Popular Post feelingears Posted October 18, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted October 18, 2021 I finally received my LiM, upgraded from A2. I conceptually concur with the "soft" impression described above but I think I would not use that adjective. I agree the A2/OG is more energetic, and that is what I love about it. I would say the LiM presentation is more sonically balanced and more evenly sorted per the recording. In having the good fortune to have several DACs and amps in my home over the last several months, I have been struck by how the A2's energy presents a recording in ways I'd guess are congruent with what Al M. posts above. What Al M. may or may not have heard is how certain parts of a recording are, for lack of a better concept, "masked" or "crowded out" by what I hear as the energy of the A2 in emphasizing certain things in a recording. I heard a similar (and slightly different) thing happening with the Chord Qutest. Language fails me on this point: LiM presents more music, A2/OG presents more...action? energy? liveliness? punch? d) all of the above? Not sure how to put it, but yes...however... I've decided I am keeping the LiM because while A2 is different and more energetic, I prefer the way music is presented via LiM, with the timbre of instruments, and perhaps with a greater view into the way the recording was made, more evenly up and down the spectrum with detail and especially nuance that the A2 does not provide. I'm not sure detail is the best word, but it certainly is more musical data, from instrumental tones to overtones, attacks and decays, the notes come through the LiM more clearly and evenly than A2. A couple simple examples to try on your systems: At the beginning of Yes' famous choral-rock (is there such a thing?!?) song "Leave It," there is a lot of reverb and other sonic color going on at the very beginning and then there are the big bass thumps that come in before things get going. And in The Police's song "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic," the chorus has something that sounds like steel drums in the background. With A2, I get the sense these elements exist. With LiM I'm hearing more of the space and reverb of the recording, plus vocal color in the voices in "Leave It." With LiM and The Police, I hear more individual steel drum notes being played, rather than a kind of "calypso blur" in the background. So while not as much as A2, LiM presents enough PRaT and sonic detail in a way that lets all parts, or even just more parts, of the total recording to shine through. LiM may not be as sonically exhilarating all the time, but what is exciting is how it lets the music speak for itself with less "editorializing" than A2. One more possible downside to LiM: Others have reported LiM's top end is rolled off. While I don't hear that per se, I do hear something way up top missing in the reverb and it comes across perhaps as a bit less transparency than A2. I feel there's a kind of, well, energy that comes across with A2 that is more like I'm in or looking into the room of the recording. I don't get that so much with LiM, unfortunately. I like them both, a lot. I'm keeping the LiM. I might opt for the A2 if it had the ability to render the nuance I described above, so that's my trade off. Finally, I'd go so far as to say the LiM is a substantially different sounding DAC than the A2. They're really two different sonic presentations to my ears. Al M., yyz, opus101 and 1 other 3 1 Sum>Frankenstein: JPlay/Audirvana/iTunes, Uptone EtherRegen+LPS-1.2, Rivo Streamer+Uptone JS-2, Schiit Yggdrasil LiM+Shunyata Delta XC, Linn LP12/Hercules II/Ittok/Denon DL-103R, ModWright LS 100, Pass XA25, Tellurium Black II, Monitor Audio Silver 500 on IsoAcoustics Gaias, Shunyata Delta XC, Transparent Audio, P12 power regenerator, and positive room attributes. Link to comment
feelingears Posted October 19, 2021 Share Posted October 19, 2021 2 hours ago, JoeWhip said: ...What he heard summarizes why I prefer the LIM to the OG. Through the LIM he thought he was hearing an orchestra like he would live. There was no spotlighting of instruments. They were all there in front of you. You can follow each section individually if you like or listen to the whole group. Another friend commented on chords on piano jazz recordings, in being able to hear the chords cleanly, with less, shall I say it, blur. Yes, I like the term "spotlighting" although I don't understand why it happens; I'm not an EE and don't pretend to be/understand all that goes on and it seems to me even if you are an EE, if you haven't designed audio gear, there's still a lot to learn about how electricity turns into a sonic illusion of a piano. No offense to EEs, as Joe says, we'd all have the same stuff if it were that easy. Back to this spotlighting - pleased to read others have or have not had this experience. I hear this with LiM too - "all there in front of you" whereas with A2/OG in my system, the bass is a bit in your face which I rather like but does color or overpower the lower mids, in my room, and there are other things that are not spotlighted, relatively speaking. FWIW, I hear this with amps, too. I had the somewhat famous Belles Aria integrated here for a while and it's a lovely sounding unit that, like Joe says above, easily lets you "follow each section individually..." or the whole group. My Naim gear is a lot more energetic, our other word of the day, and seemingly relative to the Belles, my Naim separates can spotlight certain things, although perhaps not as much as with DACs. As Spock says, "Fascinating." (Everyone arch an eyebrow.) Thanks, y'allz! Sum>Frankenstein: JPlay/Audirvana/iTunes, Uptone EtherRegen+LPS-1.2, Rivo Streamer+Uptone JS-2, Schiit Yggdrasil LiM+Shunyata Delta XC, Linn LP12/Hercules II/Ittok/Denon DL-103R, ModWright LS 100, Pass XA25, Tellurium Black II, Monitor Audio Silver 500 on IsoAcoustics Gaias, Shunyata Delta XC, Transparent Audio, P12 power regenerator, and positive room attributes. Link to comment
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