A Great little DAC from rCam!

George,

The async usb input in the rdac makes a big difference, it takes over digital clock duties from the computer, making it much less reliant on the quality of the source computer than adaptive usb and other digital inputs.

If you haven't made up your mind yet on the arcam, try to also arrange a demo of the HRT streamers, they're cheaper than the arcam and only have USB, but they sound quite different and certainly have more of the naim sound than the rdac.

EJ

Async is highly desirable IMO too. 

George, Just to add yet another alternative to try...

I saw your thread title and assumed you were referring to the pocket-sized new Arcam rPAC. Such as simple design, powered by the (async) USB connection - and a headphone socket too.

I thought I'd bought it for my Nait 2, but it's been sat next to my 5i ever since I got it a couple of weeks ago:

To these ears, it has a faster and punchier (more Naim-like?) sound than the more laidback presentation of its bigger brother, the rDAC. Well worth a listen.

Dem over now, with a nice musical session with one of the guys from Audio T in Worcester this afternoon, before he took the little rDAC away, back to the shop. And the decision is easy. This works. The clarity and speed of the ESL 57/Nait5i-2 combo compliment perfectly the dynamism and fine timbre of the rDAC. The price is very reasonable, and support is ten minutes walk away if ever necessary. It will come in the Autumn, once my finances have recovered from moving house and my fractured tibia!

I take the view that one demonstrates a potentially suitable piece, and if it works, and it can be afforded, then the search is off. No doubt that there may be fifty other ways to achieve as much or even more quality, but having discovered a nice solution then I am content to follow the plan!

Same with the ESL 57s last summer. An audition followed by certainty that there were so ideal as to stop me wanting to investigate something else, and that they would come when finances allowed. It is something of a system matching thing really. On paper something else might seem more ideal, but what actually works in the system at home becomes the aim.

The essential advance of the rDAC over the "aune" is timbre, and an increase in the accuity of dynamics. The "aune" has a fairly dark sound, whereas the rDAC has a bright as a button sound when the music calls for it, but also the weight for the sound balance never to tip into being tiring. As with most digital products it has all the clarity, speed and articulation one could wish for. It's the tone that is being improved, and the insightful way with micro-dynamics. The macro-dynamic aspect is slightly worrying! It is clearly wider, and this requires even more forethought over volume settings. But that is the same with any new piece of kit within an existing system. You learn how to use the tools for the job - in this case music replay. The clearest gains from this imporved timbre are the sung voice, the violin quality and the piano. Three things that suffer quite badly when timbres are replayed less well.

The whole opperation of connection was literally "plug and play" with nothing more complicated than a computer restart to get things rolling.

ATB from George

PS: I did not want to use a USB dac that would leach its power supply from the computer. I wanted the more robust approach of an indepenently powered dac, so as to avoid straining the computer PS over long periods of use.

Upgrade?! 

sorry, I know it's out of topic...

I said so. An upgrade in enjoyment. Less powerful, but better timbres for certain. Just give the amplifier a nice speaker and it is simply one of the best ... Certainly better in timbres than any Olive period Naim amp ...

ATB from George

Off topic still, but I regarded the Nait 5i italic to be a substantial musical upgrade from my previous 252/Supercap/Olive250. Not what I had expected to find at all, but I trust my ears.

Peter

After returning to the less sophisticated, and less brilliant world of the "aune" DAC - after the rDAC - I have realised a simple but unavoidable fact in system matching.

The Quad ESL 57 is the fastest speaker yet made, and the most capable of pure timbres [Steinway, Bechstein, or Playel - Stad, Amatti, or Guanari] and so forth, let alone the contribution of players like Schnabel, Fischer, and Brendel, or Kreisler, Grumiaux, or Oistrack], and the old ESLs are more acute at defining the muisc, the artist and the timbres that result than anything else.

"Halt, Mein Herr!"

Timbre is but a tiny part of music. Well yes it is the icing on the cake. dynamic, rhythm and most especially pitch ar the point. The ESLs have dynamic covered, and even more so pitch, what of sheer volume of sound. Yep, forget the 57. It is not very loud, but neither are natural acoustic instruments. If you want loud then get the latest generation of Quad ESLS - the 2805 0r the larger 2905s - but for a domestic level the original 57s are still the most amazing speakers. I have a "curiousity dem of MR Revell's pair of most modern Quads next week! I cannot afford them even if they are as pure as the 57s, but more able to go loud.

So where does the Nait 5i and rDAC fit in?

Because it is the purest, most musically informative domstic sytem iI have ever come across - when allyed to the old Quad 57. simply "Jaw dropping," to nick a title from an old thread by Polarbear.

All the Nait 5i-2 and ESL 57 needs to simply be finer than any speaker set involving conventional cones is a superb source ...

The system is built.

ATB from George.

Which is why many thousands of people run this same system?

Howard,

Suggest a better system at any price.

I'll sell a pair kidneys and a liver for it ...

Even my Audio X dealer jaw was wobblin' when the the effect was heard ...

ATB from George

It is already an aspirational system. Just find a good serviced pair of ESL 57s from One Thing Audio in Coventry, and the perspective owner will wonder at what has come since 1957. I even heard some Kellogue coned speakers today and wondered myself at the backward step that time has brought! Louder, but otherwise worse in every single respect.

ATB from George

It's unique all right.

John.

same goes for the CDP 5i.  great source

Did you compare with the rpac , which is getting great reviews?

Dear Ken,

No. I know the rPAC is widely reviewed as being fine, but I wanted a USB DAC that does not leech power from the computer, due to my very long listening sessions - quite often. As my PC has a small external PS [like that on a laptop] I would rather the robustness of a separate PS for the DAC. And from the same company, I doubt that there is a fag paper between the quality of the two, even if the rPAC is smaller, and draws it power via the USB connection as I understand it. Both are of the latest asynchronous USB type, I believe, and the comments that the rDAC can have a weighty sound were not borne out when playing via the Nait 5i-2 into the venerable ESL 57s. 

The quality was superbly balanced with some of the best timbres that I have ever heard from digtal replay, and bright as you like on percussion without ever becoming harsh. The quality was actually as pleasant as very fine LP replay of a virgin pressing, but without side breaks ... To want more would be to be greedy!

My method of selecting a component change in the replay is think long and hard about a potential shortlist. Then make an intuitive guess at which might best suit the system and me, and then try to fix a dem. If the dem is good, then the investigation ceases. If the dem is no good, then I select another suitable candidate to audition, but once I find something that goes well, I don't worry that there may other similar priced solutions that may work just as well, but only be slightly different.

Small difference don't worry me much!

ATB from George