off and plug directly into the board. Also have to throw a switch to disable coax input.

I have a good optical cable here. The Monarchy cable is built with the same glass fiber as the ultra expensive Furukawa optical cable.<-----$500 a meter. Monarchy 50 a meter. But, with that being said, I have compard it against some good coax cables, and it falls short in my experiences. But a damn fine cable for the $. Lots of bang for the buck.

Regards,
Mister Pig

You might be surprised how much difference the transport makes. Last weekend Scott & I did some A/Bing of my Yamaha CDX-10000 & a mid-level Denon through Scotts DAC. There was a significant improvement in the sound when using the Yamaha as the transport.

Hi mark,

This is an interesting subject. I had a talk with Benchmark, and they have done some testing in this regards. they claim that seeral DVD players can be "bit transparent" basically they do not alter the data flow. Have some pretty detailed data to back up that claim.

I have a USB version of the DAC 1 in the house for review. What I have found is that a Phillips DVP 642 sound EXACTLY the same as music coming off a Western Digital hard drive going through a properly configuired version of I-tunes. Every once in ahwile I thought I could have heard a difference, but in reality I couldnt. In a single or double blind test I KNOW I wouldnt have been able to say which was which. Howeer, Benchmark claims that their reclocking system is responsibel for this.

A better transport may make improvements in the sound in my system. But the Kukama/Phillips combo is SO transparent and detailed, I would suprised to hear a fundamental improvement....I suspect I would only gain an incremental gain in sound quality. Just my own opinion of course.

Regards,
Mister Pig

Mister Pig,

Beyond a certain quality point, gains in our systems are bound to be mostly, if not always, incremental.

Having said that, if one can hear differences between different coaxial digital cables, I believe different transports can make even bigger differences.

It´s been a few years since I had a separate DAC, a DELTEC - DPA, which sounded distinctly different when I used it either with a Sony CDP 997 through its coax out, or a dedicated Kenwood DPX-9010 Transport. Nothing dramatic, but noticeable.

As you so aptly put it INCREMENTAL.

By the way Mister Pig, congrats on the sweet DAC!

Thanks Mark,

It really does show how good redbook CD can sound. And that is really really good. I have had a few decent CD players over the last few years. A modded Sony SCD-777ES, Sonic Frontiers SFCD-1, and a Proceed PDP2 and PDT2. The Audio Magic unit is far far better.

Regards,
Mister Pig

Also in my opinion a good transport is very important. I have an Audio Alchemy DDE V.3 ( with some mods on the ops and the caps) and if i connect it to my dvd i have a certain sound but if i connect it to my Nad cdp i have a much better sound. More focus and definition in the mid-highs and a more tight low end.
The stability of the record in a good transport is the key, i think.
BTW, enjoy your new toy.

Also in my opinion a good transport is very important. I have an Audio Alchemy DDE V.3 ( with some mods on the ops and the caps) and if i connect it to my dvd i have a certain sound but if i connect it to my Nad cdp i have a much better sound. More focus and definition in the mid-highs and a more tight low end.
The stability of the record in a good transport is the key, i think.
BTW, enjoy your new toy.

Hi Clint,

From an intuitive position, I would normally agree with you.

However, the listening sessions with the Benchmark DAC does not yield the expected outcome.

The hard drive and DVD player sounded adientical. Yet many peple feel that a hard drive based syste is the best possible transport.

Benchmark believes thier re-clocking system is responsible for this event. And that may very well be the truth. Jitter is aways an issue and if you can completely remove it from the system....then the two sources should sound the same.

Unfortunately my Audio Magic DAC does not have a USB input. It would be interesting to try this experiment with a different DAC and see what the results are.

I understand there are some USB to co-ax converters out there, but I am not sure of the oveall quality of these units. they need to be true 24 bit word length, and not force the computer to alter the sampling rate in KMXXR. If there is a good canidate, I sure would like to know what it is.

Regards
Mister Pig