Parasound D/AC 1600HD - Ongoing review/modification

I have been searching for a vintage DAC for a little while now, mainly due to the mutterings of content from our box-swapping expert Mr jandl100 and our resident "digital agitator" misterc. Both have been pretty convincing in regard to their respective "Old Skool" digital music makers.

The draw to this particular model was the impressive build quality and the PCM63 engine under the hood. Visually, i don't think it's pulling up any trees but it does have a particular bomb-proof quality about it, which i like.

Getting it out of the box was the first wow moment. You can see in the pictures of this model that it's pretty sturdy looking, but in the hands, it feels heavy, rigid and has a very robust textured finish on the case. A bit like you'd find on vintage power supplies etc. Really nice. I am not sure the feet are standard as they are cheap little plastic jobbies with gold tape around them. Aesthetically fine, but absolute tat. They will be replaced regardless.

At the moment, this DAC is only capable of playing 16/44 or HDCD....which i do not own, so all listening is done with CD rips that are stored on my Aria Digibit Streamer. This may be seen as a hugely limiting factor, but i will explain later as to why it will not be.

After giving the DAC a good 3-4 hours of warm up time, i decided to have a listen. One of my preferred test tracks is Marlon Williams - Everyone’s Got Something to Say.

It's not a complex piece of music, but there are deliberate distortions in places, his vocals are very well recorded and the addition of a female vocalist on the track is a great way of hearing how well devices can separate the two, and prevent them singing over each other.

When the vocal starts, i notice there is a very different presentation to this DAC, Vs the memory of my absent Soekris 2541. It's receded a little into the soundstage. There is less attack, it's not as visceral in the delivery, and most importantly, i am not as "close" to the singer as i have become accustomed to.

The Vocals are clear though, lots of definition to them too, but the space isnt as large around them. With the Soekris, Holo DACs, there is a real sense of space, a freedom in which the vocals can flourish. It's not like the Parasound is miles off, it isn't, but we are talking fine margins. The vocals were very well separated and the guitar had a very convincing tone. It was positive.

I moved on to some other material i know well, Ike Quebec - Blue and Sentimental. Again, i noticed the space wasn't as expansive around the performer via the Parasound. However, as i sat there listening to this masterpiece, there was something going on.....my foot was tapping and my chair was rocking.

I was very absorbed into the music. Like a connection had unwittigngly, almost covertly occurred between my soul and the music. My mind wasn't involved. It felt good, it felt like i wasn't listening to digital music........."oh, hang on" i thought.

Shuffling through my vast collection of ripped CDs, I happened upon Janos Starkers Cello works. It's about 3 million hours long, boring as sin, and to be honest i really don't know why i have it.....well i do now. Listening to this fella saw away at the Cello has, in the past, been a miserable affair. The Cello has NEVER produced a realistic sound, the conveyance of emotion was missing, there hasn't been ANYTHING i have really taken away from it with any fondness.

Well listening via the Parasound made me reel in shock. The Cello had volume and mass, it had a rich, woody tone. It had presence, grandeur and Low frequency harmonic interplay! It was being played by a master, and the flair and passion for the instrument flowed from the performance.

WOW.....i said to myself.

I shuffled again and again, and listened for a few hours. Then i landed on Ocean Colour Scene - Robin Hood. From the opening slow played guitar chord...i was captured. Again, it was all very emotive, intimate, I was hanging on the timing changes....I was really into what i was listening to, like nothing else in the world was happening. Just like i used to be when this stuff came out and i heard it for the first time.

I wasn't sitting there listening for the tiny nano sized details, i was listening to a song i really enjoy, by a band i have loved for 25 years....wow.

At this point, i really was starting to think about what is actually the most important role of my system....was it unrelenting transparency, detail and nuances, extracting the most from the recording, or should it be aimed at extracting the most out of me?

It's a big question to be asking myself after a relentless quest for the former, but there is something about how this DAC makes music that is raising more questions than i had answers. But that's due to how utterly detached from the modern-day DAC sound this thing is. I mean, ok....If I am being hyper critical, would I WANT that space around the instruments? Yes, I know it exists, but it's actually less important than I thought it would be.

I have a lot of listening to do with this DAC. Actually, i WANT to do a lot more serious listening, but for that i need to open up the rest of my library of 24/96 files.

To do this this, I need to do some minor modifications. You may recall that i mentioned that its only currently capable of 16/44 or HDCD, well it actually isnt. In stock form the unit comes with CS8412 SPDIF receiver and a PMD100 Digital filter installed. Perfectly fine 25 years ago. however, we can do better now, so i will be replacing them with CS8414 and DP1706 respectively. This will give the DAC 24/96 capability

I am told this is a very decent improvement, but as always, the proof is in the pudding. I have ordered these bits from Audio-Tuning.de to find out.

More to come.