This system is primarly designed as a rockers delight,(yet will happily play Nora Jones all day) majoring on scale, power speed, dynamics, real tangable presence, texturerious mid range with tactile vocals. Leading edge definition with total note body & decay, superb timing and musical cohesion and a serious groove factor. Will also play extremely well at low volumes (It is possible with dig-volume control if you get it right)
Its also extremely open and large scaled, (something which Wadia aint good at in stock form), great, great depth of stage
The 27 was chosen over the 27ix, purely as it grooves and plays music better (detail not as good but fixable no problem), without the musical disassembly that aflicts so many high end systems by use over use of upsampling and resulting in a stretching of the soundstage, if you like a 12 foot Guitarist then cool, I prefer a more realistic sized one playing in time with the band, not strung out across 25 foot living room floor!!!
When tweeked correctly it can rock like a trouper and yet be totally involving and supremely musical, without the normal distraction so commonly associated with high end hifi, which I find induces tidum and a large snooze factor
Explored the possiblitly of adding a decent pre-amp maybe a Spectral DC 30 MKII, but it doesn't bring enough to the party to warrant the purchase.
Its also extremelt involving and has the ability to listen to it for hours on end unfatigued and at high volume levels.
The 27 is chosen over the 27ix, purely on musical grounds, the early chipset BB 1702's are so much better at music even if they only accept 48Khz max Allow $3K for new txco clocks, output stage rearrangement, total reverse mains isolation, receiever chip mods, damping, Bybee's etc
Wadia 270
Transport converted to Full SE status, new clocks and digital ouput board fitted bespoke balanced power transformers fitted again with total reverse mains isolation & Bybee's
Spectral DMA-360
Mono Bloc
Meadowlark Audio Blue Heron II's
Rather awesomely musical & dynamic speakers that are full of life Rewire internally with Omiga Audio Outlander Speaker cable, Bybee's fitted to ALL signal posts and sat on 18
Audio Magic Eclispe
7 levels of mains filtration, 2 inlets ports 12 outs, has stuffed everthing I've tried so far
Omiga Audio Deliverence
Simply the quietest, fastest, most open and detailed power that does seriousy deep ultra tight controlled bass 6 off
Omiga Audio Outlander
4m Bi-wire Outlander, supreme openiness detail image, dynamics and groove
Omiga Audio Gladiator
Dynamically & musically without equal
Omiga Audio Defiant Digital I/C
Simply music as it should be
Townshend Audio Seismic Sinks
Air isolation platforms for air bourne pressure waves
Stillpoints Stillpoints & Raisers
Vibration control for internal reasonancies on all equipment 7 sets
hello Alphatone69 the AT&T glass connection is only better if implemented correctly and only 2 companies I know of got it reasonably correct they would be EAD and Wadia and you must use each companies transport and converter as a package mixing and matching doesn't work the transport and converter interface is extremely critical for correct results. the XLO TYPE 7 AT&T glass cable is again better than the Wadia glass cables definitely. Now AES in situations other than the EAD package or Wadia package is always been better than AT&T in my experiences.
Rzangpo2, Thanks again for your reply, the 21 dac, isn't bad, in the right system it does work well. Its forte's seem to be, a large open stage, smooth & clean sounding, not harsh or overbearing, with good mid band presence, nice detail and gentle flow of the music. Polished is a good word, and yes if you tastes are Acoustic/female vocals/Classical or folk then it really isn't an issue as much as music with Timing & intergration it just doesn't cut, lack of rythym and interest also, but to be fair VERY few players do. Do you find any notice difference when you switch between 96/192Khz sample rates? MY other gripe is that upsampling really only works in Direct multiples, 88.2/133.3/.176.4, these to me seem to be more cohesive than say 96/192khz, anyone any thoughts on this?. I've plucked this from a UK forum "Anyway, I then started reading about the amazing MF Trivista 21 DAC, found I had a bit more money available and persuaded myself to buy it.
But when I got it, and after leaving it for most of a week with CD playing on repeat through it, what I found was that it didn't really sound much different from the Sony playing by itself.
Whether listening through my Headmaster & HD600 phones, or through my Lavardin IT/Quad 988s, what I found was that the Trivista DAC sounded almost identical to the Sony SCD XA3000ES but with about a 5% increase in volume. Seriously - that was the only obvious difference.
After a few weeks critical listening I began to notice (or persuaded myself to notice, not sure which) that there was a very slight improvement in resolution of detail and a slight increase in soundstage depth, with a slightly increased impression of height. But notice the repeated use of "slightly" - I am talking of tiny improvements, maybe subjectively 1-2% better. Not much of a return for an outlay of £1200!"
Audio Notes dac's Ok but again serious hype, nothing really special at all, slightly better than bland and not worth the cash.
Mejames, No I just dabble a bit, can I have you thoughts on AT&T optic transfer?, (discounting the clock link for a moment and just doing a direct comparsion between say AES/SPDIF/AT&T), I've always noticed a 'Hardening of the sound' when using the Glass (even with the fabled XLO and Orange glass cables), slightly more detail, but more digitarlis, now with the clock link, the return 'syn' lock signal needs to be as 'untainted' as possible. so glass is a valid option, yet Teac's D70'P70, use a pair or SPDIF's the syncronise the clocks, to great effect, without a trace of hardness?. Also here a real 'Oh my Gowd question', is less jitter better ?, M/F take great pride in telling you their gear is low/DCS also Audio Synthesis?, presonally I believe to get that involvment/interest, you have to have a bit of colour, shock horror yes. All the best systems I've heard, (not the most expensive either) has some form of colouration, that gives them their 'charactor', Is a totally neutral/natural and accurate system the way to go?. When I mean colouration, I'm not talking bloated over big bass, or starkly obvious treble or projected mid bands. Is deep tight and clean bass that is intergrated, more appealing the big full room filling bold bass, that isn't cohesive? Is one any less valid than the other?, are liquid flowing transparent and 'real' mid ranges, in the same league as rich, texturious and solid & not so accurate one?. Is Transparency held in higher regard to say fuildity or even texture? Sorry to go on all the Best Alfa
Alfatone69 you plan on becoming a Wadia upgrade provider anytime soon? I always wondered if the clocklink could be improved if it implemented the AES instead of the AT&T glass interfaces
Interesting response Alfa. In my experience the Tri-Vista DAC does spread the soundstage, but not unduly -- the "disassembly" thing really operates in the time domain, i.e., it affects timing and drive, as I believe you touched on. I don't listen to much rock, but any music where rhythm is key -- samba, reggae, even fiddle music -- is affected. On the other hand, the DAC adds a lot of body and three-dimensionality to instruments/voices, which is great, so I can't give it up entirely. I do a lot of switching back and forth. Maybe if I could mod my CDP to include a tubed output stage, it would sound as good, but that's not in the cards at the moment. Guess I'll have to wait awhile to find something that does it all. BTW, I believe Audio Note DACs work without upsampling -- have you heard them?
Thanks for you reply guys, Rzangpo2, I find musical fidelity to be amoungest the worst culprits of musical diassembly, having own all of them at some point, bland & totally uninvolving. I've just sold a Burmester 001 although a class act,I found it just can't glue it together in the way we have, drums playing with a total syncronicity and musical cohesion, tightly focus and as one unit) Having owned dcs/accuphase/AA/Ayre/M/L/all major on the hifi aspects, and completely miss the point of the music (imho) the music shouldn't just be about presenation, but interest and captivation drawing you into the preformance, making you forget about the 'driving a double decker bus between the insruments'
Mejames
Valid point, although I know what the are capable of I own a 27ix as well, I use in my own version of a word bit genny to slave the clocks, which have been replace with TXCO's and siteted on super regulators, with seperate total reverse mains isolation power suppiles, also the Emitters have been replaced by more suitable units and dedicated psu's to those boards as well. With this dramatic reduction in electrical noise, you may be surprised at the results to be had from AES!!!! Rceivier chip mods, all regs replace with interesting units, output stages couple with balanced iso trannys, opamps replaced with instrumtation units, and are the buffing units, all boards damped, ERS/bybees where appropriate, caps oscons/Black gates usual standard bits and pieces. PLus a few other mods I would prefer not to go into. Jwells, For me Upsampling was the industries attempt to put right redbook, yes it does reduce the dreaded Digitarlis greatly, and gives a more open sound, without question, but it robs the essence of the music, the energy, the drive 'Its soul' if you like, much in the same way SACD does, its just so nice!!!!, but Boring Next Valid point will be, YES but the sound is still hard and raw, humm well now, you can have a big opoen sound, yet totally cohesive and intergrated with all the detail and drive, without upsampling, just by paying careful attention to implementation of the design and ammending accordingly. Haven't got the new release yet, thanks for the tip, I'm more a Dio man than Ozzy, but its the music that counts Thanks for all the comments and sorry to Rzangpo2 I'm not having a personal dig, I just loathe M/F with a passion, total hifi incarnate, and a lot of my fellow Brits feel the same way, Hype city Anthony Michealson has a lot to answer for!!!!! especially his Clarienet playing
As someone who listens primarily to rock, I can understand your feelings about the musical disassembly. However, not all upsampling does this. I have an audiomeca enkianthus X dac that upsamples, and it does result in a huge soundstage but WITH precise imaging. Guitarists are very precisely placed in the 3D soundstage.
Since you used the black sabbath album in your title, I guess you may be a fan. Have you heard their new box set? The recording quality is VASTLY, VASTLY improved over the individual releases. Highly recommended!
you haven't heard 75% of your Wadia equipments performance capability yet because they are not clocklinked yet. Get the I upgrade for your 27 which will give you the clocklink AT&T glass connection required and get 2 quality AT&T glass cables the XLO TYPE 7 is better than the Wadia cables definitely you will be absolutely shocked by the improvement clocklink provides.
Interested in your comment about "the musical disassembly that aflicts so many high end systems by use over use of upsampling". I have a Musical Fidelity Tri-Vista 21 tube DAC, which upsamples to 192/24, and have also noticed a sort of "disassembly", especially with regard to timing. You can hear all the musicians playing, but it doesn't sound like they're playing together. This especially affects music based on interlocking rhythm parts, i.e., dance music, including rock. Is this what you're referring to? If so, in what contexts have you noticed it?
