I have listened for hours now to different configurations, with the way my dac is designed its been easy to do side by side comparisons between the Toslink and my VDH digital Coax by simply switching between them on the fly. I also used my pc straight into the dac using foobar2000 (44.1khz 16 bit) through my spdif soundcard. and was able to add my cdp to the mix using both toslink and Coax options.
1. SB3 with coax as bright as ever! teeth gnashingly bright on some material with pronounced sibilence problems especially with female vocals, horn sections and violin / electric guitar. 2. SB3 with toslink... not the fix I was hoping for! just as bright if not more so than the coax. 3. CDP with toslink.. some may call it crisp and clear.. I call it bright. 4. CDP with Coax.. like putting on a pair of old comfy slippers that somehow got lost behind the settee for a couple of weeks albeit with (quite a large) loss of detail. 5. Computer + Foobar2000 using Spdif. Theres a magic here that is hard to quantify... impossible to explain... lets call it sound with emotional integrity for want of a better name, There is bags of detail, warmth, smoothness, dynamic contrasts, listening to the breath in reed instruments for example is to die for. To be moved again by my music points out a great truth... who gives a damn about accuracy when the whole experience is so emotionally draining and unrewarding.... as a friend said recently 'it may be hi-fi but is it music?' the SB3 Is a thin, austere, sibilent sounding beast in my system at least. It has bags of detail but to my ears is musically DOA. There are others who feel this way too but it seems we are few and far between. Again I want to point out that this is my own personal experience and there really is no need for a flame war if you are enjoying your SB3 and none of this makes any sense to you, congratulations.... your a lucky *B* :) Im putting my SB3 up on Ebay tonight (in England) at a low buy it now price (probably £120-130)its only two weeks old so if your a convert get yourself a bargain!! Gary Hi... Thanks for your post. I was planning to go over to laptop + Foobar2000 + 400gb usb storage + usb spdif soundcard.. If patricks device can take down your wadia I need to hear it! especially as you seem to recognise some of the problems ive been having :) I will drop you a line this weekend. Jack. -- Lyonesse ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lyonesse's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=5496 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=24613 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
