Another DAC comparison Lavry DA10 to Apogee mini-dac (firewire) to PS audio DLIII (unmodded)

[Mr.C]

OK, short and sweet. Here's the setup: macbook optical to dacs to either grado ra-1 and gs1000 or stax srdx and sr-lambda. Mini-dac was used with firewire exclusively. All music upsampled on the computer to max setting.

 

Lavry: has some characteristic that the others don't. It sounds like the soundstage is immense with huge instrument separation. Some midrange details seem to overpower the others that are apparent with the other dacs. This leads to a very enjoyable listen that differentiates it from the others.

 

Mini-dac: First word that comes to mind is rough. It presented the music very well but it seemed to not separate things as well as the lavry. It also seemed to have a rough texture instead of the thin soupy (relative) texture of the lavry. It simply presented the details straight in your face very rigidly. 'Stable' comes to mind. Very similar to the dlIII but rough vs sweet. Same details and balance.

 

DLIII: Details obscured by the lavry's overemphasis' came through. Like the mini-dac, it seemed stable compared to a more volatile lavry. Very sweet sounding, like ear candy

 

Conclusion: the Lavry had a unique sound that the others didn't emulate. It sounded like it had more separation but it could also have been holes in the sound with groupings of sounds in other places. The other two presented a more stable, even sound that sometimes revealed more or less, but mostly revealed different things in the music. The DLIII and mini-dac were very close in balance and detail with the DLIII being honey coated sandpaper to the mini-dac's sandpaper (mind you, a very fine pleasing grit).