[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: NorthStar 192 or Meridian 563 or Musical Fidelity A324?
pingpong;152150 Wrote: Hi, Looking for used DAC To partner with the SB3 to improve the sound. Over at my place, I could get the NorthStar 192 or Meridian 563 or Musical Fidelity A324 at about the same price. May I know which is most compatible with the SB3. Looking for warm, lush and laid back kind of sound. Bright and forward is a big no no. TIA. Rgds As long as transports affect the sound of the DAC this is a tough question to answer. Some people might give you definitive answers, but I would be sceptical unless they also specified what transport this is valid for. (And method of connection.) Some people here used to promote the Lavry, which supposedly is unaffected by choice of transport, but now some of these same people seem to prefer the Transporter. (Although I don't believe the Transporter has been claimed to reject input jitter 100%, so it may not be as good for other external digital sources.) -- P Floding P Floding's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2932 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=29340 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: NorthStar 192 or Meridian 563 or Musical Fidelity A324?
pingpong;152150 Wrote: Hi, Looking for used DAC To partner with the SB3 to improve the sound. Over at my place, I could get the NorthStar 192 or Meridian 563 or Musical Fidelity A324 at about the same price. May I know which is most compatible with the SB3. Looking for warm, lush and laid back kind of sound. Bright and forward is a big no no. TIA. Rgds I was very pleased to sell my Meridian 566 DAC a few years ago - my Shanling (CD player) sounds vastly better than the Meridian did; the Meridian was detailed but lacked warmth and air, to my ears. Given the kind of sound you seem to like, it might be worth looking at the non-os DACs currently available - Derek Shek, Monica2 and mhdt, for example. They are just £75-£200 ($150-350), so a bit of a no-risk buy in the scheme of things. I'm thinking of getting one just to play :) Adam -- adamslim SB3 and Shanling CDT-100, Rotel RT-990BX, Esoteric Audio Research 859, Living Voice Auditorium IIs, Nordost cables adamslim's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=7355 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=29340 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: NorthStar 192 or Meridian 563 or Musical Fidelity A324?
I have the NorthStar and like it alot, very detailed without being hard to listen to, it pairs well to the Squeezebox. Unfortunately I have them hooked up to all tube equipment. I listened to the Meridian and Northstar on solid state and went with the Northstar. The Musical fidelity equipment is top notch British sound. Stick to these two. -- mitchjstein mitchjstein's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=7910 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=29340 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: NorthStar 192 or Meridian 563 or Musical Fidelity A324?
I use a eoku soundbridge with an A324 in a secondary system and have never really enjoyed the sound. I find it cold and lifeless. This may be because of the upsampling. By comparison, in my other system I use an SB3 integrated with a RAKK DAC and the sound is much warmer and more detailed. I have also swapped aropund the components and find the results from the A324 consistently poor. This piece of equipment got some extraordinary reviews at the time of release which I have not been able to understand. -- Jitterbug Jitterbug's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4955 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=29340 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: NorthStar 192 or Meridian 563 or Musical Fidelity A324?
Jitterbug;152248 Wrote: ...never really enjoyed the sound. I find it cold and lifeless. This may be because of the upsampling. I turn the upsampling off in my Shanling. I find that it seems to throw detail forwards, rather than leaving it in place. Superficially it sounds better, but it's just not as 'right'. I did hear an upsampling dcS full monty system some time ago and it sounded astonishing, though. It was a £20k CD system in a full system worth well north of £100k all-in, so I suppose it should... Adam -- adamslim SB3 and Shanling CDT-100, Rotel RT-990BX, Esoteric Audio Research 859, Living Voice Auditorium IIs, Nordost cables adamslim's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=7355 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=29340 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: NorthStar 192 or Meridian 563 or Musical Fidelity A324?
adamslim;152268 Wrote: I did hear an upsampling dcS full monty system some time ago and it sounded astonishing, though. It was a £20k CD system in a full system worth well north of £100k all-in, so I suppose it should... Adam Ummm...You don't think that other gear might have made the Shanling sound nice, too? Comparing DAC's in completely different systems is completely worthless. What you need to do is spend $100K and surround your A/B comparison with really nice gear, volume match, do DBT, and then tell us what you think about each DAC. -- ezkcdude DIY projects page: http://www.ezdiyaudio.com System: SB3-EZDAC-MIT Terminator 2 interconnects-Endler Audio 24-step Attenuators (RCA-direct)-Parasound Halo A23 125W/ch amplifier-Speltz anti-cables-DIY 2-ways + Dayton Titanic 10 subwoofer He's not hi-fi, he's my stereo. ezkcdude's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2545 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=29340 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: NorthStar 192 or Meridian 563 or Musical Fidelity A324?
(Can someone tell me how to quote a previous message?) 'ezkcdude': you mentioned doing a DBT to confirm if the differences are real. I notice that you list MIT cables as part of your equipment. Have you done DBT tests with the MIT cables and confirm that they indeed give you a different sound? -- Coffee Coffee's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=8198 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=29340 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: NorthStar 192 or Meridian 563 or Musical Fidelity A324?
Coffee;152296 Wrote: (Can someone tell me how to quote a previous message?) 'ezkcdude': you mentioned doing a DBT to confirm if the differences are real. I notice that you list MIT cables as part of your equipment. Have you done DBT tests with the MIT cables and confirm that they indeed give you a different sound? Nope, but I didn't make any claims about their superiority, did I? Oh, and to answer your parenthetical, just hit the Quote button. You can quote me on that. -- ezkcdude DIY projects page: http://www.ezdiyaudio.com System: SB3-EZDAC-MIT Terminator 2 interconnects-Endler Audio 24-step Attenuators (RCA-direct)-Parasound Halo A23 125W/ch amplifier-Speltz anti-cables-DIY 2-ways + Dayton Titanic 10 subwoofer He's not hi-fi, he's my stereo. ezkcdude's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2545 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=29340 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: NorthStar 192 or Meridian 563 or Musical Fidelity A324?
ezkcdude;152283 Wrote: Ummm...You don't think that other gear might have made the Shanling sound nice, too? Comparing DAC's in completely different systems is completely worthless. What you need to do is spend $100K and surround your A/B comparison with really nice gear, volume match, do DBT, and then tell us what you think about each DAC. Yeah indeed - mine was a lighthearted comment that perhaps there is nothing wrong with upsampling in principle, as long as it's done carefully. I am often not a fan of DBT: of course it is the right way to detect differences, but I find that the volume matching is very difficult (by ear, anyway). Even when you consider the differences, it is often not a meaningful difference - which is, really, better? I prefer to live with equipment for some time and consider how much I'm really enjoying the music. The problems of my approach, too, are all to obvious to me! Coffee: to quote, just click the quote button on the right. Unless you are subscribing by email, in which case I don't know! You could always put Quote and /Quote in square brackets. Try editing one of your posts to see. Adam -- adamslim SB3 and Shanling CDT-100, Rotel RT-990BX, Esoteric Audio Research 859, Living Voice Auditorium IIs, Nordost cables adamslim's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=7355 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=29340 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: NorthStar 192 or Meridian 563 or Musical Fidelity A324?
ezkcdude;152299 Wrote:
Nope, but I didn't make any claims about their superiority, did I?
Oh, and to answer your parenthetical, just hit the Quote button. You
can quote me on that.
Understood. That's why I was careful not to say 'better', but
'different'.
I'm not trying to provoke anybody. As an electrical engineer (but not
one who specializes in audio equipment, few are) I have always wondered
what any engineer can possibly do to a cable to make it transmit audio
frequency signals better, other than reducing the resistance and
increasing the capacitance. It is possible, I suppose, that there are
some phenomena that scientists have not figured out yet. So I am
perfectly willing to accept the possibility that super expensive cables
do sound different ('better' is subjective, 'different' is objective and
can be proven). Since you seem to believe in DBT tests, I was hoping you
can shed some light on this mystery.
--
Coffee
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[SlimDevices: Audiophiles] Re: NorthStar 192 or Meridian 563 or Musical Fidelity A324?
Well, I do believe DBT are the only way to truly detect real differences, but I would not subject myself to such torture ;). Oh, and I highly doubt that cables make a noticeable difference. When I first became an audiophile I bought into all that hooey, but since then I've changed my thinking. The final straw came this past year, as I've designed my own DAC. Just understanding all the design decisions that go into that, I laugh at anyone who spends $1000 on cables. -- ezkcdude DIY projects page: http://www.ezdiyaudio.com System: SB3-EZDAC-MIT Terminator 2 interconnects-Endler Audio 24-step Attenuators (RCA-direct)-Parasound Halo A23 125W/ch amplifier-Speltz anti-cables-DIY 2-ways + Dayton Titanic 10 subwoofer He's not hi-fi, he's my stereo. ezkcdude's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2545 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=29340 ___ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
