Post by Bigman80 on Nov 26, 2020 17:55:43 GMT
The Soekris arrived super quick from Ukraine and was mint, both in condition & colour!
I thought the box was like a beige colour but it has a very deliberate hint of green. I like it!
One of the huge factors that has caused me to shun a stand alone DAC, is the need to deliver the files to the DAC in an acceptable way. There is 0% chance of me using CD's or a laptop, so this has been an irreconcilable issue for me.
I know things like the Innuos exist, but I really cant believe that the file NEEDS £1k+ of equipment to deliver these files in the same construct they left the SSD.
The obvious choice is an Allo product. Alan had a USBridge going spare so I loaned that, and setup was fairly simple. However, to cover all bases I went for Laptop to DAC via USB for the first listen. I used Foobar2000 for this. For all tests I used a 1990's USB cable....only one I had lol
I lasted about 20 minutes with that setup. It sounded grainy and edgy. No fluidity and almost shouty at times.
In went a CD player with coaxial output. As usual, I much preferred the Coaxial output and CD combination as to me, coaxial seems to just have a better fluidity. I can't give an explanation as to why but its repeatable. It has always been the case here, but usin a CD player and buying CD's isnt going to happen so on I went to the USBridge & Volumio combo.
However, before I got a chance to listen I got an email from the seller. He apologised and claimed her had “forgot” to mention that he had installed 47 custom filters on the Soekris......47......wow. I don't know how to describe this properly but the DAC has a filter button, which when pressed selects a different filter which changes the colour of the LED. As standard there are 4 filters and 4 LED colours....so how in gods name am I going to work out as there is no screen to select anything on.
A little flurry of emails later and I think I can now work it out but I will be looking to get this nonsense removed ASAP.
I then redid all of the tests once I found a filter setting that sounded good to me, but I have no idea which one it is. I'll have to sort this out.
Thankfully, the issues I heard previously were all there regardless of what filter I selected. So on with the USBridge>Volumio>Soekris listening.
Even like this, I felt the Soekris was harsh at times. Almost glass like in its HF and it wasn't always a pleasurable listening experience. Vocals were thinner than on the PecanPi and guitars lacked a bit of body and resonance. It was very clean and incisive but rather like listening to a poorly made metal driver speakers. A bit tizzy and fizzy. I was rather disappointed with it.
I had bought this based on the fact that R2R DAC's are more relaxed, natural and closer in tone to vinyl....or so the wisdom of forums suggested. This was not the case here.
Track after track passed by and yes, I will accept that scale, width, depth and space in the soundstage are quite astonishing. A DAC replicating the sense of space that vinyl does.
Phenomenal yes, but I just couldn't get over the glint and glaze of the sound. It was a barrier to sonic prowess.
I went back to the CDP and Coaxial (Spotfire Grade) and it had more flesh, but not too much. It had more tone....but again it was just enough, Not too much, and yet it felt more solid, more human in it's presentation but not totally absent in it's presence in the sound. I knew it was there. It sounded a little digital.
This was a huge positive of the PecanPi....it has been more incognito than any piece of digital I had owned or heard up to this point. Never sounding Digital has been my major attraction to it.
I decided that I would let the DAC get properly up to room temp as it was absolutely frozen when it arrived. I left it on for 24hours and had another listen.
Yes, it was better but not quite there yet. I just had this inkling that something wasnt right. I flew through the 47 filters and again I ended up on the same one...i think.
I decided to buy a USB cable. I ordered a £5.50 UGREEN USB from Amazon. Last roll of the Dice as I wasn't gonna keep chasing it. I love the PecanPi so no concerns of mine to plug it back in and flog the Soekris. 24 hours later the cable arrived. I plugged everything in and fired it up. I have use UGREEN many times and they made respectable cable for pennies. It had to be better than my 30 year old USB cable anyway lol.
I played John Van Der Veer – 911.....about 10 times.
The low string he's abusing on the guitar seem to spring out from between the speaker. dead centre, and then return at the same speed, to the same point before the next note starts. The speed and delineation is utterly bonkers. Its chewy, tactile, resonant and ultra clean....I wasn't sure where this came from. It didn't sound like this before!
The opening of this track has layering of guitars over each other all playing at different speeds....guess what....you can hear it all. It's textured and separated, but not like in an exploded diagram kind of way, it's all coherent and cohesive but so easy to hear all the different parts.
I loved it.....but the biggest thins was the Width and scale of the soundstage. It sounds HUGE. It rivals my Vinyl rig 100%
I moved on to some Putamayo – Acoustic Africa
It was just an absolute joy to listen to from start to finish. It didn't have the richness that the PecanPI delivers, but it really showed it's strengths when the backing singers turned up. IMO the mark of really good HIFI equipment is when there are things you hear now, that you didn't hear before.
Well here again, the Soekris showed there were more backing vocalists than I had heard before. It separates everything so well.
Guitar notes have longer decay, faster attack, and the as the fingers slide on the guitar strings, you can hear the “drag” from skin pulling on the windings...It really is quite something to hear new noises when you think you know something really well.
I ploughed through a fair bit material today and the one track that I play for reasons of drama and granduer is Elton John – Rocket man.
On this track, there is a sense of a rocket rising from the ground, and the sound seems to grow in volume and scale. First time I heard this on Vinyl through the Yamaha's I knew they were keepers. First time i heard this on the PecanPi, I knew it was a keeper.....
On the Soekris.......er......dunno.
It didn't deliver the grandeur, the drama or the sense of “event”
I don't know why either. Maybe the Vinyl and the PecaPi have a bit of an edge here as the midrange seems to be richer and fuller and possibly too rich on the PecanPi now? Maybe the SMPS didnt deliver? I'm not sure. It's raised more questions than I have managed to answer at the minute.
It's very easy to be wowed by new gear and get taken in by all the new detail etc, but the PecanPi has endured here because of it's ability to communicate the music in a way that resonates with my soul.
I am not yet sure if the Soekris 1421 can do this in the same way.
What I do know is the PecanPi didn't do it to this degree, until I stuck a nice LPSU up it and separated it away from the RPI, which I am still convinced is hindering it.
The next port of call here is a visit to Alan's and to get a lash up LPSU conversion, as I think there is the makings of something very special here but that tonal issue has been found before in equipment using SMPS, and we have removed it by removing the SMPS.
The overriding sense of the few days i've spent with the DAC is that anyone who thinks that a R2R DAC (as I did) may automatically be closer to a more natural, human like sound are likely to be found somewhat mistaken with a Soekris.
The Soekris isn't laid back, it isn't “closer to vinyl” and it isn't for those that want to achieve a vinyl like digital experience.
What it is, is fast, vibrant, vivid, punchy, accurate, precise, crisp, detailed, insightful, revealing and best of all.....spacious. It has totally see through midrange and the bass is powerful, deep and taut. It really is very impressive to hear a track like Horror Inc's – Dans La Nuit throwing out bass tones like confetti but remaining totally composed. Its organisation of the complex sections is stunning. A tour de force!
If the LPSU brings the midrange fluidity I need, this could get very interesting indeed.
Sample Vid:
I thought the box was like a beige colour but it has a very deliberate hint of green. I like it!
One of the huge factors that has caused me to shun a stand alone DAC, is the need to deliver the files to the DAC in an acceptable way. There is 0% chance of me using CD's or a laptop, so this has been an irreconcilable issue for me.
I know things like the Innuos exist, but I really cant believe that the file NEEDS £1k+ of equipment to deliver these files in the same construct they left the SSD.
The obvious choice is an Allo product. Alan had a USBridge going spare so I loaned that, and setup was fairly simple. However, to cover all bases I went for Laptop to DAC via USB for the first listen. I used Foobar2000 for this. For all tests I used a 1990's USB cable....only one I had lol
I lasted about 20 minutes with that setup. It sounded grainy and edgy. No fluidity and almost shouty at times.
In went a CD player with coaxial output. As usual, I much preferred the Coaxial output and CD combination as to me, coaxial seems to just have a better fluidity. I can't give an explanation as to why but its repeatable. It has always been the case here, but usin a CD player and buying CD's isnt going to happen so on I went to the USBridge & Volumio combo.
However, before I got a chance to listen I got an email from the seller. He apologised and claimed her had “forgot” to mention that he had installed 47 custom filters on the Soekris......47......wow. I don't know how to describe this properly but the DAC has a filter button, which when pressed selects a different filter which changes the colour of the LED. As standard there are 4 filters and 4 LED colours....so how in gods name am I going to work out as there is no screen to select anything on.
A little flurry of emails later and I think I can now work it out but I will be looking to get this nonsense removed ASAP.
I then redid all of the tests once I found a filter setting that sounded good to me, but I have no idea which one it is. I'll have to sort this out.
Thankfully, the issues I heard previously were all there regardless of what filter I selected. So on with the USBridge>Volumio>Soekris listening.
Even like this, I felt the Soekris was harsh at times. Almost glass like in its HF and it wasn't always a pleasurable listening experience. Vocals were thinner than on the PecanPi and guitars lacked a bit of body and resonance. It was very clean and incisive but rather like listening to a poorly made metal driver speakers. A bit tizzy and fizzy. I was rather disappointed with it.
I had bought this based on the fact that R2R DAC's are more relaxed, natural and closer in tone to vinyl....or so the wisdom of forums suggested. This was not the case here.
Track after track passed by and yes, I will accept that scale, width, depth and space in the soundstage are quite astonishing. A DAC replicating the sense of space that vinyl does.
Phenomenal yes, but I just couldn't get over the glint and glaze of the sound. It was a barrier to sonic prowess.
I went back to the CDP and Coaxial (Spotfire Grade) and it had more flesh, but not too much. It had more tone....but again it was just enough, Not too much, and yet it felt more solid, more human in it's presentation but not totally absent in it's presence in the sound. I knew it was there. It sounded a little digital.
This was a huge positive of the PecanPi....it has been more incognito than any piece of digital I had owned or heard up to this point. Never sounding Digital has been my major attraction to it.
I decided that I would let the DAC get properly up to room temp as it was absolutely frozen when it arrived. I left it on for 24hours and had another listen.
Yes, it was better but not quite there yet. I just had this inkling that something wasnt right. I flew through the 47 filters and again I ended up on the same one...i think.
I decided to buy a USB cable. I ordered a £5.50 UGREEN USB from Amazon. Last roll of the Dice as I wasn't gonna keep chasing it. I love the PecanPi so no concerns of mine to plug it back in and flog the Soekris. 24 hours later the cable arrived. I plugged everything in and fired it up. I have use UGREEN many times and they made respectable cable for pennies. It had to be better than my 30 year old USB cable anyway lol.
I played John Van Der Veer – 911.....about 10 times.
The low string he's abusing on the guitar seem to spring out from between the speaker. dead centre, and then return at the same speed, to the same point before the next note starts. The speed and delineation is utterly bonkers. Its chewy, tactile, resonant and ultra clean....I wasn't sure where this came from. It didn't sound like this before!
The opening of this track has layering of guitars over each other all playing at different speeds....guess what....you can hear it all. It's textured and separated, but not like in an exploded diagram kind of way, it's all coherent and cohesive but so easy to hear all the different parts.
I loved it.....but the biggest thins was the Width and scale of the soundstage. It sounds HUGE. It rivals my Vinyl rig 100%
I moved on to some Putamayo – Acoustic Africa
It was just an absolute joy to listen to from start to finish. It didn't have the richness that the PecanPI delivers, but it really showed it's strengths when the backing singers turned up. IMO the mark of really good HIFI equipment is when there are things you hear now, that you didn't hear before.
Well here again, the Soekris showed there were more backing vocalists than I had heard before. It separates everything so well.
Guitar notes have longer decay, faster attack, and the as the fingers slide on the guitar strings, you can hear the “drag” from skin pulling on the windings...It really is quite something to hear new noises when you think you know something really well.
I ploughed through a fair bit material today and the one track that I play for reasons of drama and granduer is Elton John – Rocket man.
On this track, there is a sense of a rocket rising from the ground, and the sound seems to grow in volume and scale. First time I heard this on Vinyl through the Yamaha's I knew they were keepers. First time i heard this on the PecanPi, I knew it was a keeper.....
On the Soekris.......er......dunno.
It didn't deliver the grandeur, the drama or the sense of “event”
I don't know why either. Maybe the Vinyl and the PecaPi have a bit of an edge here as the midrange seems to be richer and fuller and possibly too rich on the PecanPi now? Maybe the SMPS didnt deliver? I'm not sure. It's raised more questions than I have managed to answer at the minute.
It's very easy to be wowed by new gear and get taken in by all the new detail etc, but the PecanPi has endured here because of it's ability to communicate the music in a way that resonates with my soul.
I am not yet sure if the Soekris 1421 can do this in the same way.
What I do know is the PecanPi didn't do it to this degree, until I stuck a nice LPSU up it and separated it away from the RPI, which I am still convinced is hindering it.
The next port of call here is a visit to Alan's and to get a lash up LPSU conversion, as I think there is the makings of something very special here but that tonal issue has been found before in equipment using SMPS, and we have removed it by removing the SMPS.
The overriding sense of the few days i've spent with the DAC is that anyone who thinks that a R2R DAC (as I did) may automatically be closer to a more natural, human like sound are likely to be found somewhat mistaken with a Soekris.
The Soekris isn't laid back, it isn't “closer to vinyl” and it isn't for those that want to achieve a vinyl like digital experience.
What it is, is fast, vibrant, vivid, punchy, accurate, precise, crisp, detailed, insightful, revealing and best of all.....spacious. It has totally see through midrange and the bass is powerful, deep and taut. It really is very impressive to hear a track like Horror Inc's – Dans La Nuit throwing out bass tones like confetti but remaining totally composed. Its organisation of the complex sections is stunning. A tour de force!
If the LPSU brings the midrange fluidity I need, this could get very interesting indeed.
Sample Vid:
