Streamers, DAC's and storage shootout!

Disclaimer:

All rules are subject to the "this could improve my judgement" policy . . . 

I'm sure macca has better things to do than A/B Brothers In Arms Vs Steely Dan all night.....

Or does he....

And then I'd break out the 24-bit versions and the vinyl.....

Maybe cycle through some slow/fast roll off filters.

The fun just wouldn't stop!

Good luck!

If that's the outcome then all good because that's what I figure..... But it won't sound good until I try!

It is actually a marked improvement over the N15D i had. Quite monumental actually. Someone was asking where they could find one the other day, but i have only seen 1 other for sale that had a DAC in it. He didn't want it. Also it is very pricey.

It a very heavy beast too, all part of the appeal as apparently it helps with isolating the unit from vibrations etc. All marketing tosh obviously lol

However, i wanted a NovaFidelity X50. I'll see what happens in the next few weeks, but watch this space.

Oh he is! lol

So in the interest of trying to keep these kind of threads as interesting (and non boring) as possible here are a few pics of the live event and my setup for anyone interested.




















My chosen test tracks were as follows:

Beck - Morning (Morning Phase)
John Martyn - Solid Air (Solid Air)
Dire Straits - Your Latest Trick - (Brothers in Arms)
Everything But The Girl - Apron Strings (Acoustic)
The Eagles - Desperado (Greatest Hits)
Steely Dan - My Rival (Gaucho)
Agnes Obel - Stretch Your Eyes (Citizen Of Glass)
The Midnight - Nocturnal (Nocturnal)
Albrecht La'Brooy - Daybreak (Tidal River)
Lamb - As Satellites Go By (Backspace Unwind)
State Azure - IO (modular Works I)
State Azure - Axion (Modular Works II)
State Azure - Y'Zentia (Modular Works III)
State Azure - Future Echoes (Modular Works V)
State Azure - Midnight Transit (Modular Works V)
State Azure - Inner Vision (Light Span)
Mark Knopfler - Seattle (Privateering)
Mark Knopfler - Rivertowns (Tracker)
Mark Knopfler - Lights of Taormina (Tracker)
Mark Knopfler - Silver Eagle (Tracker)
Mark Knopfler - Wherever I Go (Tracker)
Mark Knopfler - Wunderlust (Sailing to Philadelphia)
Mark Knopfler - Sands of Nevada (Sailing to Philadelphia)
Steely Dan - Deacon Blues (Aja)
Miles Davis & John Coltrane - Two Bass Hits (The Best Of)
Miles Davis & John Coltrane - Bye Bye Blackbird (The Best Of)
Miles Davis & John Coltrane - Milestones (The Best Of)
Slim Harpo - I'm A King Bee (Buzzin' The Blues)
Chet Baker - Polka Dots and Moonbeams (Chet Baker in New York)



There were probably a few other tracks played throughout and some of them I just throw in as I like em, I find certain songs are a better 'test' of the system but some of them are not as pleasant to listen to over and over. It's still got to be an enjoyable session or your brain will get bored and your perceptions will change.

Firstly I tried the CA straight through its DAC, I also ran the digital out to the SONCOZ connected to a different input of my preamp so I could A/B switch between them.

Well one thing is for sure, fed with the same signal and using the same interconnects, the SONCOZ is miles ahead of the CA in terms of . . . . well everything. At first I thought the CA had the SONCOZ in the bass department but after a few more minutes I realised it was slightly bloated and the SONCOZ gave cleaner and deeper bass. Also the output from the CA seems a couple of notches higher so absolute matching meant a check of the db meter on the phone. After a while it was fairly obvious the SONCOZ was better at any volume.

Great, I've got the DAC sorted. Not an unexpected result to be fair.

Next I setup both streamers connected to the NAS Drive (I briefly tried the portable thumb drive and it did not sound good, a loss of timbre and dynamics, so that rules that out. I don't think in theory they should be bad, they are just SS storage drives after all, but maybe the route into the streamer/connection etc is just a bit noisy resulting in a loss of quality somewhere. Also the streamer has to 'power' the device to extract the files from it so maybe there's some loss there).

I had the CA connected to the SONCOZ via coax (my preferred connection) and the X12 connected to it via Toslink. To be honest there wasn't a huge amount between them but if I had a gun to my head I'd say maybe the CA had it but that might only be because the coax sounded a little more 'fleshed out'.

I swapped them round so the CA was via Toslink and the X12 using coax.

X12 wins, hands down. Much better bass and all round improvement.

Not looking great for the CA at this point to be fair . . .

Finally was NAS vs SSD on the X12. At this point I must admit I was quite happy to give the X12 the win and call it a day but I persevered with the tests.

To me the SSD did sound better, not that the NAS sounded bad but maybe the fact I knew the NAS was on in the room and although below my hearing threshold, was still making noise. Also it requires a switching mode power supply and an ethernet adaptor as well as a network switch adding another power supply into the mix. It's on an isolated circuit but it's certainly no where near as elegant solution as just having an onboard SSD in your streamer!

Putting things back to 'normal' (exactly how it was before) was actually a revelation audible. Everything just snapped into focus and all was well with whatever I listened to.

Was it the preconception that something else 'might' sound good or the fact I've just spent 3 hours+ plugging and unplugging various wires/power supplies etc and now my room is tidy and calm again?

Was it because of the lower noise floor achieved with less switching supplies dotted about and the short signal path of the SSD to the streamer?

Either way I've found the best combination for SQ. Luckily, it's also the most convenient. Shoehorning the CA into the system would have been a squeeze (had to move a DAC and phono stage for the test) and I would have had to have a permanent ethernet connection for the NAS drive.

Now I can have no unnecessary connections and power supplies running, the streamer run's 'off-grid' and I simply use the remote to find songs on the SSD. I do have to connect it if I'm listening to internet radio or connected to my large NAS drive (has more music on than the SSD). That's no problem at all though.


Just a word on the CA, it's a great device, superb in fact for it's flexibility, usability and only to a slightly lesser extent (in comparison to the SONCOZ) the sound quality. If I hadn't heard it in direct comparison I could very happily live with it. It has a very 'big' presentation. Very live and dynamic but ultimately it loses out on clarity, detail and 'ambience' to the SONCOZ, there's no disgrace in that for a device that's a few years old now.


So there we have it, as you were. Literally in every way. Same streamer, same DAC, same SSD,

weird, but I couldn't be happier!

Cheers

No your memory serves you well sir.

An update will be coming regarding the TDA1541 DAC as there are a few revelations!

The crux of the matter being that it was simply going to be too much hassle swapping in another DAC variable.

I came to the conclusion pretty early on that it's the most efficient approach to sort the SSD Vs NAS as well as the superior streamer THEN simply swap the DACs around using exactly the same signal paths and cables etc. Only fair to evaluate them with ALL variables being equal.

Tonight shall be another long one!

Great write up, it doesn't surprise me either that SSD came out on top and also the Nova Fidelity had the edge over the Cambridge. You can sit back and enjoy your system now you know it's sorted, so what's this about a 1541 dac?