Jump to content
IGNORED

ECdesigns


Recommended Posts

3 minutes ago, matthias said:

I meant curious how ECD gear will fit in a DSP speaker setup.😄

 

 

I understand that the combination of ECD gear and active speakers does not seem to make sense. But surprisingly some active speaker users prefer to feed these with the analogue signal coming from a great DAC -- however circuitous -- to feeding them directly with a digital source. And if ECD indeed succeeds in making the PowerDAC to be near-source-independent, then everything that comes behind it should benefit.

 

But this is all just hear-say, so I will just try for myself and play around with the different setups when the time comes, and report back of course. Actually I do not rule out parallel setups in two separate rooms (one with active, one with passive speakers).

 

As great a fan I am of the ECD sound, I prefer not to put all my eggs in one (i.e. the ECD) basket, if only for reasons of continuous comparison.

 

audio system

 

Link to comment
32 minutes ago, bodiebill said:

 

I understand that the combination of ECD gear and active speakers does not seem to make sense. But surprisingly some active speaker users prefer to feed these with the analogue signal coming from a great DAC -- however circuitous -- to feeding them directly with a digital source. And if ECD indeed succeeds in making the PowerDAC to be near-source-independent, then everything that comes behind it should benefit.

 

But this is all just hear-say, so I will just try for myself and play around with the different setups when the time comes, and report back of course. Actually I do not rule out parallel setups in two separate rooms (one with active, one with passive speakers).

 

As great a fan I am of the ECD sound, I prefer not to put all my eggs in one (i.e. the ECD) basket, if only for reasons of continuous comparison.

 

I was pulling your leg - looking forward to some feedback from you when you get them! 

Link to comment
  • 2 weeks later...

Hello! I plan to purchase UPL96 +DA96ETF + SVC 24.Who can tell me what the output impedance will be on the SVC24 output at minimum and maximum volume? I need to match a tube end amp without a volume control, and to do this I need to match the output impedance after SVC24 and the input impedance of the tube amp.Or, perhaps, not to buy SVC24, but to buy an amplifier with a built-in attenuator corresponding to the impedance DA96ETF=375 Om ? I wrote to ECD, but got no response. Thanks.Serge.

Link to comment

At full volume with the SVC the output impedance should be 375R. As you turn the volume down the output impedance should get gradually lower as you then switch in shunt resistors that will be in parallell to the output impedance of the DA96.

 

A tube power amp normally has very high input impedance so there should be no matching problems at all in your case. A good matching means that your source output impedance should be significantly lower than your amps input impedance.

 

With that said, since the DA96 has a "passive" output, it is always a good idea to keep your RCA cables to the amp reasonably short (low capacitance).    

Link to comment

When playing files on a newly designed device, we try to evaluate this sound with the previously heard and satisfied sound that we liked and were quite satisfied with.Let's not talk about vinyl-this is a reference that is obviously impossible to surpass.For example, for me, this is playing a CD of classical music with old multi-bit players PHilips 100,202,304,880 ,Marantz-99,Denon D1 ,Muse 296 , from the newer Esoteric,Audio Note.Was there a blind test(comparison) between the sound of such players and the UPL96ETL+DA96ETF bundle? This means playing a certain CD disc and playing its rip as a file.I don't have an ECD,but on other devices at a reasonable price of up to $ 4000-5000, the players have always won.Well proved to be a bunch of Innuos Mini+DAC Border Patrol ( chip TDA -1543).It was a close CD on a Revox-226 CD player .But not the same.

Link to comment

I dont know about any blind comparisons with the ECD products, would be interesting to hear about, if someone made that. As you might know, before ECD developed their lines of discrete logic DACs, they were very much into the TDA1541 chip.

 

I recommend you try out the ECD stuff, it is really good.  

Link to comment
51 minutes ago, realDHT said:

I dont know about any blind comparisons with the ECD products, would be interesting to hear about, if someone made that. As you might know, before ECD developed their lines of discrete logic DACs, they were very much into the TDA1541 chip.

 

I recommend you try out the ECD stuff, it is really good.  

 

A couple years ago I did a quick blind test between the first version of the UPL (UPL16, I believe it was called) and a streamer, at someone's house. I correctly identified the UPL. Since then, the UPL, and the DAC, has improved (especially in the last version, with the bandwidth limiter), and to be honest I have never had the urge to do another blind test, neither has anyone else who has listened to it.  

 

@pusto58 :

 

With respect to CD players, I have not heard a very good CD player in a long time, and I have not been interested in doing comparisons as all my CDs are ripped. I am not sure you will find anyone with the latest Fractal DAC + UPL who has done a comparison with a high-end CD player (but I could be wrong).

 

ECD is working on their newer product, which they mentioned on DIYAudio. You should ask them about this - I don't know when it will be avilable, but it will have a standard toslink input, so it could be interesting for you to use a CD player as a source (if you do not have all your CDs ripped). As mentioned by John Brown on DIYAudio, the new DAC will be "jitter immune" so offering benefits of Toslink's galvanic isulation without the usual drawbacks (jitter in source or toslink cable degradation). 

Link to comment
22 minutes ago, hopkins said:

You should ask them about this

 

My last question on diyaudio is from 21st of January, not yet answered.

I can imagine that they are busy, but once a week they should find some time for that.

 

Matt

"I want to know why the musicians are on stage, not where". (John Farlowe)

 

Link to comment
37 minutes ago, hopkins said:

 

A couple years ago I did a quick blind test between the first version of the UPL (UPL16, I believe it was called) and a streamer, at someone's house. I correctly identified the UPL. Since then, the UPL, and the DAC, has improved (especially in the last version, with the bandwidth limiter), and to be honest I have never had the urge to do another blind test, neither has anyone else who has listened to it.  

 

Aha interesting. I actually did a blind testing not so long ago, testing a LL1676 signal transformer between the DA96 and my speaker ASP/active filter, since a friend reported good results with that. The difference was quite easy to hear, it was a bit more difficult to pick a clear preference. For must recordings, in my system I preferrend the sound without the transformer.       

Link to comment
1 hour ago, matthias said:

 

My last question on diyaudio is from 21st of January, not yet answered.

I can imagine that they are busy, but once a week they should find some time for that.

 

Matt

 

I think they will give more information soon - we just have to be a little more patient. 

I saw on DIYAudio that some people  asked ECD to post in a seperate "vendor" forum, no longer in their historic thread. Perhaps John is waiting to have a finalized product to open a new thread, or they may give information on their website. 

Link to comment
3 minutes ago, hopkins said:

 

I think they will give more information soon - we just have to be a little more patient.

I saw on DIYAudio that some people  asked ECD to post in a seperate "vendor" forum, no longer in their historic thread. Perhaps John is waiting to have a finalized product to open a new thread ?

 

Yes, I have seen that too, but waiting till end of 2021?

 

Matt

"I want to know why the musicians are on stage, not where". (John Farlowe)

 

Link to comment

Thank you, Hopkins! Indeed, if the new model has an optical input, my collection of disks will be in demand.You only need to convert the coaxial output of the RCA player to the optical output of Toslink.As far as I understand-it is possible.This will be an additional bonus.Perhaps it is possible to connect sensitive 95 db full-range speakers without an amplifier? Bingo!

Link to comment
11 minutes ago, pusto58 said:

Thank you, Hopkins! Indeed, if the new model has an optical input, my collection of disks will be in demand.You only need to convert the coaxial output of the RCA player to the optical output of Toslink.As far as I understand-it is possible.This will be an additional bonus.Perhaps it is possible to connect sensitive 95 db full-range speakers without an amplifier? Bingo!

 

Yes, there are plenty of coaxial-toslink converters, even very basic ones, that should do the job (if what John explains about Jitter is correct).


John mentioned on DIYAudio: "we plan to offer an affordable medium power entry level version that is primarily intended to be used with (pre) amps but is powerful enough to directly drive 32 ... 600 Ohm headphones". 

I don't think you can drive 95db speakers with an amp designed for headphones, but you could ask them (or simply try when the time comes).

Link to comment
On 2/11/2021 at 10:52 PM, hopkins said:

 

Yes, there are plenty of coaxial-toslink converters, even very basic ones, that should do the job (if what John explains about Jitter is correct).


John mentioned on DIYAudio: "we plan to offer an affordable medium power entry level version that is primarily intended to be used with (pre) amps but is powerful enough to directly drive 32 ... 600 Ohm headphones". 

I don't think you can drive 95db speakers with an amp designed for headphones, but you could ask them (or simply try when the time comes).

I don't quite get how to control the volume (for directly connected headphones) on the upcoming new DAC. 

There is digital software volume control but this wouldn't be optimal so would the SVC24 shunt volume control be the best solution or have I misunderstood what's required here?

Link to comment
8 hours ago, mevdinc said:

I do hope Power DAC has a proper built-in volume control so it can be used directly with active speakers such as mine.
 

It will for sure have a volume control but you still cannot use it with (or at least it would not make any sense to use it with) active speakers.  

Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now



×
×
  • Create New...