to Paradiziac
thank you very much for your info, very helpful on why USB port sounds not high fi but via co axial sounds excellent!
yes, I am using itunes on a Windows PC
and my PC is old
here is other news on power supply subject:
Read on if you want to see the context of this report: “the Arcam rDAC was not shy at all letting that bass out!” used with it’s standard power supply, the bass of the rDAC is not questioned by this audiophile - music lover, that has been building loudspeakers and sensible value oriented 2 and 2.1 channel stereo systems since 1980.
Sensible means: DAC in the $100 to $1000 US dollar range good, over that: not sensible.
I use a DVD player and the rDAC as the D to A to get much better sound.
In all of this I use the standard power supply, wall wart, it comes with, and I do not question that it is just fine, can’t really be improved upon for this unit, despite that it looks small for an audiophile piece of equipment, why? <<>>>>the sound!
I have compared it to many well respected $800 to $1500 CD players by running those same CDs Players thru the rDAC, replacing their internal DAC and the rDAC always comes out on top, sonically and at much less combined cost (my DVD only cost $150.)
I have a custom 3 way tower with two 8 inch woofers that are -3 dB at 38 hertz, a fiberglass 5.25 inch midrange that foes out to 10K hertz but is cross over at 4.5K hertz, and a one inch soft dome tweeter that extends to 40K hertz that I use most often
And I have several other speakers. A store bough one, The BG Z-62s that I use with an awesome, flat to 16 hertz subwoofer, sound too harsh when I use MP3 itune downloads. I recently tried with the Z-62s: with the Marcus Miller, Marcus redbook CD
with the Z-62s and they came through with very pleasant detailed highs and even more detail than the MP3 with Marcus' bass. And I could get more volume, than my 3 way tower as it would bottom out/clip when playing loud with is very detailed very dynamic CD. It is some of the best sounding reproduced music I have heard anywhere, ever, yes, that good, and I have heard many $9000 to $25000 speakers played with electronics exceeding $30,000 (US). They can not do what my subwoofer can do.
Then I tried Stanley Clarke, also a jazz bass player, with the tracks sonics more inconsistent, some close to the Macrus Miller CD and many not even close as good.
But there is one track with decent piano. The Z-62s do not sound as good and natural
with the piano as my soft dome towers. Perhaps that Maple wood front baffle that I have on them helps (remember every material used in the speaker has a sonic harmonic structure that will be “excited”), maple is one of several woods used in many pianos.
Or perhaps there is something unnatural with the harmonic structures of the planar speakers or the plastic structure that holds the tweeter in front on the midrange that “shows up” on piano bt few other instrument. Alternatively: good sounding saxophone is another instrument that I have struggled with to get good sound on most speakers. There is a track on the Marcus CD with great sax and it was awesome and real on the Z-62s and less so on the towers that I described. The harmonics structure of sax is very different than that of piano, a reed "amped" via a brass tube vs. strings struck and "amped" by metal sounding board and lots of wood.
Bottomline: when auditioning speakers make sure you try and listen to everything,
examples, tracks with well recorded :
piano
percussion
special tracks with good kick drum and cymbals
female singers, soprano and at least an alto or more
baritone and/or bass male singer
favorite deep bass tracks both guitar and synth
favorite guitar riffs
and complex tracks with lots of stuff going on at same time
etc
just because a speaker does well on several, it may not do well on all.
I do not remember if I tried piano or not when I brought the Z-62s home to try out.
A check list would have helped. I liked them because I hard more detail vs. the other more conventional dome/cone speakers that I have.
But back to:
Marcus Miller and the Z-62s and the rest of my system: Wow! Awesome!
And this CD has an awesome mix of well detailed bass instruments
and the Arcam rDAC was not shy at all letting that bass out!
I clipped the subwoofer several times but I just backed off the subwoofer volume a bit and the bass was still very very strong, if not still +2 dB overbalanced. Meaning that I just had the bass too loud.
I do not question the power supply or the bass and midbass of the rDAC at all.
Its just great! Best I have heard!
I do have some doubts about the rDAC's treble, it may not be the best out there
but do we have have to spend $700 or $1800 or more to get a significantly better DAC?
I do not know. I tried a $1800 tube output based DAC once and did not hear much difference, very little improvement in the treble but not worth $1400 more, of course that is just one of many products and several new $600 to $2100 models have come out in the last six months. Again I tried that tube DAC with its co axial input to be consistent.
After the Marcus Miller/Clarke listen, I spend another 4 hours listening and switching speakers back and forth, while listening to CDs (and not itune downloads) and I also heard better sounding cymbals with my soft domes vs. the planar mids/tweeters I the Z-62s as well, which is something I have noticed before. My advice, which you have heard before: take your time and listen to new components at least twice in somewhat long sessions, as the first impression is you may "key off" of new details that you like hearing but may not notice other things that are not as good as you already have, sound of a piano vs sound of a guitar, for example.
Paul
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