A belated sale

Can't remember when I'd posted a For Sale for my MSB DAC....

Must have been for months ....

For so long there wasn't a single query .... Damn!

Maybe the asking price was too high at $900.... Or maybe people can't be bothered with a DAC without a USB input ....

After a few weeks of trying I was getting frustrated .... Since there was no interest, I wrapped everything up with a roll of plastic film and chucked them in a corner of the room...

For reasons that I can't explain and perhaps for fun I decided to drop the price and try once more...

So on Sunday I bumped my thread again...

And at $400 it was sold in a day..!!

That's fast huh ....

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Silver ..!

A silver award for the Nuforce DAC 9 in the 2012 VGP Audio Awards..!!

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"Nuforce DAC reviewed...!"

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Current setup 20 Nov 2011

As of tonight...

CAL Delta CD transport
Nuforce DAC 9
Adcom GFP-750 preamplifier
Channel Islands Audio D-100 power amplifiers
Polk Audio LSi-15 loudspeakers

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"Current arrangement..."

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Nuforce the music maker

I have a new nickname for the DAC 9, the music maker, which was inspired from K19 the widow maker....

Somehow this new black box is giving my old CD a 2nd wind & breathing new life into these songs recorded so many years ago....

All the noise, distortion and grittiness associated with early digital recordings have been cast aside ....

Only music is left.....

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hear through

i am beginning to hear things and more.....

but i cant pinpoint the source....

is it because of the

a. DAC improving with time

b. new diffusor panels on the ceiling

c. Acrolink D5000 XLR cables

d. new arrangement of 3 shunmook mpingo discs on the CD transport

even though i can nail it down, i am fine.....

and i am not complaining since everything sounds cool and good.....

Over drive

Yeah someone confirmed my suspicions that the ultra high output from the nuforce DAC 9 has driven the active circuits into clipping, hence the audible distortions from the loudspeakers....

Is there any other convertors with so high an output voltage? Not any that I can recall.... 4 volts or 5 is the max I have seen...

So this has made my adcom preamplifier's active redundant for a long time to come ....

And I will stick to the passive mode until I find another preamplifier to suit my needs... Which the stereoknight transformer volume control seems to be....

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gain up

never in my dreams did i expect this outcome:

the system has TOO MUCH gain now..... !!

what do i mean by too much...??? well, the Nuforce DAC 9 gives out 8 volts from its balanced output!! a regular CD player / DAC typically has 2 volts from its RCA connection....

since using the adcom as a passive preamp, i've always desired more gain.....so much so that when ordering the D-100 power amps, i'd even requested for the high-gain version......

with the 2 volts from the MSB DAC unbalanced output and using XLR cables between preamp and power amps (6 dB gain), my regular volume setting hovered at 12 o'clock, sometimes even reaching 1 o'clock...... and i kinda liked it that way since volume pots usually do not track well at their lower range ....

now?

i am using XLR cables from DAC to preamp to power amps and it's tough to go past 9 o'clock.........

by then it's REALLY LOUD....

before bring it home, i wondered why is there a low gain version of the DAC 9 (2 volts RCA / 4 volts XLR) available on special order.....

the answer is...

it's possible to have TOO MUCH of a good thing.....!!

Nuforce DAC 9 - first hand account

do you believe what you are hearing in a showroom setup when all you wanted to know is how good a particular component is?

i don't, cos nothing exists in isolation..... and i no longer pay that much attention to these auditions due to the many variables at play e.g. unfamiliar rooms and its acoustics / unfamiliar components and cables etc make these listening sessions confusing to see the least..... many systems in the shops do not even come close to what i think is reasonable performance and of cos i cant depend on their setup to make up my mind.......

then how do i go about listening and buying audio gear?

the only way that matters is a home audition ... but if that is not possible what's next?

reviews by personalities close to my heart and inclinations are always useful ..... I would then have a short-list of stuff that i shouldn't ignore e.g. B&W 802D, vivid giya G2, wilson audio sophia etc......

sometimes i even buy on gut feel too, which is what i did for the nuforce DAC 9....

a few months back I was very close to buying the W4S DAC 2 which is a 24 bit / 192 kHz capable DAC with multiple inputs..... unfortunately i wasn't able to sell my MSB Link 3 DAC and since i'd promised myself the new could only come after the old was gone, i had to postpone the upgrade........ till now i am still holding on to the MSB.....

since then there have been many new wannabees in the market........ calyx, burson, nuforce to name a few but not all fit my requirements........... and my DAC must-haves are

• 24 bit / 192 kHz chipset
• AES/EBU input
• true balanced outputs
• multiple inputs
• usb input
• less than S$2500

this means that even the very promising and popular calyx is not in my short-list as it does not have an AES/EBU input.......

after a few futile attempts to sell the MSB, i'm convinced that it will be staying ..... firstly i was not keen to sell it at a "lelong" price and then no one is interested to buy it at my price..... after all its technology is a decade old (even though it can be upgraded by MSB) and there's no usb input (again an upgrade is available)....... without an usb input, it's safe to say any modern DAC is doomed to fail....

once my previous stance to buy only when the old is gone is no longer valid, i again scowled the market for a suitable DAC........

this time, i caught news of this newbie from nuforce...... other than the full features offered, what piqued me is the no over-sampling, no up-sampling chipset and no negative feedback used in the analogue circuit...... all seems very promising but do the nuforce guys know what they are doing? when everyone else is fighting the numbers game with upsampling and higher sampling frequency, these guys are going the opposite way ..... will the DAC 9 be like a breathe of fresh air? judging by how good their amps are being received, maybe they do know what they are up to.....

when i knew that the DAC 9 has hit the local market, i didn't rush down to Audio Iconic immediately; better to cut myself some slack and ask if i really wanted a new DAC......

it was until this week that i could find time to visit the shop and listen ...... compared with nuforce cd player, the DAC 9 sounded bigger and richer......... however it was also obvious that the DAC 9 has a higher output and this gives it a big advantage when the volume match was not done strictly........ maybe i have to trust my instincts when the showroom audition was not conclusive......

in the end, i bit the bullet and bought the DAC 9 on gut feel......... at that moment, i could only hope my choice is right .....

after about 60 hours of playing time and a few listening sessions, there's no doubt it's better than the MSB .... i am experiencing a big soundstage that can extend beyond the edge of the loudspeakers, richer and deeper low-frequency extension, more details and musical textures in the midrange and a more extended treble.....

now i can forget about being critical and start to enjoy the music ...... which is what the hobby is all about: MUSIC.....

Run & run

After a 24-hour burn in, things are getting better.....

Spatial information, top-end extension, details, bass, imaging etc...

At 30 mins of playing time, it was already a small step ahead of my MSB... But with a day more, the MSB is no match for the newcomer...

Input 2 is AES/EBU connection from my trusty CAL delta transport player.... And 44 is the source sampling rate...

nice ass...

quite a few promising DAC were ruled out bcos of the lack of features......

but the Nuforce DAC 9 is not one of them......

one gets almost all available connections except for firewire.....

i cant wait but should i place an order???

a serious DOCK

pretenders have come and gone ...... and NOW here's the new KING of the iPod DOCKS....

so far none has come with a AES/EBU digital output (my favourite digital interface).... even though it conforms to da S/PDIF format, using this connection eliminates da issue with non standard 75 ohms connectors and plugs.....

bravo to Cambridge audio for introducing the little beast that even accommodates an iPad...

jap intro...

i have no idea what he's talking about ...

nonetheless it's interesting enough to get my attention.....

welcome back my old friend

i said Wednesday is D-day...... and although i remained optimistic, i wasn't THAT hopeful that the situation will change on this last day......

till today all remained the same i.e. no emails no queries on my MSB Link 3 full nelson DAC with P1000 power supply..... thus there was nothing else for me to do except to welcome and embrace it once again as my choice of Digital to Analogue converter.....

most importantly, it's not that same DAC that came into my system years ago after it was recently refreshed with a burson clock and capacitors upgrade and improvements to the AES/EBU input board.....

it's going to be a happy reunion...... welcome back my old friend..!!

no interest 2....

still nothing???

no worries, i will wait until Wednesday.....

by then, i will end the For Sale advert and keep the MSB......

it's not a do or die sale anyway.......

no interest....

alamak..... !!

almost 24 hours gone since the FS post and so far there's no interest in the MSB DAC....

aha looks like i am destined to keep it for good....

sonically there's nothing much to criticise but i was bitten by the upgrade bug.... after all i have been using it for years and the urge to change cannot be eliminated easily......

can someone just take it off me for a good price.....

more burson clock...

ever since the msb dac was modified, listening was never quite the same again......

there is now more life and air when the system is singing....... even those crappy CDs that i never used to play are now enjoyable..... looks like there is so much more information hidden within the digital bits....

so if the burson clock can do that bit of magic to the convertor, what can it do to the transport???

well, i intend to find out......

and once i am ready, i will hand it over to james ..... stay tuned......

A B testing

Ok I m going to wash up before I start the a vs b test... cal delta transport vs acer laptop haha....

and this is what i am using to connect the laptop to the msb dac... and you can more about it here http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/musicloverdigital/digital.html

burson clock...

i will cut the story short and let you guys know exactly what i'd heard from the addition of a burson clock in my msb nelson link 3 dac:

vocals - better texture, more life-like than before....... image size of vocals is rounder and deeper.....

soundstage - able to discern more layers..... deeper and more 3-dimensional..... placement of instruments clearer ......has a nice bloom and air around each instrument

treble - more extended high frequencies..... able to hear more but never never close to being bright and harsh.....

timing - much better pace ....everything is tighter, louder and has a better rhythm ..... comparison is like watching the march past of a guard-of-honour contingent vs a normal group......

bass - more bounce more impact more slam.....

general - more details......... much more organised and less messy.....

that's all for the moment.....

---------------------------------------------

addendum - 27 Nov 09

i was informed by james that the improvements i have mentioned above are also due to the mods to the XLR input board and the replacement of critical capacitors at the power supply section

thanks...!!