Jump to content

TarnishedEars

  • Posts

    150
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Country

    United States

Retained

  • Member Title
    Sophomore Member
  1. Which firmare were you running? I'd agree with you if you were running either Pikes Peak or Yale, which I found to lack PRaT. But 1.21 and especially Torres are an entirely different matter.
  2. Thanks, but I already own one that is well broken-in and I am not planning on changing DACs again for a very long time. But it would be a pretty good deal for the OP.
  3. Why isn't the PS Audio Direct Stream on your short list? IMO it should be.
  4. I've been using a Mytek 24/96 ADC for years. I absolutely love the sound out of the needle-drops which come out of it. The only problem with this unit is that it has a SP/DIF output, rather than a USB output. But you can insert a cheap ADC unit from companies like M-Audio which will happy convert a super high quality SP/DIF signal to its digital input into a USB output which every piece of audio software will recognize.
  5. I've replied to the thread you created on the PS Audio forum. And I plan to continue this discussion over there for now.
  6. Thanks Bob. I think that how effective this is varies greatly from system to system. The dirtier that your ground is, the bigger the difference that this makes. And conversely: the cleaner that you power is, the less difference that this should make.
  7. Thanks Westy. Are any other DS owners willing to try inserting a cheater plug on your DS's and report back? Don't let the ridiculously low price of this tweak fool you into thinking that it can be any good.
  8. So am I to take it that none of the other DS owners on this forum are brave enough to try this ultra simple trick and report back as to whether you hear a difference or not in your system?
  9. Yes, I was indeed referring to the so-called "cheater plug" above for purposes of testing whether my idea works in your system or not. I'm not saying that this is necessarily a safe long term arrangement. But since your DS should be grounded via its connection to your preamp or amp anyways, this really shouldn't be terribly unsafe. However I have developed a mod which provides the same sonic improvements as this grounding arrangement, but while still being 100% UL approved. But I'm interested in seeing how many other people hear as big of an improvement from doing this as I do before I take the time to show everyone how to potentially void the warranties on your DS's. The disclaimer: AC voltages can be lethal. So try this at your own risk and expense!!! I warranty nothing, and I take no responsibly if you should somehow manage to electrocute yourself in the process, or fry your DS.
  10. FYI - Here is a trick which I highly recommend that other DS users should try with your DS's. Try throwing one of those $1.50 ground lifters on your DS's power cord, and just take a listen. I find that isolating the DS from the utility earth ground really opened-up my soundstage on my DS. Frankly I was lukewarm about the sound of my DS before I stumbled upon this discovery. But now I LOVE it! Now this is probably entirely system dependent. But the noisier your earth ground is, the better than this will work. And since so many power line filters shunt their noise to ground, this can be a means of isolating your DS from all of that noise that your filters have injected into your earth ground. I keep meaning to post this tweak on PS Audio's website, but I've decided to do it here first. There is a bit more to it though since if other it is getting re-grounded via other components, that can sometimes re-inject the noise, and keep this from working. But I have developed a super cheap mod which makes this all unnecessary. However I'm not going to say anything more about it unless some of you also hear this same improvement on your own systems. On mine doing this is like night and day for the DS. And no, I have no hum issues whatsoever, so this is not a ground-loop problem on my system. I also suspect that the biggest reason why the PS Audio regen helps with the sound of the DS is simply because it may add a small degree of ground isolation at RF frequencies. But this method is dirt cheap, and it works like a charm on my setup.
  11. I'm torn between the two, but I slightly prefer Torrys because it is more honest, resolving and has slightly better PRaT than does 1.21. 1.21, by contrast seems to have a more romantic quality to it which I really enjoy, as well as a slightly wider soundstage when compared to torrys. But other than those two attributes, Torrys now gets the overall nod overall on my system. FWIW: Toeing my speakers out just smidge with Torrys really helped improve the image on my system.
  12. I'd agree with that assessment. However the idea of not trying the other builds just because somebody said something on the internet seems silly to me. But I like to roll tubes to get the perfect sound. So rolling firmwares can be pretty cool in my book.
  13. Your conception is basically correct, but the details are slightly off. I believe that the DS does some digital filtering in the process of upsampling everything to double DSD. Although I believe that double DSD signals are passed-through completely unprocessed when they are presented to the DS. So in this particular mode, it is working the same way as does the lamp. However In the case of the DS, there is no separate analog low-pass filter stage at all. There is only an output transformer, which is naturally bandwidth limited, which provides the low pass filtering effects required to convert the double DSD stream to analog.
×
×
  • Create New...