The moment of truth - you upgrade a component, convince yourself you hear a significant difference (because you have invested in it), and then after becoming familiar with the sound (and hence eliminating expectations), you are brave enough to do a back-to-back comparison with original...
Phew! Connected the SB3 analogue outs back to the Amp (same cables), equalised the volume, and then listed to an entire track several times (Jennifer Warne - First we take Manhattan - Famous Blue Raincoat), switching the cables between the two DACS. Less improvement with the Stello than I remember (what I would expect due to expectations/psychology etc), but still of the same nature - more punch to snare drum, more lifelike vocal, less harshness on loud sections, same HF detail but more mid-range background instrumentation coming through. Instrument placement better defined and more LF slam, bigger soundstage top-to-bottom. All of the above is what you would expect with less digital distortion, meatier power supply and cleaner audio stage, and the differences are much greater than the Stello's upsampling vs. bypass comparison - this is very subtle; minutely smoother on loud, busy passages and slightly more transparent and natural, but that could be expectations... Bearing in mind that the Stello was GBP 475, and the SB3 DAC a fraction of that, both are good at what they do. Burn in..? When I first connected the Stello, I though the tonal balance difference from the SB3 was greater, but now (a few weeks later) it seems that the top is pretty close, but with more weight low down on the Stello, and the 'fatter' midrange. I thought the Stello sounded a bit muffled back-to-back with the SB3 before; no longer. Paul -- BigEars ------------------------------------------------------------------------ BigEars's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6154 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=32055 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
