Linn Sneaky or stay with laptop

[paradiziac]

So to get back to the OP, you certainly *might* hear a difference if you swap your PC for a streamer, and it could be better, worse or no different depending on the relative merits of each and the overall synergy with the DAC.

 

[Craig M.]

Maybe there's something wrong with my DAC :rofl:

what measures does it take to reject input jitter? given its age i am guessing not as much as a more recent dac, which could explain the difference. or it could be the pixies.

 

[paradiziac]

Maybe there's something wrong with my DAC :rofl:

what measures does it take to reject input jitter? given its age i am guessing not as much as a more recent dac, which could explain the difference. or it could be the pixies.

I suspect you're right on the jitter rejection front...so...I just happen to have a modern DAC on duty in my 2nd system; to satisfy my curiousity I tried that: V-PSU+VDAC.

Result, the Macmini/Legato is still significantly better than the CD transport, but not by such a wide margin.

 

[Craig M.]

this is a quote from stereophiles test of the v-dac, "As with other products using the SRC4392 chip as an S/PDIF receiver—the Music Hall dac25.2 comes to mind—the V-DAC does not reject incoming jitter as well as I would wish, which is presumably why ST heard significant differences between the transports he tried with the V-DAC."

 

[paradiziac]

Oh great, so I have 2 bad DACs...

:boohoo:

 

[oldric_naubhoff]

Oh great, so I have 2 bad DACs...

:boohoo:

not bad. source sensitive. it's a difference IMO.

 

[manicm]

As many will have gleaned I'm not a Linn fanboy, well more accurately I'm not an ethernet streaming fanboy from any maker. But I do think many are missing the point and context of the Linn Sneaky DS, or any Linn DS streamer in this topic:

Firstly Linn puts heavy emphasis on hi-res audio i.e. 24/96 and higher playback on their streamers. And, at farthest 2 years back, I don't think there was any streamer at the Sneaky price-point which was fully 24/192 compatible. So while you can indeed hook it up to an external DAC I would guess that any one at under 1k would be doing it no favours at all compared to the Linn's built-in circuitry.

 

[paradiziac]

Yes, I'm afraid the topic went to all to pot as soon as someone mentioned the words A - B - X :O

 

[SteveR750]

do i think a mac or something equally 'non-audiophile' will sound the same as a linn? haven't tried a linn into my dac, but every single other digital transport i've tried through it, as well as the qbd76 i had before it, sounds exactly the same. with the right equipment it is easy to measure the jitter, and if that is at an inaudible level then that is good enough for me, i can't hear what isn't there. which leaves the bit stream, even a cheap dvd player can get that right. so, as you can see, no need to apologise, i have a load of inconvenient facts and blind listening tests to back up my opinion and you have your opinion. at the end of the day though if it all floats your boat, then fill your boots.

Here I had a different experience, the QBD was frankly stunning when I hard it when demoing the M2. It will probbaly be my next upgrade when sensibly priced used one appears! No hint of harshnes ( the DM+ can get a bit raggedy) and dynamics to die for. It was a better upgrade path in the system I was listening to (using my PC source) than changing a Kandy K2 to a Pre8xp/2 x mono X.

 

[Craig M.]

you read me wrong Steve, i meant the dacs sound the same regardless of what is providing the bits. the benchmark and qbd sound different from each other. how do you mean the dm+ can get raggedy?

 

[SteveR750]

Sorry Craig, just re-read your post. That makes sense, but our ears often don't make "sense" which was one of the reasons for considering a "proper" streamer. If I think about it, I can hear the difference fairly easily between spotify premium tracks and the CD versions played through J River, so something is right about the system, though this depends entirely upon the definition of a *good* system.

Re Dacmagic +: It's possibly not the smoothest sounding DAC I have heard - though that is only the Peach, and the QBD, and of course the original DACmagic over which is it noticeably better, though this could be the change from optical to USB connection. The DM+ sounds better to me via USB than optical (similar to spotify -> CDA)

I suspect it is responsible for the slight shoutiness, which I cannot eliminate by changing the filter settings which have a very small effect, you have really got to be listening closely to detect any difference. Then again the M2 is a bit of a wayward thing, so putting the two together is probably not an ideal match. To put into context though, it's a fantastic piece of kit for the price, with the D18s I em getting close to that wonderful "shimmer" of a crash cymbal. They really are fabulous, I can understand why so many rave reviews about them.