Going to Audiofile Objective

Gamefreak501

Gamefreak501

Gamefreak501

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In the next month or so, I am hopefully going to drive to my favourite hi-fi dealer (subject to passing my test!).

A long time ago, I asked about the best way to complement my NAD C320 BEE and my Heybrook standmounts and I was told to get a separate transport and DAC.

I will be using my computer for games (although I do hardly any of that nowadays) and I would want to have a better sound quality by not playing my CDs from my computer.

I am budgeting £300 for interconnects, transport and DAC. Are there any specific models I should look at and e-mail the dealer about?

Cheers in advance.
 
Simple answer, nope. IMO, £300 is not enough for a good transport and DAC.

For cables, go on the zerogain forum and ask around. There's a chap on there called Zanash who may be able to knock one up for you for a good price. He's been fiddling around for a long time with cables and builds them for cost, so they're awesome for the dosh.

Ref the transport question. I asked around on transports a couple of years ago, and was recommended to go with either a good Teac VRDS unit, or a Meridian 500. None of those are readily available below £300. I went for the Meridian, and yes it was an improvement on my old DVD player, but not an enourmous one, and in the context of your system, wouldn't be the best way to blow £400. I'd suggest you use either a cheapo DVD player or even your computer, connected by coax digital output to a decent DAC. No, it won't be as good as a dedicated transport, but as mentioned, won't be massively adrift.

Ref the DAC, there are a lot of options, but none of them are sold in dealers at new prices. The cheapest new DACs are things like the MF whatever it's called, and IIRC they start at around £800.
For the money you mention, you could get a good N.OS DAC, an older Meridian, Pink Triangle and a variety of other units.
As a rule of thumb, most of the branded stuff tend to sound closer to normal CD players, often majoring on more detail. The N.OS DACs that I've heard are usually more natural in presentation, not as well detailed, but sound luscious in the right system.
For a decent N.OS, checkout the Pinkfish or Zerogain "for sale" areas. There's usually one knocking around for sale.

Hope that helps.
 
Hi Mr_Sukebe,

Cheers for the help - I gues £300 isn't really enough to get anything decent!

Maybe £400 or £500 is a better budget?

But I am confused, a DAC is a digital analogue converter, that is a box that just takes in a signal and outputs it, converting it too?

Am I right in thinking that a CD Transport is pretty much a CD separate?

The guy I e-mailed said perhaps I should go for another NAD...but he'll have some other equipment to test.

I wouldn't mind going for the DAC option, just a shame I'll still have to boot up my computer to listen to a CD. Not sure the dealer will have many of those (as you mentioned) so I might e-mail him about that.

I haven't seen many DACs being advertised by Pinkfish or Zerogain, perhaps I'm not looking hard enough. :confused:
 
If you were to go with a good transport and DAC, IMO £500 would be an appropriate starting point, which would be enough for a good VRDS transport and a N.OS DAC.
You can find transports in a variety of s/h locations. Checkout exdem.com.
A transport is basically a CD player without the DAC section fitted. In theory, you're hoping that they spent the dosh on better components and power supplies. In addition, you'll get less interaction between the DAC section and the PSU of the transport. You'd be surprised how much effect that can have.

For reference, I recently dem'd my own Meridian 500 and older N.OS against a Meridian G07 (£1600 CDP) and prefered my own. So when the dealer tells you that whatever Nad unit he wants to sell you will compete, take it with a pinch of salt. Audio technology really hasn't improved that much in the last few years.
 
Mr_Sukebe said:
If you were to go with a good transport and DAC, IMO £500 would be an appropriate starting point, which would be enough for a good VRDS transport and a N.OS DAC.
You can find transports in a variety of s/h locations. Checkout exdem.com.
A transport is basically a CD player without the DAC section fitted. In theory, you're hoping that they spent the dosh on better components and power supplies. In addition, you'll get less interaction between the DAC section and the PSU of the transport. You'd be surprised how much effect that can have.

For reference, I recently dem'd my own Meridian 500 and older N.OS against a Meridian G07 (£1600 CDP) and prefered my own. So when the dealer tells you that whatever Nad unit he wants to sell you will compete, take it with a pinch of salt. Audio technology really hasn't improved that much in the last few years.
Click to expand...

Cheers again Mr_Sukebe,

I have spotted a Meridian 200/203 for £379...although that is all the way down in Portsmouth...Looks to me like there is a separate CD transport and DAC there. As for VRDS are they made by Teac? As for N.OS, not had much luck finding those anywhere yet, do Teac make them as well?

I think I'll fire an e-mail to that dealer again to ask them if they have any transports and DACs available.
 
Be aware the the 200/203 combo is now getting somewhat, i.e. probably over 10 years old. Whilst considered as being very good in their day, I'd be dubious about getting spares for the 200 if it goes wrong. In addition, the 203 is not the most amazing DAC ever, and IMO is easily outperformed by a good N.OS.

With ref to N.OS DACs. N.OS stands for non-oversampling, it's not a brand, but a type of design of DAC and encompasses both consumer manufactured units and "enthusiast" designs. An example of a consumer built version is the 47 Labs unit, which IIRC costs around on for £800.
Enthusiast N.OS units are usually built by some chap knocking it up in his garden shed somewhere in the US or Hong Kong. I've had two from a chap called Derek Shrek, both of which were good. I've heard a unit from AH, which was more punchy, but less natural and have been told that some of the US versions are very good. I think that Commited has one from the US that would be worth checking out.
To find one on PF or ZG forums, run a search on shrek, that'll throw something up, including thoughts and comments on their performance. They really are VERY good at some things (natural presentation above all), but are not as detailed as some of the newer 24 bit units.
 
Cheers again Mr_Sukebe,

Really clears things up for me!

The Non oversampling units sound really good to me, I had a quick look at ZG and PF but haven't found anything as yet, but it's best to keep trying!

I very much doubt Audiofile Objective will have anything in my price range, or much stock, but I'll send them an e-mail in a bit.
 
E-mailed my dealer yesterday evening, quite late and got a reply pretty much straight after. Anyway, he told me the DACs go from £50.00 but there is a massive shortage of CD Transports and I'm best contacting them again when I want to visit.

Otherwise, theres the ZG, PF forums and various other web site to peruse through :)
 
why not just trawl the auction sites for a nice cd player. you can pick up a really high end arcam cd player for well under £200. I recently picked up a Marantz KI Signuture for £100, sounds fantastic
 
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