XDA-1 versus PS Audio D-Link III

[scbailey]

Feb 3, 2011 19:02:33 GMT -5 legacyman said:

yes I have a ps audio dacIII and I also bought an xda-1 I did not like the xda-1. I had both units hooked up together with the same dig feed and sent them to two seperate inputs on my nad t175hd . I had to bump the input on the preamp by 3db to compensate the level difference between the two units. I kept the xda-1 for 3 weeks listening to it everyday for 2hrs. The end result was it just did not compare to the dac III mainll in the upper end. in other words the highs were a little shrill. also you could hear distortion when vocalist would pronounce their sssssss's at the last tag of their phrase. The equipment I used on this test was a umc-1, nad t175hd, and arcam av8. the speakers I used were legacy whispers and the amps I used were parrasound A-21 (2 amps) I think the xda-1 is a steal for the money but for me I still prefer my ps audio. I hope this will give you a little insight on this subject

Those extended ssssss's are called "sibilance". With a lot of audio equip that will dissappear after a break-in period.