New John Kenny SABER DAC

[kajak12]

Jkenny its meaningless comparing your dac to my dac opamp output stage versus a world class valve output stage its like comparing a street car in a race against a drag car on a drag strip you know what will happen before the race starts.
I will  put it to you this way the pdx2 is better then the jkdac my dac will sh!t on the pdx 2
enough said

[jkeny]

Calm down! You've read my post all wrong. I'm not doing any such comparison - I have never heard your DAC so I've no opinion on it one way or the other.

If you read my other post, I was saying to borrow Tuyen's JKI2S & run it into your killerDAC - that way you will be able to judge what computer audio sounds like. You are using an OPUS DAC & making all sorts of statements about computer audio based on this crap DAC. Use a good DAC like your Killer & then come back

Edit: Unless of course you do want that pissing contest 

Jkenny its meaningless comparing your dac to my dac opamp output stage versus a world class valve output stage its like comparing a street car in a race against a drag car on a drag strip you know what will happen before the race starts.
I will  put it to you this way the pdx2 is better then the jkdac my dac will sh!t on the pdx 2
enough said

[kajak12]

The jkhiface will be at my house in the next couple of weeks

[jkeny]

Cool!

The jkhiface will be at my house in the next couple of weeks

[jkeny]

BTW, what computer/OS/software player are you using for playback? What software/device are you using to copy the tracks to computer?

[kajak12]

BTW, what computer/OS/software player are you using for playback? What software/device are you using to copy the tracks to computer?

Ask tuyen its his computer source setup
ps: i use exact audio copy to burn cd's

[stevenvalve]

Calm down! You've read my post all wrong. I'm not doing any such comparison - I have never heard your DAC so I've no opinion on it one way or the other.

If you read my other post, I was saying to borrow Tuyen's JKI2S & run it into your killerDAC - that way you will be able to judge what computer audio sounds like. You are using an OPUS DAC & making all sorts of statements about computer audio based on this crap DAC. Use a good DAC like your Killer & then come back

Edit: Unless of course you do want that pissing contest 

Jkenny its meaningless comparing your dac to my dac opamp output stage versus a world class valve output stage its like comparing a street car in a race against a drag car on a drag strip you know what will happen before the race starts.
I will  put it to you this way the pdx2 is better then the jkdac my dac will sh!t on the pdx 2
enough said

This is a sensible test, i to, will be interested in the result. I run a heavily moded Wadia 3200, and this is essentially a glorified Marantz cd12 and also a  CDC TL1. Will a computer based transport be as good, unlikely but i am open to the possibility. Mario as for Johns DAC, it is probably great for the money, but and is not meant to be competition for a KDAC.

[jkeny]

BTW, what computer/OS/software player are you using for playback? What software/device are you using to copy the tracks to computer?

Ask tuyen its his computer source setup
ps: i use exact audio copy to burn cd's

Well if you are serious & genuine about giving computer audio a fair audition, you should be interested in the parameters/details of what you are listening to & not just accept a computer set-up that you no nothing about. Who knows it may be the worst possible configuration & anything played through it will sound like crap (even through your Killer DAC)?

Everything matters! After all, You wouldn't just accept any old capacitor in the signal path, would you? Same applies to computer audio playback - the details matter!

[jkeny]

How about as good as a heavily modified Wadia 850 & a Lector CDP7? Although, I would say it's better than these now as I discovered & have addressed some issues holding back it's performance when those auditions were done https://sites.google.com/site/hifacemods/home/hiface-dac-feedback

Calm down! You've read my post all wrong. I'm not doing any such comparison - I have never heard your DAC so I've no opinion on it one way or the other.

If you read my other post, I was saying to borrow Tuyen's JKI2S & run it into your killerDAC - that way you will be able to judge what computer audio sounds like. You are using an OPUS DAC & making all sorts of statements about computer audio based on this crap DAC. Use a good DAC like your Killer & then come back

Edit: Unless of course you do want that pissing contest 

Jkenny its meaningless comparing your dac to my dac opamp output stage versus a world class valve output stage its like comparing a street car in a race against a drag car on a drag strip you know what will happen before the race starts.
I will  put it to you this way the pdx2 is better then the jkdac my dac will sh!t on the pdx 2
enough said

This is a sensible test, i to, will be interested in the result. I run a heavily moded Wadia 3200, and this is essentially a glorified Marantz cd12 and also a  CDC TL1. Will a computer based transport be as good, unlikely but i am open to the possibility. Mario as for Johns DAC, it is probably great for the money, but and is not meant to be competition for a KDAC.

[kajak12]

How about as good as a heavily modified Wadia 850 & a Lector CDP7? Although, I would say it's better than these now as I discovered & have addressed some issues holding back it's performance when those auditions were done https://sites.google.com/site/hifacemods/home/hiface-dac-feedback

Do you know what modds where done to the wadia?
modded dont mean much jkenny some peple dont know what to do a few weeks ago i modded a cd94 after some well known tech
destroyed it.

[jkeny]

Do you know what modds where done to the wadia?
modded dont mean much jkenny some peple dont know what to do a few weeks ago i modded a cd94 after some well known tech
destroyed it.

Nope, I don't know exactly what mods were done - we had it opened up & there were Dueland capacitors & Bybee purifiers in there. The mods cost him something like £4,000. The owner auditioned the modded Wadia Vs stock Wadia & next Wadia model up & he decided to pay the £4,000 extra for the modded version!

Agreed, it's all about implementation - Dueland caps can be made sound like crap!

[kajak12]

Agreed, it's all about implementation - Dueland caps can be made sound like crap!

Duelunds sounding like crap   i have never come across that problem its the only cap that makes real music

[stevenvalve]

How about as good as a heavily modified Wadia 850 & a Lector CDP7? Although, I would say it's better than these now as I discovered & have addressed some issues holding back it's performance when those auditions were done https://sites.google.com/site/hifacemods/home/hiface-dac-feedback

John. Modification does not always mean better. Some people can modify components, and be all at sea, very very few modifiers know their stuff, and produce brilliant results, most will take a good transport and can, turn it into sh!t, and or more or less change the sound, but not make it better. The problem is few really are on the ball. You or anyone must have a very very good system as reference, to mod stuff and to make these judgements All most all, technicians don't have a clue how to make great sounding musical systems, but think they do. There is a big big difference between good sound and brilliant sound, and the bottom line is you need a great system to make or mod great sounding components. So as for this test, to me its allmost meaningless. Soon i will give you a really good evaluation of your stuff, and hopefully it will be better than what i expect.
 

[jkeny]

John. Modification does not always mean better. Some people can modify components, and be all at sea, very very few modifiers know their stuff, and produce brilliant results, most will take a good transport and can, turn it into sh!t, and or more or less change the sound, but not make it better. The problem is few really are on the ball. You or anyone must have a very very good system as reference, to mod stuff and to make these judgements All most all, technicians don't have a clue how to make great sounding musical systems, but think they do. There is a big big difference between good sound and brilliant sound, and the bottom line is you need a great system to make or mod great sounding components. So as for this test, to me its allmost meaningless. Soon i will give you a really good evaluation of your stuff, and hopefully it will be better than what i expect.
 

You're speaking to the converted - that's why I said it's all about implementation. My only point in citing the above Wadia is in answer to your question. The user was happy that the modifications sounded better than the stock version (& next model up) - was it a brilliant modification result, I don't know - he certainly thought so. My example was just to give some other points of reference! Meaningless, yes - all evaluations are pretty meaningless - they only apply to the person & their own system - they have little generalisation outside of the particular test configuration. The same could be said for statements about the KillerDAC or your CD mods - almostl meaningless to anybody else!  

Look forward to your evaluation but remember it only applies to your set-up!!

[kajak12]

hey john  some info on the wadia 850 mechanism http://lampizator.eu/LAMPIZATOR/REFERENCES/TEAC-T1/VRDS-T1.html

This is why the older wadia 3200 or cd94,cd95 and cd85 are tremendous machines done right they lost the plot after early 90's it was all about $$$
To spend 4k on a wadia 850 is kind of scary

[zenelectro]

Will the JK hiface that Mario is testing have spdif or I2S OP?

 
 

[kajak12]

Will the JK hiface that Mario is testing have spdif or I2S OP?

 
 

Tuyens is i2s terry

[jkeny]

hey john  some info on the wadia 850 mechanism http://lampizator.eu/LAMPIZATOR/REFERENCES/TEAC-T1/VRDS-T1.html

This is why the older wadia 3200 or cd94,cd95 and cd85 are tremendous machines done right they lost the plot after early 90's it was all about $$$
To spend 4k on a wadia 850 is kind of scary

I agree!

[bhobba]

John, I can't seem to find any real information about your JK DAC.
Do you have any specs or information WRT the design? Does it have bal / unbal outputs? Do you just pick off 1 phase of the DAC OP or have you got
an analog phase 'summing' stage to convert the DACs bal to unbal? Are there any special clocks used?

Hi Terry

I see John has promised to post the details once it has completed it tour.  But having had it in my system I can tell you it has a USB input and unbalanced RCA outs.  Besides the connector for charging its internal batteries and a switch to change from charge to use that's it. John has also stated the output is taken direct from the Saber chip without any output stage.

Thanks
Bill

[kajak12]

John, I can't seem to find any real information about your JK DAC.
Do you have any specs or information WRT the design? Does it have bal / unbal outputs? Do you just pick off 1 phase of the DAC OP or have you got
an analog phase 'summing' stage to convert the DACs bal to unbal? Are there any special clocks used?

 John has also stated the output is taken direct from the Saber chip without any output stage. 

Thanks
Bill
Bill

Besides the opamps built into the chip bill