LKS AUDIO MH-DA004

[Hifihova]

Hi Mike,

I have the T+A dac8 dsd right here to try it out, and i got my LKS yesterday.

I am only using it with the digital out of my bluesound vault2, streaming tidal and qobuz (cd and hires quality), and an old cambridge diskmagic1 transport, so i only compared them at 44.1 / 88.2 / 96 side by side.

Best filter for the dac 8 i found to be bez2

For the LKS i compared several settings, preferring slow-m and fast-m
(Fast-m is slightly more analytical, but indeed a very little bit bass shy, slow-m is very close tonaly speaking to the dac8.    I am free to send back the lks, so i really have the choice. 

The dac8 is a nice improvement over the dac of the bluesound vault 2 , but the lks is simply beating the dac8 every time: more detail, nicer highs, a bit more space.  The difference is not huge, but i never tried more expensive dacs then these two. 

Rest of the setup: dali epicon8 and accuphase E600,  powerline is simply filtered with a schaffner filter comming from one of my old medical lasers.

Conclusion: i keep the better one, to my ears that is the lks.

Hope this helps.

 

[Hifihova]

Thanks for the feedback ! I bought this dac after carefully studying all the input in this forum and one other and decided to keep it after comparing it to the basic sytem i have and the T+A. The information here was very useful and "spot on" !

My new stereo is so nice sounding now, that i am even getting curious: is there a dac out there that will add even significant better quality to my system? I would be very curious to test a very expensive dac besides the LKS004, like a Nagra or so...  just to see how far one can reasonably go.

[Hifihova]

Hurka, are you sure? Isn't it yes, no, no, yes, yes ?  

 

[Hifihova]

Hi.

 

got my new Marantz SA-10 cd player with dac, a 7k€ player, and of course that lead to a shoot-out :  cd in the marantz vs cd ripped on the bluevault2, playing over the LKS...

I hoped the marantz would win, and to sell my LKS.

 

Nope: the LKS is still slightly better , more detailed, more depth and space.

 

Hmmm, will be hard to beat this LKS!

 

streaming the bluevault2 over  the marantz and over the LKS:  in 44.1 as well as in 96 the LKS wins too.

 

have a nice day! 

 

 

[Hifihova]

1 hour ago, CKKeung said:

Hello Hifihova,
Have you tried using the Marantz SA-10 as cd transport and played CDs with LKS004 as dac?

Yes, i did: sa-10 with lks is slightly better than sa-10 with it's own dac.

 

[Hifihova]

Thanks for your input! But i think the owners are not surprised at all by your experience. It is a bit amazing that this dac is still so unknown.

if it beats the T&A (6000 euros) and outprforms slightly the dac of my SA10 marantz, it seems to me a nobrainer for anyone looking for a nice DAC.  1/3 of the price of its competers!