Some pics of what I'm using and not using right now.

Give us a chance man, I've only just set them up!

Hahaha.... fair enough!

Well at least they aren't terrible!

Look a decent enough speaker but thought they may be below the order of the JMlabs.

Seems to me you may have a DAC issue?

Too soft.....not enough leading edge to satisfy you needs maybe?

QED Silver Anniversary cables - sorted.

I thought you'd pretty much sorted the issue with a graphic equaliser?

You know I'd be lying if I said that I hadn't at least fleetingly considered going the QED SA route.

But I already tried Chord Odyssey 2 which is at least halfway to the QED.

EQing didn't resolve the issue, just made it more obvious. So it's not a problem with frequency response, has to be a noise/distortion of some kind.

having said that my neighbour came round and played a couple of albums he likes (Mastodon, Green Day) and he couldn't hear a problem. And he's a professional musician. So I don't know. 

Nope. I know it is there because I have had it before. 

You go through a lot of DACs, Jerry - what have you had that isn't soft and mushy? Must have digital volume control and internal power supply. 

Hmm, it strikes me as suspicious that one and only one component has provided that Macca Magic sound. Seems to me it had a particular colouration that tickled your fancy. You'll only recapture that sound by getting something with that same random characteristic.

Anyhoo, feel free to disagree.

DACs, I've had a few. Most aren't mushy, actually, what you want is one with a bit of edge to it, imo. A lot of the recent Chinese DACs haven't had any edges worn off, something like a Topping E30. Dead cheap as such things go, and takes no prisoners in terms of rez and a kind of stark neutrality. It might just do the biz for you.

What you really want is that bloody Krell 50S amp working again.

Ah, I didn't realise Macca is still using that old smoothie of yours, Oli.

That's the bloody problem. I had an original KSA50 that sounded like that. Like watching paint dry as far as I was concerned.

Absolutely dump it and you'll be well on the way to sorting things out.

Primaluna valve amp with KT88 power toobs. Whoa - you'd love it Macca.

I don't know for sure about that though. Fed directly from the DAC it loses a lot of that character. I mean seriously you wouldn't recognise it. 

 

lol

I've thought about getting a Radford STA15 or 25 many times, thankfully they've always been too far away. 

Not the most transparent amps ever but they're still good in that respect and I know I'd never be unhappy listening to one. I got nothing against valve amps intrinsically but there is a lot of dressed up tat out there that does 'fake hi-fi'. 

Just missed out on getting the Topping in the Black Friday sale. Would there be anything to choose between the E30 and your Soncoz? I think the D50 was supposed to be the more analytical of the Topping's.

That was my thought too but does not explain why the problem persists with other power amps - Linn LK 100, Philips Black Tulip, XTZ A100  and Alan's  Neurochrome.

That's were it gets complicated.

originally I was using Sony SACD player into DCB1 pre into Krell KSA50S - just the best sound ever
Then swapped to the Krell KSA100 - too smooth
The DCB1 can't be used with the Linn or the Philips power amps as it sets up
an earth loop and hums on one channel. So an exact comparison there not possible
The CD player starts playing up so I replaced it with the Oppo - better but problem persists.
So I add the DAC - better but problem persists
So I replace the Oppo with the Audiolab transport- better again, but problem persists
Try Alan's pre-power combo - problem persists
Get rid of the DCB1 and use the DAC as a pre-amp, better again but problem persists. But now I can try the Linn and the Philips power amps too - problem persists.
Change the speakers - problem persists. 

I've also tried most of the above combinations with various speaker cables and interconnects and yes, you guessed it...

Have also tried co-ax and optical connections, and the balanced outputs from the DAC.

Not many conclusions make sense here. One is that the Krell KSA50s is just way better than all the other amps so is the only one I'm happy with. But that doesn't seem right as if Alan's pre-power sounded in his system like it does in mine he'd have binned it. 

The other conclusion is that it is a combination of issues - which would explain why I've been able to make small gains with the changes but not solve the problem completely. There are a couple of subjective reviews of the Soncoz DAC that said they thought it was slightly soft sounding, and another one that said it was 'dark' sounding. Add that to smooth amp and speakers that are maybe a little down on tweeter level due to age, and it all adds together. Maybe. Only way to be sure is to try another DAC.