The latest CD BY Dara McLean arrived in the mail today and I couldn't wait to hear it. Rather then rip it to my normal collection I did something I had not done in a very long time (if ever). I popped it into my LG Blu Ray player for a quick listen. What a disappointment!!! The recording sounded so flat, so dead and so lifeless without the rich texture of her previous CD. I had time to listen to just one song but about ten minutes after listening, a thought crossed my mind...maybe the problem is not with the CD? I'm running everything except my Sqeezebox Touch through my HK990 built in DAC (AD1955). I knew the Metrum Octive DAC made some instruments sound more natural then other DACs I had heard, but could it really account for such a huge difference in tonal quality? I popped the CD into my PS3 with its optical feed into the HK990. Exact same sound. Hmmm. I next ripped the CD to my FLAC library and played it from my Sqeezebox Touch (using the Metrum DAC). WOW, what a fantastic recording!!! Yes. It was the DAC!!!
The HK990 was only being used as the preamp and DAC. I had added the Bryston 3B SST2 a few weeks earlier as the power amp and the clarity and detail is amazing, without sacrificing a smooth sound. A huge improvement. This change really allowed the sonics of the DAC shine through, be it good or bad. For those that say they can't hear a difference in DACs, perhaps your equipment just can't resolve to anywhere near good enough to hear a difference, or, it that's not it, hopefully you get better ears in the next life ha ha))
Ok, so that's it for now...Metrum Octave is a fantastic piece of equipment and now I realize how good it really is. It somehow lets the sweetness and natural harmonics of the music to come though without coloring everything with the same brush, like tubes and other things do. The most un-digital sound I have ever heard))
I've just got a Benchmark DAC2 Pre to replace the HK990 as my DAC Preamp. It's supposed to have a really swaszoo 4 per Channel DAC and the thing wasn't cheep so I'm setting up a direct a/b and will add a review on that too.
Cheers
Earl
The HK990 was only being used as the preamp and DAC. I had added the Bryston 3B SST2 a few weeks earlier as the power amp and the clarity and detail is amazing, without sacrificing a smooth sound. A huge improvement. This change really allowed the sonics of the DAC shine through, be it good or bad. For those that say they can't hear a difference in DACs, perhaps your equipment just can't resolve to anywhere near good enough to hear a difference, or, it that's not it, hopefully you get better ears in the next life ha ha))
Ok, so that's it for now...Metrum Octave is a fantastic piece of equipment and now I realize how good it really is. It somehow lets the sweetness and natural harmonics of the music to come though without coloring everything with the same brush, like tubes and other things do. The most un-digital sound I have ever heard))
I've just got a Benchmark DAC2 Pre to replace the HK990 as my DAC Preamp. It's supposed to have a really swaszoo 4 per Channel DAC and the thing wasn't cheep so I'm setting up a direct a/b and will add a review on that too.
Cheers
Earl