HiFace BNC or RCA?

Ferenc, do you have a feeling that

1. PC/Foobar/KS/USB/HiFace/BNC can rival top quality CD transports (like ML 37 or CDX2-2)?

2. PC/Foobar/KS/USB/HiFace/BNC/NaimDAC/XPS can rival CDX2/XPS or CDS3/XPS sound quality on Red Book?

quote:

Originally posted by AMA:
Ferenc, do you have a feeling that

1. PC/Foobar/KS/USB/HiFace/BNC can rival top quality CD transports (like ML 37 or CDX2-2)?

2. PC/Foobar/KS/USB/HiFace/BNC/NaimDAC/XPS can rival CDX2/XPS or CDS3/XPS sound quality on Red Book?

I have no clue as I use Mac/Amarra, no PC/Foobar/KS and did not get a chance to try a Naim DAC yet.
But using HiFace with my Altmann DAC I do not miss the Accuphase DC100/DP-101 combo, I used for roughly 6-7 years.

So what do you use HiFace BNC and HiFace RCA for?

BTW How do you supply a power to Altmann?

quote:

Originally posted by AMA:
So what do you use HiFace BNC and HiFace RCA for?

BTW How do you supply a power to Altmann?

I have more than one systems, so I have two HiFaces, one with Naim DC1 BNC-BNC, the other with some simple ordinary coax.

The Altmann is powered from a Paul Hynes PS, but I have a spiral cell battery as well around.

It is one of my friends Altmann DAC with a HiFace, directly connected to the DAC, with no coax cable at all. He likes it a lot

Wow!!!

How does it sound?

Don't mean to step on toes here but it's not a bad DAC compared to many. Ferenc, get a supply cap from a HiCap/250 and try it as a bypass across the battery. Probably not as good as the regulated PS but it helped a lot on a customer's amp.

quote:

Originally posted by AMA:
Wow!!!

How does it sound?

To be honest: very good My friend likes it a lot and like mine too.
This is why I have it since 2006. Other DACs came and gone since then, I hope my next main DAC will be the Naim DAC but it will remain in my other system then. Do not let the look fool you, it is serious deal

quote:

Originally posted by js:
Don't mean to step on toes here but it's not a bad DAC compared to many. Ferenc, get a supply cap from a HiCap/250 and try it as a bypass across the battery. Probably not as good as the regulated PS but it helped a lot on a customer's amp.

Thanks for the advise. I will try it.

quote:

Do not let the look fool you, it is serious deal Smile

I know -- I have read a lot about it -- but never got a chance to audition.
Mostly because of unusual custom R2R D/A conversion.
This is a very old approach -- probably the first D/A convertors have been designed in this way (before manufactures deployed integrated chips).
No oversampling -- which is fine for low jitter bitstreams (I suppose it recovers clock with PLL or ARSC).
The main benefit -- it's supposed to sound less digital. Simple analogue filters.
The output stage is built on opamps -- not good for Naim geeks

I was mostly curious on how to supply it -- as the battery pack does not provides regulated power.
The general feeling that effect of a wooden basement is a bit ... exaggerated.
But we all know that suspicion is a sister of new ventures...

Anyway I'm very impressed of how you rule out a coax on the way to DAC !!!

quote:

Originally posted by AMA:


Anyway I'm very impressed of how you rule out a coax on the way to DAC !!!

Actually it is not mine, but my friend's DAC, but it was my idea and he was not afraid to try Its sound in this config is something like the old CDS but with more energy and finesse, real size instrument body, but the most important the flow of music. Really surprising. I hope something very similar, even better from the Naim DAC.

I think I will go for HiFace with BNC.
I'm buying BNC DC1 for TP->DAC anyway. So I will have a sample for tests.
I plan to trim my Klotz coax of RCA connectors and fit the new Nuetriks BNC.
Then I will test it against DC1 (when arrives).

The price difference will go for new LPs - to sustain a DAO balance between digital and analogue worlds...

quote:

Originally posted by AMA:
Anyway I'm very impressed of how you rule out a coax on the way to DAC !!!

Yeah. Who says it has to at the computer end? It would be interesting to try one of these plugged into the back of my SuperNait, fed by a USB extension and Compare to the the same thing plugged into the USB of my Mac Mini feeding the SN by co-ax.

Interesting because my bet is that I wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Nor between the HiFace and my standard SPDIF optical feed from the Mini. But then, I don't hear the effect of pebbles under my speaker cables either. I must have cloth ears, as they say.

I have a hiface and two dacs, on the more expensive dac i think i can hear a difference, on the cheaper dac its quite blatant.

sq225917, what DACs you have?

quote:

Originally posted by sq225917:
I have a hiface and two dacs, on the more expensive dac i think i can hear a difference, on the cheaper dac its quite blatant.

Wow. I stand corrected. You mean the difference between locating your hiFace at the computer and at the DAC, right? You're saying the cheaper DAC can't 'correct/ignore' the noise created in the co-axial cable run; but the expensive one can?

(I'm assuming that the HiFace at the DAC is better than having it at the computer?)

I believe the maker recommends the Hiface plugged into the front end. I posted on another thread that we've been playing about with computers most of the day. I'd be very cautious to critically choose any DAC using a computer with free player as source. ASIO, interface, you have it. Some results are quite good but once you compare an HDX as source, you understand that computers are limited.

The conception made by ferenec is just brilliant. That caused me to come up with a question to myself - My Macbook Pro is located about 5M worth of cable length from the DAC, I have a HiFace connected via a 0.5M USB extender to the Macbook Pro, and from the HiFace a 5M Gotham SPFIF cable to the DAC.

My question is is it better to connect the HiFace to a long USB cable and a short SPDIF cable? Or a short USB and a long SPDIF?

My understanding is coaxial cable is rather robust over relatively long distance. Am I compromising quality with a 5M SPDIF cable?

The HDX is a 'computer' ,are we back to , only the HDX can make perfect rips' twaddle?

quote:

Originally posted by DHT:
The HDX is a 'computer' ,are we back to , only the HDX can make perfect rips' twaddle?

These are not ordinary rips....they are M&S rips.

Seriously, I doubt folk would buy an HDX just to feed the DAC. Although the DAC is a nice option to bring a welcome improvement to the one in the HDX for existing owners.

Joe

Joe please read the thread, JS has grown 'tired' of computers and his refined senses can only listen to an HDX, I am of to buy mine now!

quote:

Originally posted by DHT:
Joe please read the thread, JS has grown 'tired' of computers and his refined senses can only listen to an HDX, I am of to buy mine now!

Ha ha. JS must be considerably richer than me.


Joe

quote:

Ha ha. JS must be considerably richer than me. Big Grin


Joe

Not necessarily, JS may keep enjoying an HDX which DHT is going to buy soon

Purpose built. Interesting that others here are preferring different 'bit perfect' solutions like Amarra vs Itunes and better interfaces than 'bit perfect' TOS out, changed ripping engines, power supplies, purpose building their PCs etc. and can even discuss the differences in various bit perfect versions of Amarra but to suggest that a professional company's purpose built device might work better is now twaddle. Poor form to call your fellow board members twaddlers. LOL


I also stated that the dig out from a SONOS streamer offers a good value alternative to computer play. I'll be very interested to hear the SB Touch for instance. These are cheaper than computers so it's not just about price or who makes it.

Just to be clear, I have not been professing that the HDX does better rips than DB or EAC. Just better than Itunes and other media players and that the amount of variance may vary by computer as I haven't compared every one. Ease of use with this quality of in and out is what I like about an HDX or cheaper NS-01 for that matter.

Am I jaded with high expectations? No doubt but that also does not make me project excellence where it is not. Despite my frustration, I haven't given up on computer audio and can get good results, will continue to try but I'm pretty sure it will never get to the level I was listening at today via an HDX as source. I've also never set a stand alone HDX above a CDX2 level of performance and would understand if another would prefer the CDP. It is however still VG alone and phenomenal as a transport/streamer with the Naim DAC. Whatever it's limitations it may have via it's dig out are not apparent in this configuration.

js, to sum up in two words: do you claim that HDX/DC1 will be superior to Foobar/DS/USB/HiFaceBNC/DC1 when both feed external Naim DAC???

You bet. I also suspect that your TP will match or surpass a computer as it did when you were trying other DACs. This DAC however, should find a place in your stable. Once settled in try an HDX as source and report back.