Mini review-Cary dac

tonyb

Well, just spent the whole afternoon putting the Xciter dac through the ringer. I'm waiting on some better IC'S that I snagged from Rob in the FM so I only had some cheapos to use. First thing I noticed is this sucker is pretty heavy for a little sh&t. Think it weighs almost as much as my receiver. Digital coax cable was my reference Audio Metallurgy GA-0 from the Sonos to the dac, cheap RCA's to the receiver set on analog direct. Played every type of music you can think of to get a feel for what it does good...or bad...low volumes...higher volumes. CDP hooked up by toslink. Trying to find the right words to sum this up so it doesn't become a book. Couple words come to mind...."Holy Sh$t !!"

Almost forgot what a good dac brings to the table, haven't had one in a long time. Separation of instruments is Cary classic outstanding...no...I mean f**king outstanding. Layering....soundstage width and height...front to back, all improved tremendously. Bass is also exceptional, not muddy or slow, perfect and hard hitting. Rhythm and pace spot on. All that by way of the Cullen modded Sonos....running lossless from ITunes. Lights on the dac stayed on 24/96. No hiccups...locked on tight. Also made crappy recordings sound listenable....which we all have a few of those.

Cdp and the Cary dac notched it up even further, not by much, but a slight noticeable improvement. I've had some low cost dacs come and go....Music streamer, MSB, Audio-gd NFB3, as well as getting ears on the MF M1, Peachtree dacit more recently. None come close to the Xciter imho.anyway. So, is it a keeper ? You betcha...for the 6 bones used, I believe I achieved the sound I was looking for. This dac was originally slated to be an office rig dac, but deserves a place in a main rig. I'm sure there is better, I know there is, but not for 6 bones there isn't. At least I have yet to hear one.

TNHNDYMAN

I have the Peachtree DaciT and am curious how you'd rate it vs the new Cary on scale of 1-100 for both.

Congrats on the nice addition. Glad it's impressing you so far. I love the Peachtree, but also know that much better is out there. Not ready to spend the big bucks to get there yet.

tonyb

Eh, I'm not great with scales but I can tell you my observations. The Peachtree wasn't in my system when I heard it so there is some wiggle room. Compared to the Cary, the Peachtree wasn't as resolving with detail retrieval, soundstage wasn't even close, and the Cary hit harder in the lower registers. Cary was also better at separation of instruments. Again, I'm comparing the Cary in my rig to the Peachtree in someone elses, so take that for what it's worth.

tonyb

Let me also add that my goal was to achieve the same performance from my Sonos as I got from my cdp. The Sonos and the Cary far exceeded that goal....more than even I thought it could. The Cary turned the CDP into a machine to be reckoned with though. Cdp is a Pioneer AVI 59. Elevated it a good few notches.

pearsall001

tonyb wrote: »

Well, just spent the whole afternoon putting the Xciter dac through the ringer. I'm waiting on some better IC'S that I snagged from Rob in the FM so I only had some cheapos to use. First thing I noticed is this sucker is pretty heavy for a little sh&t. Think it weighs almost as much as my receiver. Digital coax cable was my reference Audio Metallurgy GA-0 from the Sonos to the dac, cheap RCA's to the receiver set on analog direct. Played every type of music you can think of to get a feel for what it does good...or bad...low volumes...higher volumes. CDP hooked up by toslink. Trying to find the right words to sum this up so it doesn't become a book. Couple words come to mind...."Holy Sh$t !!"

Almost forgot what a good dac brings to the table, haven't had one in a long time. Separation of instruments is Cary classic outstanding...no...I mean f**king outstanding. Layering....soundstage width and height...front to back, all improved tremendously. Bass is also exceptional, not muddy or slow, perfect and hard hitting. Rhythm and pace spot on. All that by way of the Cullen modded Sonos....running lossless from ITunes. Lights on the dac stayed on 24/96. No hiccups...locked on tight. Also made crappy recordings sound listenable....which we all have a few of those.

Cdp and the Cary dac notched it up even further, not by much, but a slight noticeable improvement. I've had some low cost dacs come and go....Music streamer, MSB, Audio-gd NFB3, as well as getting ears on the MF M1, Peachtree dacit more recently. None come close to the Xciter imho.anyway. So, is it a keeper ? You betcha...for the 6 bones used, I believe I achieved the sound I was looking for. This dac was originally slated to be an office rig dac, but deserves a place in a main rig. I'm sure there is better, I know there is, but not for 6 bones there isn't. At least I have yet to hear one.

Sounds like you've got yourself a winner there Tony!!! Isn't it amazing how an excellent DAC can transform your system. And I'll bet there is no second guessing yourself as to what you heard. It was quite obvious I presume. Now get yourself some good IC's from the DAC to the AVR, that'll even raise the bar further. If I might make a suggestion as far as the IC's go...check these puppies out http://www.groverhuffman.com/speakercables. I'm loaded on the front end with them & they are quite impressive without having to remortgage the house. I'm still looking for the Audio Metallurgy GA-0 that you recommend. I'd like to give one a shot. Carry on & enjoy my good man!!!!

tonyb

Phil,
I hear ya man, have some IC's coming, Analysis Plus Copper Ovals that I picked up from the FM. If they don't work out I'll look up the Grovers.

Skipper,
The Legacy's respond well to any change. They sound as good or bad depending on the electronics hooked up. The separation of instruments really took me by surprise, I wasn't expecting such a huge difference over the built in dac in the receiver which has wolfsen chips. The Burr Browns in the cdp were preferable to me. You lose a little detail but seem to have better tonality. The Cary surpassed both. In all honesty though, beating a receivers dac isn't all that hard anyway. It's like the Cary combined the best traits of Wolfsen chips and Burr Browns...only better than both. In any event, I'm a happy camper with this purchase.

tonyb

If I'd have you...LOL. Man, your most welcome anytime your in the hood. I'll even cook ya a steak. People I don't like get hot dogs.

I hear ya on the dac chase. Which is why I like to get ears on lots of stuff. Money spent brings hope of larger improvements, especially for bigger coin. Stuff I been hearing was good, but not that good to warrant 5-6 hundies. But knowing that I like the Cary signature sound, I took a leap of faith....and it turned out good. I haven't experienced this big of an improvement in sound since I bought the Legacys. Speakers....and a good dac for the biggest jumps in SQ, so says Guido.

Oldfatdogs

Tony I'm glad you found what you needed in your system,one of these days I will find a shop with a good selection of goodies to chose from.
Just did a Google search and came up empty.
Enjoy.
Dan

bobsauto49

Congrats Guido! A good dac, makes a cd player virtually useless, in my case. Enjoy! Hopefully those AP Copper Oval's will bump er up a notch!

erniejade

Tony, your pioneer does sacd yes. Do me a favor, if you have a sacd and redbook of the same cd, with the dac, see what one you like better.

The dac sounds like you made the right move! ! Also agree on what you said about the legacy. Cables, tubes, pre, amp, they respond to any change I. The chain.

tonyb

Yeah Ern, it does do SACD, but I no longer have any discs since they never get any play time. I know, blasphemy. Even though I love SACD, my problem with recorded material has always been that I only care for a couple songs on the whole disc. Changing cd's every 5 minutes was getting tiresome. Not many albums/cd's I enjoy that include the whole content. Once the Sonos entered the picture, I knew the cdp days were numbered for me. I just needed to elevate the SQ to my own personal standards which the Cary has done for me. Though if I had to make that call between redbook cd and SACD, I believe the SACD would win hands down.

I know what your getting at, a good dac and a well recorded redbook cd can sound just about as good as a SACD disc, which in some cases I can agree with that. Depends on the recording in either format.

One of my other concerns, as with many of you too, is the state of quality recordings available in actual physical media. Seems only digital files are making headway into better quality. This is a dilemma for a lot of people. So I was also looking for something to put some spit shine on a ****, so to speak. Still, I won't pay big bucks for downloading Hi-rez material. Maybe when it gets to under 3-4 bucks a song I will, some already are but again the quality of even that recording comes into question.

I think Phil hit it in another thread, it's about enjoying the music. I'm not one to chase down the latest and greatest. Simply looking for what pleases my ears. Old tech...new tech, who cares, as long as your enjoying the tunes rock on.