2 Channel Comparison -- DC-1 and USP-1

[cgolf]

Who has compared the DC-1 and the USP for 2 channel SQ? Any differences? I'm sure this has been discussed before but I couldn't find the threads.

[garbulky]

Unfortunately I was unable to compare them directly with each other, so it's very possible that my comments on clarity and tone could be way off base. So I would definitely trust somebody whose directly compred them with each other (instead of with different DAC components).
So...when I used an XDA-1 to a USP-1 to an XPA-2. I noticed really fantastic dynamics. However it felt a bit compressed or agressive around the midrange. The treble tone was unnatural like a little electronic - you could tell there was an electronic device creating the sound. The very high treble didn't quite come through AS much. Very subtle. I'm talking about Air hiss in the room on the mics. But the instruments themselves felt very solid and there were so many subtleties in dynamics that I never noticed before. For instance paint it black rolling stones the drum no longer just felt like a drum track. It felt like a performance of its own with all kinds of minute touches given to how had he hit the cymbals and the drums etc.

With the DC=1 direct to amp: well, it brings quite a bit of the dynamics but.... it does feel just the tad bit slow. And a tad bit thin on the instruments. The main difference I noticed was when things got loud or you cranked it up....the DC-1 felt like it was just a little shouty for lack of a better word. The scaling of volume wasn't perfect. But it was better than say the XDA-1 and significantly better than the XDA-2 diret to the amp as a pre-amp. The DC-1's analog passthrough preamp had lots of detail. I really felt like nothing was lost here. You know the whole straight wire with gain? Well, the DC-1's analog passthrough system appeared to work like that. Very transparent, no electronic gimmickery. In the treble was probably the most impressive, it felt like there was no dulling at all of the sound.

The DC-1 as a whole however was able to put a whole lot of deail into the music. Just a bit more natural than the USP-1.
However, with the USP-1 (and the XSP-1), these pre-amps weren't straight wire with gain. They IMPROVED the sound. Made it more "musical". So different flavors.

Anyway remember these weren't compared directly. I would hope that just combining the DC-`1 and USP-1 would yeild some very nice results, but I can't be sure if the clarity of the DC-1 would be slightly bottlenecked.
When I hooked the DC-1 to an XSP-1 (in a totally different room than mine) it sounded like it had a lot of glare and thick and VERY recessed mid-range. I don't know what caused that as I do know it sounded better than that (though looking back I could recognize the signature that maybe led to that perception in the room, but nowhere near as pronounced). Others have tried it out (DC-1 and XSP-1) and have found the combo to be fantastic. I only tried it in that room, so I couldn't tell you if it was a one time thing or not, just reporting my finding. Now I did find the XSP-1 was supposed to pair with output impedances of more than 600 ohms and I think the DC-1's output was lower than that. Likely because it was meant to act as a decent pre-amp. So maybe that had something to do with it.
But let me stress that was a one time finding that goes against the grain of other findings in this lounge of people I respect. So, it could just have been gremlins. Who knows!

Hope that helps. I would say try it with the USP-1.