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Post by millerlitescott on Dec 7, 2010 18:01:23 GMT -5
Has anybody tried it with a Squeezebox Touch?
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Post by rockguitar on Dec 8, 2010 16:49:39 GMT -5
Based on these tests I'm thinking that to get the most out of the XDA used as a DAC only it should be connected to a dedicated CD player. I'm sure the XDA can be used some other way besides a DAC but that's not my bag. Last but not the least an Oppo BDP-93 beats all these combination's by quite a bit. It is a terrific CD player. And a hell of a good DVD player. Best I've had. And! And! None of these player combinations can compare to my APLHIFI CD/DAC player. Of course the APLHIFI player costs mucho BUCKS!!! Cheers to all and a very merry Xmas! Charlie Very interesting. Did you try the Oppo-93 and APL into the XDA as the DAC? I think you'll find that a great transport really makes a difference when feeding a DAC. Back in the day, I compared about 4-5 different transports into a Benchmark DAC1 and they all sounded different to my ears. BTW can you give the model of the APLHIFI player? I still own an APL modded Pioneer 563a universal player that Alex Peychev started making his reputation on. To expand on what I said earlier about the transport, if you listen to your best transports, the Oppo 93 and the APL into a DAC, that will help isolate how much of the sound is the transport quality and how much is from the dac. It is been my experience that when using a CD or DVD player as a transport that the basic character of the transport is preserved through the DAC. In other words, with a neutral dac, the sound coming from the transport of the CD player can be compared with the sound from the CD player and the basic character of the transport remains the same so for a CD player with a pronounced midbass that was heard through its own DAC and the Benchmark DAC1 |
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Post by dumdedum on Dec 8, 2010 18:41:41 GMT -5
Mr. Rockguitar:
I'm through with with switching between CD players and transports and DAC's This combination of the Ultec CD player fed into the XDA is(IMHO)a KILLER combination. I've got everything set up and for now it's going to stay that way.
My main source of music is the highly modded(By Alex Peychev)Phillips SACD 1000. It not only plays CD's(No SACD)but it is also a DAC. Alex over the years did all the tweaks he could do to it. As a DAC I feed a Logitech SB3(Highly Modded by The Bolder cable Co.)into it. That combination is also a KILLER. Stop by sometime and hear for yourself. Over the years I've had two small problems with the Phillips SACD 1000. Both were some kind of power supply problems. Alex fixed them at no charge. Can't beat them apples even with a big stick.
My first buy from Alex was the Pioneer same as yours. I traded it in to Alex for credit toward the phillips SACD 1000. So as you can see I've known Alex for quite a few years. He had his shop in Dublin when I first met him. Still the same Alex. Tall and skinny!!!
I do like to try out new gear but when it gets to be "Like opening a can of worms" I'm out!!!
Cheers
Charlie
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Post by rockguitar on Dec 9, 2010 8:47:57 GMT -5
Mr. Rockguitar: I'm through with with switching between CD players and transports and DAC's This combination of the Ultec CD player fed into the XDA is(IMHO)a KILLER combination. I've got everything set up and for now it's going to stay that way. My main source of music is the highly modded(By Alex Peychev)Phillips SACD 1000. It not only plays CD's(No SACD)but it is also a DAC. Alex over the years did all the tweaks he could do to it. As a DAC I feed a Logitech SB3(Highly Modded by The Bolder cable Co.)into it. That combination is also a KILLER. Stop by sometime and hear for yourself. Over the years I've had two small problems with the Phillips SACD 1000. Both were some kind of power supply problems. Alex fixed them at no charge. Can't beat them apples even with a big stick. My first buy from Alex was the Pioneer same as yours. I traded it in to Alex for credit toward the phillips SACD 1000. So as you can see I've known Alex for quite a few years. He had his shop in Dublin when I first met him. Still the same Alex. Tall and skinny!!! I do like to try out new gear but when it gets to be "Like opening a can of worms" I'm out!!! Cheers Charlie I certainly wasn't trying to open a can of worms or pressure you in any way to make more comparisons. I was just curious IF you had done so. I'm just trying to get a handle on the XDA and if the Oppo 93 sounded better than the 3 other transport to XDA connections including the "killer" Ultech XDA combination, then for CD or disk based people going to a preamp, then it sounds like a good recommendation for just getting the Oppo. My own comparisons of different transports were made over the course of months/a year and certainly not in a week(s) time. Moving components around from system to system, etc can be a real pain and I certainly don't want this to be "work" when we all got into this because we love and enjoy music.  |
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Post by rockguitar on Dec 16, 2010 20:19:01 GMT -5
I've been trying to keep my posts informative and factual as one of the other threads dealing with the volume control is getting emotionally charged ;D. There are facts and there are opinions. I'm sticking to the facts. The problem with the volume control is well known. It didn't meet the original published specs. The original published spec was to control the volume setting from 0 to 80 in 0.5 db increments. That would yield a usable volume range of 80 db. What I've calculated the usable volume range of the actual volume control is from 0.5 to 80 with a usable volume range of only 44 db. That is why at the low end of the scale, many people do not get usable volume. The lowest possible usable volume setting was only 44 db down from the max, instead of the specified 80 db down from the max. Sometimes a picture is worth a thousands words.  The blue curve is the actual performance of the unit as a linear volume control. The red curve is my graph of the original volume curve that the original published specs led us to believe would occur. If the actual performance met the original specs, there would be no issues right now of finding a usable volume, because there are two problems with using the linear control (blue curve)-- not enough dynamic range for the volume and too drastic volume differences at low volumes. With the original specs, we would get 1) 80 db of volume control vs 44 db of volume control and 2) have small 0.5 db volume intervals to finely control the volume. |
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Post by sharkman on Dec 16, 2010 20:30:08 GMT -5
Thanks Rock, that graph goes a long way to illustrating what the issue is for those who seem to have no idea about a problem with the volume. Comments like, "It works fine for me" just because they don't actually use the volume in their set up, do not help. When using the volume, the lowest setting(.5 out of 80) gives me peaks of 60 db and the next several steps each give me gains of 6-7 db, just as your graph shows.
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NorthStar
Seeker Of Truth
"And it stoned me to my soul" - Van Morrison
Posts: 0
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Post by NorthStar on Dec 17, 2010 1:38:13 GMT -5
Buying attenuators on top of it? ...Introduce more stuff into the circuit when you want the less possible?!! ...Don't make any sense to me if you ask me. Of course you don't want to add any additional "stuff" to the circuit, but if your speakers are so sensitive that you have only 4 usable volume levels before reaching "bloody ears" output level then it does make sense. The range for volume is 0 -- 100, with 0.5 db increments. He posted that at 2.0 his wife is screaming to turn the volume down. That means 98% of the volume range is unusable to him if he desires to use his current speakers. So, I ask you what would make sense?  An adjustable Gain from the XDA-1?  |
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