Why do you say dCS is quite expensive? Only the Vivaldi is more expensive than the ND555. The Rossini was $24k vs $32k for ND555. The bartok is roughly the same price as NDX2 + XPS.
The primary reason I have a Rossini is because that is the brand the local dealer sells. There isn’t a single Naim, Chord, MSB, Berkeley, or Bricasti dealer within 500 miles of my location. I think the nearest MSB dealer is nearly 1,500 miles away and that’s hard to do with a dog sled. The dealer networks for US dac brands is pitiful. My guess is dCS has larger presence in US than all US brands combined. Have to believe it’s even more difficult in the UK.
The purpose of this forum is to slowly convince members they need a $30k preamp. The subconscious goal of every member is to acquire a $30k preamp. Any discussion of dacs is only relevant if it allows members to get closer to their goal.
not really… yes the 552 is what many people call end-game preamp and but at the same time … Naim (@Richard.Dane) themselves have always openly advised - source first.
They always advised the system is a slave to the source…
What an absurd statement. Many are. Especially all the upscaler manufacturers.
Again, to make such a claim you’d have to read literally everything from other manufacturers. Not only that, but what a manufacturer “talks about” it determined by their marketing team. I have no idea what you are driving out or why the absolutism in all your claims.
This is an interesting description of the Naim Dac, which I never heard. Reason being the NDS which, from this description, sounds nothing like the Naim Dac. It is very much in your face compared to the Qutest. However, the term ”in your face” might mean just about anything.
As always it’s a Chord vs Naim battle. Again and again.
I am on the Naim camp, but will never say that Naim dacs are the most accurate or the best or the most of something.
What annoys me is that Chord fans , not all but many, are convinced that their dac is so much better vs Naim that this later is just outclassed and very weak.
It’s the “what I have is the best” claiming that is really boring.
well it isn’t about that FR… Chord have done some very special engineering and I am appreciating that… with even more advanced products on the way… good times ahead (well of course $$$)
Naim sources always special to me, but funds and time are limited, I chose Chord.
Sorry analog but the burden of proof is on you to backup the claims you make.
I can’t quite fathom the rationale behind them. Do you have some need that people acknowledge you as having the worlds best DAC? Is that what this is about? It seems like it. If it makes you happy, “Let it be known far and wide that @analogmusic has the world’s most bestest ever DAC which is a FACT.”
You do realise that anyone, (including an engineer in the trade) would be on shaky ground to claim that no other manufacturer is doing anything that you are doing. To know that you would need to be omniscient. And the vast number of skilled designers out there in this field makes the claims extremely improbable.
As mentioned, what does a manufacturer’s marketing bumpf comparison tell you anyway? So you like company A’s marketing bumpf more than company B’s. It’s like saying you like blue better than green and therefore it is a fact that blue is a superior colour.
FWIW, at the software level there is PGGB which is all about timing resolution. For hardware, Sony have a dedicated audio PCM upscaler. Many other manufacturers “talk” about this as a built-in feature of their DACs. Whether they decide to use the two words “timing” and “resolution” is neither here nor there. I could spend an hour of my life surfing and give more than those already but again, the burden of proof isn’t on me.
I listen to music a lot, and purchase some hi-fi equipment for my own selfish pleasure, whether anyone agrees with MScaler being one of a kind product makes no difference at all to me.
anyway - as I said before, I have been on this forum long enough to know… there is no point of discussing this any further.
that being said this is a forum for discussion, hence my posts.
Hi-end hi fi purchases are selfish purchases, and I am only thinking about saving enough $$$ for the next Mscaler… and not being a wealthy man at all (short of a lottery win), you can understand my preoccupation with how to go about purchasing the next innovation from Chord. We will see when it arrives though.
Oversampling is the word, that is basically what Chord is doing, and what many manufacturers have been doing the last few decades. In the nineties the best DACs did 1024x oversampling, and Chord has currently bumped it up to a million on the Mscaler.
But there are different schools of thought on this, and many engineers argue that a non-oversampling (NOS) approach is ultimately the most realistic, since oversampling always means making up information out of extrapolation.
A good NOS approach however is also difficult and expensive to build, since it requires good analog filters to translate the more jagged waveforms into smooth ones. The higher end Naim streamers also do this, and have the option to do limited oversampling (8x for instance) together with good analog filters:
Streamer
Jitter
DSP
Digital Filter
DAC chip
Analogue filter
ND555
SHARC 21489 (Gen4)
6th order Sallen-Key filtration
2x PCM1704U-K
6th order Sallen-Key filtration
NDX-2
SHARC 21489 (Gen4)
PCM1792A
discrete
NDS
512 cl freqs
SHARC 21369
Butterworth w/ extra poles (IIR)
PCM1704K
7-pole discrete
NDX
10 cl freqs
SHARC 21369
Butterworth w/ extra poles (IIR)
PCM1791A
7-pole, Burr-Brown OPA42 op-amps
Other high end DAC manufacturers offer options to use fully NOS generated waveforms, this includes the R2R brands (Denafrips, Holo etc) and the new model from T+A i posted a bit further up in the thread also has this.
Does this mean that ”nice sounding” is saying nothing or does it really mean that it’s nice that I think it’s nice sounding? If in doubt about what I meant, I meant it sounds good and it sounds good compared to the NDS/555PS DR. I am However not saying anything about which is better.
I find post like theese really intriguing eventhough I don’t understand the technical side of things. I guess, when it comes to theese Denafrips et al it’s much a question on how available theese things are and how consumers rate things like support and second hand prices when contemplating purchase of a new DAC. The more common DACS, i.e. those available in hifi stores might be more appealing because of differences in the support chain. That alone might explain the popularity of the Chord DAC
It’s a combination of both, but i agree that we don’t have to get too technical about these things:
Upsampling is the process of inserting zero-valued samples between original samples to increase the sampling rate. (This is called “zero-stuffing”.) Upsampling adds to the original signal undesired spectral images which are centered on multiples of the original sampling rate.
Oversampling is the technique of increasing the apparent sampling frequency of a digital signal by repeating each digit a number of times, in order to facilitate the subsequent filtering of unwanted noise.
Here in Sweden those are sold through, what we call, a music store. Here being a store selling instruments and everything you might need for your studio.