aaaahhhh, yesterday evening we had one of those sound checks, and just right in time before the great "japanese session", presumably everybody is dreaming of... oh, what fun and excitement !!! I remember having had this last time when I was young - and when it was just before Christmas...
...late in the afternoon my very unpatiently awaited 2nd, 3rd and 4th deck of Doede's new DDDAC1794 NOS DAC arrived, and what did I do? No, I didn't check it with my "radio", I immediately sat in my car and drove to Klaus. Why? Because there for rather a short time Doede's personal DAC with the Sowters is running for final testing purposes before our session next week...
and so for the second time we had the possibility to listen to this wonder very comfortably not only for a single track, or two, or three, and not in combination with so many other necessities to try out, but singularly and really intensively, and with all sorts of music that we like a n d at all loudness volumes we personally enjoy with different tracks and sources (and not only dreaming of how it would sound if we would have the right level - we are on stage)... this was simply mindblowing realistic...
as I told already, for me, this combo leads to HiFi-heaven, and this time we did no longer oscillate on the border, we were clearly in...
it was no question:
1. the multiple boards very independently from other tweakings lead to the generally desired positive effects (reduced jitter...) that we already are aware of the DDDAC 1543 and
2. the different controlled power supplies from Doede and Bernd in direct comparison showed the necessity of implementing one at all... yes, there were slightly audible differences, but not of an excluding sort, one can very sublimely "live" with both, no matter, in the end the differences here are audible but rather "neglectable" as a whole...
3. the biggest surprise was not that what we already knew and what we had in our minds and what we have been listening to before and what now very impressively was confirmed, the real icing on the cake this time was something completely different, something that we discovered by accident, and for me this is some sort of voodoo because it is totally within the digital area where only 0's and 1's reign...
perhaps you might remember that a year ago or even before I implemented the silver USB Kimber cable in my system ? Well this cable was heavily recommended by Chris Connecker over at
www.computeraudiophile.com ... normally I am very hesitating in following such recommendations, but as there were so many DIYers responding about dramatic positive effects in all their whatsoever different systems (remembering me of the saying when judging a Grateful Dead show: "100.000 dead heads can't be wrong", I finally gave it a try and - was not disappointed... there was contrarily so much more: once listened to it, there was no way back...
this cable being implemented within my system. at that time into the DDDAC1543 DAC, brought an amelioration in sound that was simply incredible and must be heard to be believed - but - and here comes the voodoo - and what was totally not understandable for us - brought zero effect within Klaus's system, we had no explanation for it, but it was exactly like that...
and just yesterday - out of nothing - while talking on the telephone, Klaus asked me to bring this cable to him, and I was thinking to myself, that this would be of no use, but as it was Klaus asking, I did it of course... and after Klaus having implemented the cable in his system all of a sudden the same positive effects were immediately so clearly listenable as in mine. Klaus, who only very heavily gets really excited, only looked at me with that very rare smile in his face I like the most from him: satisfied down to the bone!!!
to make it short: in combination to all those wonderful ameliorations that we are experiencing with the DDDAC1794 this tiny little cable is highly effective, working wonders on to the sound, it simply puts away two thick curtains and adds an extra very welcome dose of openness, pulling the whole sound one meter more in front of the system, like a precise but smooth fortissimo coming out of nothing, and all in the intended direction.... normally for such an amelioration one has to pay lots and lots of money, and this time, if I have it right in mind, only some 65 $ !!!
well. with all fun that we had, what did we learn: we always have to try out, even if we are absolutely convinced that we already know... it seems we do not...