Firstly, thank you for the compliments; much appreciated. I really like the Daad pillars in the corners; an acquired taste I fully recognise…
I’m also happy to have piqued your interest with the Emancipator album. He’s one of those artists whose product is not easy to get on physical media. I first heard of him via Spotify (could have been Radio Paradise) Eventually, iirc, I was able to source a copy via Discogs for not too much ££.
My dealer had not mentioned the bits on the Acustica Applicata website you mentioned. I may take a look to see if anything piques my interest.
Our lounge is not suitable for the AA gear as you would appreciate if you saw the layout. I always said to @MrsBig Al I just wanted the lounge as a family room, as long I was able to use the room downstairs (we have a townhouse).
Good spot with the Ekornes Stressless Mayfair! Thanks again for your compliments.
I never did a head to head comparison. I think the DAVE just as a DAC is maybe better. That said the DAC 200 is a vastly better preamp and the DAC is very, very good. My ATC’s needed an excellent Analog preamp to really shine. The DAVE is an OK preamp but not as good as the DAC 200.. this is of course in my system. I suppose a DAVE with the new Quad Scaler and a excellent Preamp like an Audio Research or a D’agastino , Solution etc would be better but the cost for me would be prohibitory expensive.
Thanks for sharing. Do you play PCM or DSD content mostly? DAC200 is at its best when fed with DSD signal. T+A’s true 1-bit DAC for DSD is superior to the BB1795 based PCM side. It’s really two DACs in one case. I use HQPlayer with it and upsample everything I play to DSD256.
The analog preamp side is very good. I use a separate preamp (Mola Mola Makua) with it though, which adds some punch, grip and authority to the sound.
Talking of speaker cables I borrowed some Blue Heaven Nordost cables just to see what they did. I ended up keeping them as I couldn’t un hear the change. With my Accuphase amp it seemed a perfect match and cables seem to make all the difference.
I see you have Isoacoutic footers under your ATCs. Here are my 40As which are now supported by Stack Audio AUVA 70 loudspeaker isolators, which I have found is very worthwhile. Cable tidying on the to do list.
