Audiophile quality CD transports and DAC's

madmax

I went to pick up my Theta Data Basic II CD transport and Audionote 1.1 Dac on Sunday. This morning I connected it to my system. It came with upgraded power cords and interconnect all for $800.

This is the best upgrade I Have done since buying my SDA's. The soundstage increased from about 12' to 25'. The bass is very detailed yet tuby. On many CD's I feel as if a very high quality subwoofer system was added. Not loud, just there. I started this morning with the idea of listening to a few songs before I got started with other activities. That was at 9:00 AM. It is now about 10:30 PM and I think I've gone through half of my collection of CD's. Ones I never cared much for are jaw dropping experiences. A CD player is a player is a player? No! There are huge improvements to be had. Night and day. With my previous player (which is better than anything else in the under $1000 range) I would have tired of listening after a few hours. My Pioneer DV-47Ai playing SACD or DVD-Audio sucks compared to this setup. What is the point even of having more resolution if it doesn't sound as good as quality equipment??
madmax

HBombToo

Originally posted by madmax
What is the point even of having more resolution if it doesn't sound as good as quality equipment??
madmax

I'm doen an HBomb so here goes: I never had this thought to date regarding my 2900.

My RTi's do very well plus my 2 channel pales in comparison(IMHO). I have purchased a tube tester.

1/4twin:p

organ

Congrats on the purchase. I agree with you completely. The difference in going seperates in the source is as big as going seperates for amplification. The only time I use the NAD's built in DAC is only for HDCD. Everything else goes through the AA stuff. Like you, the bass in my system also improved a lot. It digs deeper, it's more powerful and hits with authority.

Are you planning to purchase a jitter reducer? IMO, that will be the last piece you'll need for the source. Adding the DTI to my system made a difference as big as the DAC alone!. Seems like the noise floor dropped quite a bit, everything is much clearer and dynamics really improved. I love it!

How many bit is the DAC? Did you notice a big difference when upsampling?

Can you snap some pics of your new toys?

Maurice

HBombToo

Originally posted by organ


Are you planning to purchase a jitter reducer? IMO, that will be the last piece you'll need for the source. Adding the DTI to my system made a difference as big as the DAC alone!. Seems like the noise floor dropped quite a bit, everything is much clearer and dynamics really improved. I love it!

all right Beatch... No more typing and I'm yankin my AA from the HT:eek:

I know what the effect will be so all is good:p just more time in the shelter.

1/4twin

F1nut

Congrats on the new found sound. Now, you should hear SACD on some quality gear.

HBombToo

Originally posted by F1nut
Congrats on the new found sound. Now, you should hear SACD on some quality gear.

what quality gear should i have

twin and (almost time for bed;)

organ

LOL Hbomb:D. Those little units kick serious ****. I thought I was going to score on a DTI V2.0 today but when I e-mailed the seller, he said it's been sold:(. I'll have to check audiogon daily.

Maurice

madmax

Originally posted by organ

Are you planning to purchase a jitter reducer? IMO, that will be the last piece you'll need for the source. Adding the DTI to my system made a difference as big as the DAC alone!. Seems like the noise floor dropped quite a bit, everything is much clearer and dynamics really improved. I love it!

How many bit is the DAC? Did you notice a big difference when upsampling?

Maurice

A jitter reducer? I wasn't going to but given what you said above I will look for one!

The DAC is an 18 bit 1 times oversampling. (could the specs be any lower??) I read somewhere that for redbook CD's Audionote believed more oversampling was detrimental to the sound. They claimed the process used in the DAC 1.1 was a very simple process and that is part of the reason it sounds so good. One more case proven for me that specs don't mean doody.

About the soundstage. I read my post and kinda felt like Sid The Kid posting about some new gear. What I'm wondering is how can this type of improvement be possible? My previous CD player was pretty good at least in the fact that it beat out maybe 5 others I tried. Not by a little but by a lot.

One thing that bugs me a lot is that the guy I bought the CD setup from compared it directly to his turntable and the turntable blew it away. That leads me to wonder what my turntable should be doing with my system. Right now it seems to be running fairly close to my previous CD player. Oh well, maybe on the next upgrade I'll try to figure it out...

madmax

dragon1952

Just curious....what kind of turntable setup did he have?

I recently bought an AA DAC-MAN and the difference is quite amazing. The only way I can describe it is 'smooth and liquid' sounding...you almost want to just melt into the music. The soundstage definitely widened also. I just bought another one off of ebay....this one's an AA DDE v1.1 with the upgraded power supply and with the DTI+. Can't wait to check that out.

madmax

Originally posted by dragon1952
Just curious....what kind of turntable setup did he have?

I knew I should have written it down. I asked him twice, he told me, and by the time I got home I forgot. It was a very expensive table but the name was not one I was familiar with. (which means nothing). I do remember he was using a Benz L2 cartridge. Sorry about that. I too wish I could remember!

madmax

danger boy

madmax, i think you're hearing incredible sounds now from your Redbook CD's due mostly in part of the external DAC. I am a believer of external DAC's. I have a simple 18bit tube DAC. and every CD player i use it on.. it improves the SQ so that it's noticeable. to tell a difference.

madmax

I would like to try the DAC with my other CD players but they have an RCA phono jack output and this dac only has a BNC connector and a balanced output connector. I will try the new transport with my old AudioAlchemy DAC and see what that does.
madmax

madmax

The Theta transport is very substantial in weight and from what I understand (not a lot) the drive and servo motors can cause a lot of jitter without very careful regulation and to the extreme separate supplies for each function. It seems to me a transport could make a worthwhile difference. It will be interesting to compare the Theta/AA-DAC to the standard Luxman CD player/AA-DAC just to see if I can hear any difference from the transport. I have a Sony CD player and some others I can try with the Dac as well. I would expect differences but...

madmax

danger boy

madmax, i'd be very interested to read what your results are.