« on: September 02, 2010, 07:59:17 PM »
It started back a year or two again when I was invited to a listen to a pair of Lenehan Audio ML-1 speakers in a house down in Rockingham. I was looking for a good sounding standmount speaker to replace my Hawthorne Audio SSI Duet open baffle speakers.
I rocked up to Mario's house with an open mind but had no real expectations of what sound I was going to hear and if I was going to like/want it as in the past I have always been to a point unsatisfied with stereo gear I have auditioned locally and even with the gear I used to own.
I sat down and a few moments after Mario had press Play on his cd player I knew I was listening to something very special and much different to what my ears were used to hearing. I was hearing actual music for the first time. Instruments and voices have accurate tones and textures. I was thinking to myself, wow these small bookshelves sound much bigger then they are, they had the presentation like the floorstanders I owned in the past but with more coherency, balance and detail. Good for me, these ML-1 will make my stereo sound like this ! Happy was that thought for a second.
Mario then informed me it isn't just the speakers, but the heart and soul of his setup is this custom built box with wires hanging out of it. It was the killer DAC. I told him I had to have one! (I did say please). It did not sound like any of the other DACs or cd players I have owned in the past. I had always found digital playback sounding... well.. digital.
Not a natural flow with detail (especially in the midrange) like I would hear at the jazz shows or even what a decent turntable setup can kind of do.
In my mind, the killer DAC using the philips TDA1541 NOS chip with valve power rectification and valve output stage did literally kill all the other dacs (and turntable setups I had heard in the past for that matter!) in terms of musical and engagement factor. Just the sound I had been looking for. Music had presense, tonally correct, no hint on digital edginess or harshness, midrange had 'body' and 'weight' that I felt contributed to the sense of realism.
What I had also learnt is that specs and measurements shown in magazines and the internet do not have a positive correlation to what I believe is good sound (who needs upsampling??) I knew I would not get this same advice from any hifi shop or from anyone who would have some motive to rip money from me).
I had waited a few months before my unit had arrived. I could only afford the 'stock' model at the time, but had plan to modify it myself later on down the track with guidance from Mario. When it arrived and had it hooked it up to my system, I thought; Mario was bloody right! This killer DAC is the key. This was the first time on my system when I found CDs to not sound digital.
Present: Since then, I have tricked up my killer DAC with some current and vintage and bits and the music that comes out of it moves me everytime I listen to it. It is still the heart and soul of my system and I will never even contemplate having the thought of selling it like I have done with all my previous (and current) gear.
Happy listening
Tuyen
It's all about the music,, not the equipment.