ECdesigns

[Henley]

1 hour ago, Gavin1977 said:

I agree, definitely not source independent… but highly immune.

 

For me I found the fractal DAC to be too neutral and also the lack of a dedicated output stage meant that bass was weak (Hi-fi advice.com also stated in an article outside their review of the mosaic that lack of drive from a traditional output stage is also one reason why they moved it on).  Does the PowerDAC improve on this?

 

Many classic preamp designs do large voltages - usually never fully used, but give an powerful and open sound.

That’s exactly what I want to know as well. I own the Mosaic T and the only thing that is missing is the drive in the lower frequency. I have tested a lot of dac’s in my setup but everytime the Mosaic T is a keeper.  
 

The new design of the power dac is disappointing from an esthetic point of view as well as its single output and headphone connection. If I would buy this dac I would own a Mosaic T dac with a 3.5mm output which is not a headphone amp and a Powerdac which is a headphone amp without a 3.5mm output. How did that happen...

 

 

[Henley]

I for one indicated that the EC Design products lacked a bit of drive and slam in the low end compared to other dacs. This was in comparison with the Schiit Gungnir MB and Audio Note Dac 5. However I still preferred the Mosaic T dac over the other 2 due to its more open, fluid and natural sound. 

 

I currently still own the original Mosaic T 16bit dac and have compared it to the MOS + UPL but preferred the Mosaic T dac in direct comparison at home over a week. I still feel that the Mosaic T line was the only product line from EC Designs not built to budget. I’m still curious to see how it compares to the new PD. 
 

As I live in the Netherlands as well maybe we can setup a meeting to compare the Mosaic T 16bit dac / Mosaic T volume control / XTOS with the new PD. I can bring the Schiit Gungnir MB as well. 

[Henley]

I do not see any benefits of this experiment above given that the AD and used software probably is not tranparent enough to make any sort of conlusion.

 

Furthermore you should do 20-50 AD/DA loops in order to find out whether a certain DAC is more transparent than the other. If I’m correct there was a thread on Gearsluts years ago were they did such an extensive experiment with the Lynx Hilo and Prism Lyra.

[Henley]

9 hours ago, hopkins said:

I am sorry our "experience" and assessment of the powerDAC is so different. Perhaps the next model (S) will be simpler to evaluate. Until then... 

And who made you the Tzar of EC Designs?

[Henley]

6 hours ago, Michael L said:

This is what I have been told.

 

The new PowerDAC-RX and also the PowerDAC-SX will have normal housing.

The new PowerDAC-RXV is similar to old PowerDAC-R but no heatsink, just less thick and has integrated power supply.

 

The PowerDAC-RX(V) will have new DAC board with improved zero crossing logic (X) and has better sound quality than current PowerDAC-B and PowerDAC-R.

 

We made the PowerDAC-B without volume control and standard housing to somewhat lower price.

 

We now decided to make our own housing again for PowerDAC SX and PowerDAC RX(V).

We will no longer use the UK supplied housing for PowerDAC-B, and will probably no longer offer PowerDAC-B.

If they are able to reduce the price of the PD RX a bit as a result of cheaper casework, then I will definitely be buying one. Still happy with the Mosaic dac.