Bigman80
Grandmaster
The HiFi Bear/Audioaddicts/Bigbottle Owner
Posts: 16,398
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Post by Bigman80 on Oct 17, 2018 11:13:45 GMT
Can’t see them selling many at that price. I almost biught one a while back. It was used but less than £50.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2018 12:50:46 GMT
Theres a guy on eBay called "NVKAUDIO" based in Bulgaria and from what i can make out (Awful Bulgarian reading skills  ) hes making some very interesting stuff. www.ebay.co.uk/str/NVKaudio/He builds a budget DAC by using old CD player carcasses lol, I really like how off the wall it is. He also does some very nice looking bits. I don't know about DAC technology so have no idea about whether he uses good internals etc but i like the DIY style. I am more inclined to go this route if i'm honest |
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Bigman80
Grandmaster
The HiFi Bear/Audioaddicts/Bigbottle Owner
Posts: 16,398
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Post by Bigman80 on Oct 17, 2018 13:04:57 GMT
Theres a guy on eBay called "NVKAUDIO" based in Bulgaria and from what i can make out (Awful Bulgarian reading skills ) hes making some very interesting stuff. www.ebay.co.uk/str/NVKaudio/He builds a budget DAC by using old CD player carcasses lol, I really like how off the wall it is. He also does some very nice looking bits. I don't know about DAC technology so have no idea about whether he uses good internals etc but i like the DIY style. I am more inclined to go this route if i'm honest It’s how the Lampizator guy started out so there’s probably a lot of potential. I like the loook of his CD160 mod. Not a lot of money and the TDA1541 is special IMHO. |
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Post by antonio on Oct 17, 2018 14:33:24 GMT
Very interesting, never noticed his ads before.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2018 15:06:52 GMT
Very interesting, never noticed his ads before. No, i hadnt heard of him until i got chatting to a fella named Stoyan. He knows him somehow. The phonostage that won the day at Penkridge (IMO) was made by a guy called VAS (Bulgarian guy) who has worked with NVKAudio to incorporate the valves into his DAC. If the DAC has the same quality as VAS's phonostage, it will be superb. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 16, 2019 17:48:04 GMT
I am glad to see it is not just me that doesn’t find the Caiman (SEG in my case) to their liking.
I still have my modified one, which Imwould like to get rid of at some point, but that is another story.
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Post by pauld on Feb 16, 2019 17:50:16 GMT
I am glad to see it is not just me that doesn’t find the Caiman (SEG in my case) to their liking. I still have my modified one, which Imwould like to get rid of at some point, but that is another story. Have you tried it with the Dorado and latest firmware? |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 16, 2019 17:52:17 GMT
No. To be honest, I am reluctant to put more money in to it and have it become an even more expensive redundant box.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 16, 2019 17:52:57 GMT
The Caiman II in this thread that Oliver listened to was my old one.
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Post by pauld on Feb 16, 2019 18:04:39 GMT
No. To be honest, I am reluctant to put more money in to it and have it become an even more expensive redundant box. Fair enough, but those two things take it to a very different level. I also had mine upgraded internally by Coherent Systems which made a significant difference. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 16, 2019 18:05:29 GMT
To the price as well....
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Post by pauld on Feb 16, 2019 18:16:30 GMT
The Dorado is £80 and the Firmware is £20, so £100 for quite easily £400 or £500 worth of difference, sounds like a bargain to me.
Coherent Systems changes are a different discussion.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 16, 2019 18:21:16 GMT
What difference do the Coherent changes make?
Is the sound signature still the same?
The problem is, if I modify the DAC and I don’t like it I lose more money. I am too far away to hear a modified one before I commit.
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Post by pauld on Feb 16, 2019 18:34:19 GMT
For me it sounded a bit like I had removed a rug from the speakers, the sound which with the SEG can be a bit overly warm, suddenly still had all of the musicality, but opened the sound up like there was a new breath of fresh air, as if it were allowing it to breath.
The sound signature remains the same, because the underlying design is the same.
There are a few people who have had the Coherent Systems mods. I have sold mine now as I moved onto a single box solution (NovaFidelity X40) and wanted to release the funds to go towards that.
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Post by savvypaul on Feb 16, 2019 18:35:00 GMT
What difference do the Coherent changes make? Is the sound signature still the same? The problem is, if I modify the DAC and I don’t like it I lose more money. I am too far away to hear a modified one before I commit. I have never had any real success from having stuff modded and I always lost the money when I sold on. Some kit sounded just the same (to my ears) and some worse (a silver rewire of an RB300) and some different but not better. The only exception was a Groovetracer sub-platter for a Rega. Night and day difference. Completely reversible, so when I sold the Rega I put the original SP back on it and sold the GT for very near what I had paid for it (they have to be imported and people don't like to wait). |
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Post by sq225917 on Feb 16, 2019 18:40:08 GMT
$100 for a recap kit and four regs with gyrators seems pretty good vfm.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2019 8:17:51 GMT
I am not arguing with that, but I am curious as to if the result will be to my liking when I don’t get on with this DAC.
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Post by pauld on Feb 17, 2019 8:59:07 GMT
The £100 was for the Dorado and Firmware, not the Coherent mods.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2019 9:47:45 GMT
So the coherent mods are more expensive?
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Post by pauld on Feb 17, 2019 13:37:32 GMT
So the coherent mods are more expensive? Yep. |
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Post by dsjr on Feb 17, 2019 13:45:56 GMT
The Dorado is £80 and the Firmware is £20, so £100 for quite easily £400 or £500 worth of difference, sounds like a bargain to me. Why do DACs cost many hundreds of pounds when technically, it can be 'done' for £200 or less, depending on the number of inputs and a front panel display or not? The Benchmark and Chord models are mostly casework and 'intellectual property' I'd suggest and pushing the technical boundaries as they do may well account for the £2k or so prices perhaps. Thing is, companies like Topping seem to get damned close for very little money and they're apparently also all but immune from the external supply. Ollie here didn't mind the sub £100 model apparently, but maybe there's no designed-in 'magic' to please an audiophile I don't know.. I used to like the Rega DAC, but I suspect it's been left behind now...
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Post by pauld on Feb 17, 2019 13:53:14 GMT
Because with Benchmark, Chord and the same with Naim and Linn, you are paying for their name’s market value and all the cost of running a bigger business. Beresford is as you know a one man band with the DAC being built to very specific requirements in China, so a significant cost saving there too.
For example. If I took a Naim streamer or anything they make, put it in a different box and sold it as PaulD Audio, I wouldn’t be able to sell it for the same price because PaulD Audio wouldn’t have a market place.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2019 14:03:37 GMT
I may have found a use for my Caiman SEG (with Capella chip). A headphone amp for my HD540 Reference II.
It is too bass heavy for the HD650, but works well on my HD540.
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Post by pauld on Feb 17, 2019 14:07:21 GMT
Good news. I have always found the Beresford DAC headphone amps lacking, but I’ve not tried the Capella chip.
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Post by sq225917 on Feb 17, 2019 14:47:38 GMT
Taiwan.
It's the economies of scale, Benchmark have a design team and marketing staff and a multi-tiered distribution model, while Stan slaps his name on a box from an Asian bulk manufacturer and has none of those overheads.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2019 10:24:33 GMT
Dorado and firmware have been ordered.
Fingers crossed that it hits the spot.
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Post by pauld on Feb 18, 2019 11:02:46 GMT
Dorado and firmware have been ordered. Fingers crossed that it hits the spot. Great, it'll be interesting to hear your thoughts. Also ensure you are using the right mode. There are 4 modes available on the SEG and I think it is mode three (4 flashes) that is best for the original firmware, and Mode 2 (3 flashes) that suits the latest firmware better, although Stan could confirm. |
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Post by dsjr on Feb 18, 2019 11:10:35 GMT
How much 'better' is the current general issue one over the 7520 Caiman (with output stage replaced by a cap a side)? I thought this one toneless/timbreless myself (I still believe it's easy to tilt a 'clean accurate' tone into a bleached out presentation).
Note to macca if he's reading - I took the 'extremely musical' Sony CDP-S1 out as transport and put the old favourite heavyweight Denon 1520 back. Used either as a standalone player (I'm testing passive pres right now) or as a transport, the sound is a slight touch 'leaner,' but bass definition and extension may be better and maybe I really can' tell any more, but used from the fixed outputs through a stock P50, I'm genuinely darned if I can hear ANY difference apart from half to one db estimated drop in level going through the passive.....
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Post by pauld on Feb 18, 2019 12:06:35 GMT
Wow I actually agree with you on something, Dave.
The original 7520 Caiman was really quite thin, toneless and boring sounding. I had one at the time because it was a DAC I could afford and was better than the Cambridge Audio equivalent at the time which was priced similarly.
Stan then developed a Gator mod and updated firmware, which took the original Caiman up a level. Following the success of the Gator and firmware updates, he decided to build an all new range called the Bushmaster. I found the original Bushmaster lacking, and didn't do it for me against the Caiman with the Gator mod. But the Bushmaster II was a revelation.
Next up for the Caiman II which was a big step up from the Bushmaster range and finally the Caiman SEG. The SEG is in a different league altogether. I compared the original Caiman to the Rega DAC, and on that demo alone nearly bought the Rega, but I am glad I waited.
The Caiman II bettered the Rega DAC in every way. Even the dealer I took the DAC to was gobsmaked and assumed the Caiman II was worth signficantly more than the Rega. When I told them the price of the Caiman II, they nearly fell of their chair.
The Caiman SEG is just in a different league altogether. If you had the Dorado Super cap power supply onto the SEG, it takes the DAC even further and as the latest firmware has been written specifically to work with the supercap power supply, it gels perfectly.
The other thing that makes it such a good DAC is that it is very modifiable. You can take it even further by having internal upgrades, like I did with the Coherent Systems modifications, but then that does bring up the cost quite a bit too.
Ironically after all these good things, I sold my DAC to my Dad because I wanted a one box solution and found something that matched my requirements and was better IMHO than my previous source.
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Post by sq225917 on Feb 18, 2019 14:48:06 GMT
"and as the latest firmware has been written specifically to work with the supercap power supply"
I'd really love to hear an explanation of how the firmware has been written to work with one voltage source vs another. That's real fairy tale grade industrial bullshit right there.
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) hes making some very interesting stuff. 
