Ugh, Steve Huff has a new reference anytime a new piece enters his listening room.
On a side note has anyone noticed the two glass windows directly at the first reflection points next to his speakers? Surprised he can make anything out in the ensuing audio soup...
He is a bit ridiculous like that… Maria, T&A DAC200, DCS Lina stack etc. I shared this here as I thought I detected a greater than average degree of his usual extreme enthusiasm for a DAC at this modest price level… let’s see how long it lasts!
This will be a great 2nd hand buy later this year, when the next FOMO giant killer DAC releases. According to Darko the depreciation of chifi will make it an even greater bargain.
This will be a great 2nd hand buy later this year, when the next FOMO giant killer DAC releases. According to Darko the depreciation of chifi will make it an even greater bargain.
Yeah. Like Holo Audio DACs. You see lots of great bargains in the used market! Some of them (the few that we find) even higher than their launch price.
Yeah. Like Holo Audio DACs. You see lots of great bargains in the used market! Some of them (the few that we find) even higher than their launch price.
Agree, 6 months is pretty wishful thinking if this DAC is of the class most reviewers seem to agree it is.
As an aside I do wish VirtualHifi would use a good streamer rather than just his Mac Mini in his DAC comparisons. Or at least a good DDC or USB regenerator. Listening again to the comparison with the Holo May KTE just now with a better headphone chain (IPad > Holo Titanis > Sonata E44 dongle DAC > Hifiman planars) it is clear Dac A (which turned out to be the May) had greater speed, transient attack and punch in his system, whilst DAC B was warmer and fuller in the midrange but at the expense of the former attributes, and I feel (though a bit harder to hear over YT) a bit less resolving than DAC A. All over YT so take with a pinch of salt but suspect this is part of what @GoldenSound and friend observed firsthand.
But how would the LAiV scale with a better USB or I2S source, would it improve more than the May KTE with its already superb inbuilt Titanis 2 module?
This will be a great 2nd hand buy later this year, when the next FOMO giant killer DAC releases. According to Darko the depreciation of chifi will make it an even greater bargain.
Ugh, Steve Huff has a new reference anytime a new piece enters his listening room.
On a side note has anyone noticed the two glass windows directly at the first reflection points next to his speakers? Surprised he can make anything out in the ensuing audio soup...
No need to be condescending. He does it as a hobby. And he is honest. I'd rather have someone who is overly enthousiastic than one that is dishonest.
On those windows: he listens with the shades down. Do you really think he's an idiot? For shooting Video you need light.
I have more issues with John Darko. That remark about chifi is just rubbish. Pure ignorance and snobisme. Not on his part necessarily but on people who believe that. Repeating marketing dribble. The same used to be said about Japanese products in the past.
No need to be condescending. He does it as a hobby. And he is honest. I'd rather have someone who is overly enthousiastic than one that is dishonest.
On those windows: he listens with the shades down. Do you really think he's an idiot? For shooting Video you need light.
I have more issues with John Darko. That remark about chifi is just rubbish. Pure ignorance and snobisme. Not on his part necessarily but on people who believe that. Repeating marketing dribble. The same used to be said about Japanese products in the past.
But he's kind of not wrong. Jay (from Jays Iyagi) also swore off DAC reviews with a meme stack of topping/smsl next to him because even 2 years ago it was getting absurd. Granted he is also a high-end reviewer and entertains cables and risers and other voodoo, but I don't think he is dishonest either.
On the one hand, the depreciation is the reality of market perception. Is him making the observation contributing to a self-fulfilling prophecy? Perhaps.
But c'mon, just look around the space we've got the mk1,2,3,4,5,6 versions out, LTD's, Pro versions, and new updates every time AKM/ESS releases a new chip with -1 SINAD rather than meaningful upgrades to output stages, volume pots, or digital front ends (digital filters beyond OEM/USB handling or Galvanic standard). I looked a couple months ago, and SMSL had something like 33 DAC's available for purchase at the same time NOT including pro versions (DAC/AMP all-in-ones).
While LAIV and Holo make leaps and bounds for "ChiFi" there's many other companies upholding the perception. Don't forget the clones and the mini-drama between Musician and Denafrips.
Agree, 6 months is pretty wishful thinking if this DAC is of the class most reviewers seem to agree it is.
As an aside I do wish VirtualHifi would use a good streamer rather than just his Mac Mini in his DAC comparisons. Or at least a good DDC or USB regenerator. Listening again to the comparison with the Holo May KTE just now with a better headphone chain (IPad > Holo Titanis > Sonata E44 dongle DAC > Hifiman planars) it is clear Dac A (which turned out to be the May) had greater speed, transient attack and punch in his system, whilst DAC B was warmer and fuller in the midrange but at the expense of the former attributes, and I feel (though a bit harder to hear over YT) a bit less resolving than DAC A. All over YT so take with a pinch of salt but suspect this is part of what @GoldenSound and friend observed firsthand.
But how would the LAiV scale with a better USB or I2S source, would it improve more than the May KTE with its already superb inbuilt Titanis 2 module?
If you were to use I2S off-board clocking or another synchronous source it's up to you to justify the whole backend for marginal gains in the time domain with something like a Holo Red.
Using extensive back-end with reference grade clocking (low phase error or atomic or GPS assisted ETC.) to be a master clock for another expensive DDC (to convert asynchronous USB to synchronous SPDIF/I2S) is chasing the dragon and insanely expensive. Word clocking is better anyways (multiples of music rates vs 10Mhz).
If you're using USB as a primary source just forget about it and enjoy the music. (i.e. NOT streaming somewhere else, you're at your primary location with your laptop or whatever you're using)
If you were to use I2S off-board clocking or another synchronous source it's up to you to justify the whole backend for marginal gains in the time domain with something like a Holo Red.
Using extensive back-end with reference grade clocking (low phase error or atomic or GPS assisted ETC.) to be a master clock for another expensive DDC (to convert asynchronous USB to synchronous SPDIF/I2S) is chasing the dragon and insanely expensive. Word clocking is better anyways (multiples of music rates vs 10Mhz).
If you're using USB as a primary source just forget about it and enjoy the music. (i.e. NOT streaming somewhere else, you're at your primary location with your laptop or whatever you're using)
Not up to me to justify anything, just sharing an opinion from my experience that the quality of the I2S and USB feed to a DAC (and its jitter/clocking quality since you mention it) matters a lot.
Not up to me to justify anything, just sharing an opinion from my experience that the quality of the I2S and USB feed to a DAC (and its jitter/clocking quality since you mention it) matters a lot.
Unless I misunderstood, why wouldn't it be up to you, or any other consumer? You have to justify the purchase to solve any real or perceived shortcomings in engineering with the DAC's digital front end. Perception of jitter at the levels of performance we get stock is pretty academic at this point.
Edit: if money is no object than you don't have to justify anything you just buy it.
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![]eep](https://cdn.head-fi.org/avatars/m/139/139747.jpg?1273084439){kind=avatar}
you just buy it.
