Berkeley Alpha DAC & Brainstorm DCD-8

[alan_un]

Hi Rym, from what I understand the Lynx AES16 supports dual-wire AES operation, in which each physical output connection passes a single channel AES signal. This dual wire AES signal is easily accepted by the DCD-8. The manual of the DCD-8 is somewhat contradictory, though, as to the S/PDIF or AES3id (BNC connector in front) inputs accepting sample rates >96kHz. My understanding based on the table on page 25 of the DCD-8 manual is that signals with rates >96kHz are accepted by these inputs. However, the manual also states on the same page that all AES, S/PDIF and Optical S/PDIF I/O’s run in standard single-wire mode from 44.1k to 96k and in double-wire mode from 176.4k to 192k. I seem to recall that I tried the AES3id BNC input with a 192kHz signal and it was accepted, but routed on through the DCD-8 as a 96kHz signal without losing any information. I need to check this with my DCD-8, though, which will take some time as I am currently at home where I have a different set up. Anyway, you should be OK going out from your Lyn16 with AES dual wire for signals >96kHz.

 

 

[alan_un]

Hi Enken,

I finally got my Trimble Thunderbolt installed and... wow, what a difference. I am really grateful to you for this suggestion. It is just amazing; no time smear or bleeding of instruments into one another. Just very clean and detailed sound. All intruments are very clearly discernable. I guess this is what you also alluded to when you described your experience from reproducing your counsin's concert at home. I am just listening to Kate Bush and I never before heard so much details.

The new Minimax DAC II is also in my system now, but the biggest improvement remains the Trimble Thunderbolt clocking of the DCD-8. Considering the price, this is nothing short of astonishing. I still need to get the antenna onto the roof, though

Many thanks indeed Enken.

Alan

 

 

[Rym]

Hi there,

Has anyone experience what might be the diff. between the GPS inout versus the 10Mhz input for a stable clk into a clk distributor like the DCD-8 ?

Thx in advance...

 

[enken]

Hi,Alan.

Congrats you have achieved huge improvement with 10MHz input from T.T.

I'm very happy to hear that.

I think you have realized 10MHz input allows more 3-D like sound stage.

As you say, I believe I never feel such a reality from my system without 10MHz input.

 

 

 

 

 

[alan_un]

Hi Rym,

I am not sure I understand your query correctly. I am using the Trimble Thunderbolt as a master clock into the DCD-8. The TT puts out a 10Mhz clock signal into the DCD-8. The TT is "disciplined" by means of GPS. It receives GPS signals from a number of satellites and uses these as a gauge for its own clock signal, which is put out as 10Mhz, alternatively as a 1pps signal. In any event, the 10Mhz signal input into my DCD-8 led to a big improvement in sound.

 

 

[Rym]

Hi Alan,

 

Sorry, question was probably not phrased correctly. I am also running the DCD off a 10Mhz Rubidium clk & I agree with you, the difference is noticable.

 

Question which I had was, if anyone had tried the difference between a 10Mhz via the Rubidium clk vs. 10Mhz through the GPS reciever (like Thunderbolt).

 

Just curious...

 

By the way, I am still able to run only 96K out of the DCD ! Double wire, would need me to get another instrument, which I am hesitating to do for now. Anyhow, all what I like is available today from HD Tracks with 88 or 96K (mainly). SO that's fine. but if there is any Re-clocking equipment, which can do re-clocking like the DCD, but provide Single wire outs upto 192, that would be ideal.

 

Have fun with the 10Mhz, it for sure helps.

 

Rym

 

[alan_un]

Hi Rym,

I got it now; interesting comparison. I never tried a rubidium clock, but if I found something reasonably priced...

As to the DCD-8 double wire out for >96kHz, I am just acquiring a dCS DAC, which will allow me to feed in directly from my DCD-8 with double wire AES. The dCS can also connect its word clock input to the DCD-8.

I have an Apogee Big Ben in my main rig in Hong Kong, which allows me to go out with a single wire for 176.4 and 192kHz. The only drawback is that the Big Ben has no firewire input and needs a separate device - I am using a Focusrite LE - to connect to a computer. This could be via firewire or USB converter. I will try my M2Tech HiFace with it, but I would prefer something with AES.

 

[alan_un]

Hi enken,

I am a very happy user of the DCD-8 disciplined by the Trimble Thunderbolt and have changed my DAC to a dCS Delius, mainly to get the dual wire 192kHz connection going from the DCD-8 without any further box in between. I am upsampling all my music with specialised software to 192kHz-32bit (integer, not floating) and the sound is hard to beat.

Recently my Delius came back from an upgrade made by Music Fidelity - highly recommended and very affordable, as it beats the purchase of new equipment by any length. My Delius even features on theirn website as an upgarde example.

Now I realise that the yellow termination warning light on the DCD-8 is on, and the WClk out shows **Double** 46 ohms. The dCS word clock input is terminated with 100 ohms, which is close enough to the double 46 ohms, I guess. The dCS which is slaved to the DCD-8 wordclock accepts the clock input without problems and the sound is great, but somehow I find the yellow warning light irritating. Do you have any experience with the termination warning, or would you know if this causes any problem in the long run.

Alan

 

[enken]

Hi,Alan.

I am running Trimple Thunderbolt only with DCD-8 and having no problem with clock termination.I'm not sure if I should put terminator on my DCD-8.

I believe your dCS Delius sounds so great.Elgar is known as an ideal DAC in Japanese audiophiles.

Have a good day!

 

 

[alan_un]

Hi Enken,

Many thanks for the info. Yes, the Delius sounds really good, even better since the upgrade done by Fidelity Audio in the UK. I also bought an Elgar Plus, but haven't listened to it yet; something to look forward to.

Are you using also a Rubidium master clock? I am curious to know how it compares to the Trimble Thunderbolt.

By the way, I have made very good experience with the JPLAY software running in JRiver MC. It is available as trial software and worthwhile giving it a spin.

Alan

 

[enken]

Hi,Alan.

I imagine your Elgar plus also works very well.

My rubidium master clock was built by a private manufacturer with SYMMETRICOM LPRO unit.

I eventually bought it via Yahoo auction in Japan 10 month ago.

SYMMETRICOM LPRO 10Mhz unit gives almost the same information,clarity as Trimple Thunderbolt.

I feel a little advantage of SYMMETRICOM LPRO at the smoothness in treble,but actually both of them are almost equal.

BTW I must say thank you for your suggestion about JPLAY software.

I got it and finished setup with Jriver MC17 yesterday.As a trial I played a song by Mari Amachi, a female Japanese singer who dominated hit charts in the early 70's.(You don't know probably, lol)

I was shocked and awed because I felt as if she appeared in front of me.

Amazing reality especially in vocals and acoustic instruments.

Thank you so much again !

[alan_un]

Hi Enken,

Somehow I missed your last posting, and only discovered it today by chance; was quite busy at work. So sorry for my really late reply.

I got to set up my dCS Elgard with Purcell and Verdi in early June when I was back in Hong Kong. It took me a couple of days to get my Big Ben connected for clocking the dCS equipment. Once it was all set up, it was probably the best I heard from CD playback so far. Still, when back to Hong Kong in September I will send the Elgar Plus also to Fidelity Audio for an upgrade.

 

Many thanks for your detailed info on the Rubidium clock. If I come across a good deal. I may upgrade to Rubidium, too. It is very tempting, since I realize how important clocking for the sound quality is.

 

Since my last posting I bought a pair of PSB Synchrony One speakers and also upgraded my speaker cable to MIT Shotgun 1.3. All of which brought significant improvements in the system at my work place.

 

Glad you like JPlay. It really is very good. I am now pursuing a new venue for my source, which is currently a computer I built follwoing an article by Bill Gaw in Audiolics Anonymous Chapter 140 on the enjoythemusic.com site. I have now built a relatively simply computer to use as a Linux server with an Adnaco fiber optic extension. The extension will have a firewire card, which will be connect to my DCD-8. Both, the server and the extension, will be powered by four TeraDak linear power supplies. So far I have the server going and the extension with one of the TeraDak power supplies. Unfortunately, the firewire card I bought does not work properly, so I am waiting for a new one, before I can give the Linux system a real try. There is also the issue of the Brainstorm drivers under Linux, which I haven’t really tackled yet.

By the way, I know quite a lot of '70s singers, but not Mari Amachi. I'll check with my Japanese friend in Hong Kong, maybe he has a disc.

[enken]

Hi,Alan.

Never mind because I also have been busy at work since April.

Congrats you finished setting up the DCS trio and Apogee Big Ben. It's easy to imagine they are sounding so great!

I guess PSB Synchrony One's 3 bass units are very effective especially in mid-low range.

Attached pic shows my new Windows7 music PC. I built it with Intel DH77DF desktop board,Core i5 2500T,8GB DDR3,500GB 2.5"HDD,90W AC power adapter.

The PC doesn't have any cooling fans. It has CPU heat sink,heat pipes and radiating fins instead.

I'm going to replace the HDD with SSD to achieve 0db(completely quiet) machine.

I know some PC audio guys in Japan are already running Voyage MPD. I have no skills of Linux, but I think I should learn about it some day.

Anyway, I am happy with bit perfect playback coming from Jplay and Jriver MC17 even in 16/44.1 so far:).

[alan_un]

Hi Enken,

This looks like a really great machine and of course, I can see the Brainstorm DCD-8 underneath.

Admittedly, I am of two minds when it comes to Audio PCs after having read quite a bit on what influences sound quality and what not. It appears that there is no real SOTA design for Audio PC. To give you an idea, PeterSt the developer of the XXHiend software and designer and builder of the NOS Phasure DAC uses spinning disks for both, OS and audio software and the audio files. He separates the audio files on one disk and puts the OS and audio software together on another.

I am playing in my own system audio files from a SSD isolated by a SOtM In-Line SATA Power Noise Filter and connected by silver SATA cable and have identical files on a 12TB LaCie external HD connected to my PC also via a silver SATA cable. And to be frank, I think I prefer to listen to the same audio files from my external HD.

And here is another interesting thing: a friend in Hong Kong has built an audio PC with 3 external TeraDak linear power supplies; he runs on a minimal amount of 4 GB memory and has disabled almost all nonessential functions in his motherboard's bios. The PC is connected via com port to his notebook from where he navigates the PC. And though he only plays 44.1-16 through his Metrum Octave, the sound is incredibly musical. Admittedly, he runs his Audio PC on Linux.

Hopefully, in a couple of weeks, when some missing parts have arrived, I can post a picture of my Linux PC, which now also runs on Windows 8. No problems for the DCD-8 drivers and very stable in its latency behavior. Perhaps that's why people like Windows 8 as an audio OS.

[enken]

Alan,your friend in Hong kong is right.

I think there's no problem he didn't go to SSD.

As far as I know, there's no experimental data or evidence how HDD's movement damages the accuracy of digital signal or sound quality itself. ( because of high frequency noises etc.)

I actually feel no difference in sound quality between SSD and HDD.

My concerns were reducing physical noises and heat came from my 2.5" HDD.

Other benefits from SSD are quicker system boot and shut down, and faster reading out.

I think I need to check sound environment of Windows 8.

Thanks.

[alan_un]

Enken, I now have some better listening experience with windows 8 and my Adnaco extension, which holds the firewire card. Compared to my Media PC, the new Adnaco extension PC provides a clearer and more detailed sound and a better sound stage. You can hear deeper into the music. I am attributing this to the Adnaco extension, which insulates the firewire card from the PC's electronic artifacts via its fiber optic connection.

Though I still have not managed to get the DCD-8 recognized by the Linux OS on the same computer. As an alternative, I will put an RME HDPSPe AES sound card into the Adnaco extension and try to connect from there to the DCD-8. Linux has driver for the RME card, which also has the advantage of accepting a wordclock input. I hope to have everything up and running over the weekend and will let you know how it sounds.

As to the PSB Synchrony One speakers, they are more detailed compared to my previous speakers and the bass is tighter. Overall, its quite some improvement and its a great speaker for the price.

[alan_un]

Enken, I recently put an RME AES PCIe soundcard into the Adnaco extension of my windows 8 PC and connected it with a breakout cable to the two AES inputs of the DCD-8. The DCD-8 is also connected to RME's wordclock input, driving it as a master clock. The RME configuration under windows 8 was a snap. The result is sounding incredibly musical with great channel separation and detail retrieval. Comparing it with the Firewire connection of my windows 7 PC, the RME AES certainly is a step up.

I will now install an Adnaco extension also in my windows 7 PC to see how it stacks up to the windows 8 RME set up.

[enken]

Hi,Alan.

I guess your RME soundcard sounds good because I remember RME DIGI 96/8PST worked very good and in my old PC audio system.

It's very interesting you got better result with RME PCIe sound card than with the Fire Wire interface.

Do you use Windows 8 consumer preview version? Is it working stable?

I installed Jplay 4.3 and stunned with more clarity, details and information coming from even from 44.1Khz sources.

Of course I had no fatigue during long time listening.

By the way I uploaded a song performed by Mari Amachi in 96/24 wav format here.

mari_amachi.wav

Please DL and enjoy legendary falsetto vocal if you don't mind.

[alan_un]

Hi Enken,

I have just connected my Focusrite Saffire interface to listen to the mari amachi file on my dCS Elgar Plus. I listened yesterday to some Grateful Dead that I downloaded from HD tracks and the sound was just glorious. The Saffire connects via Firewire to my Notebook and with a S/PDIF cable to the dCS Purcell. Though the Saffire is limited to 96kHz, the Purcell can upsample to 192kHz. Both, Purcell and Elgar Plus are externally clocked by my Big Ben and this creates a very nice sound. I am thinking of buying the Weiss AFI 1 as a firewire interface for my setup in Hong Kong, as the AFI 1 can be externally clocked, which the Weiss Int202 cannot.

I am also in the process of building up a new computer audio front-end for my system in Hong Kong, which will use the NOS Phasure DAC. I got already the matching computer from Peter, the designer of the Phasure DAC and XXHiend playback software, and will take delivery of the DAC when I am back here in December.And then there is the rubidium clock for my DCD-8

So many projects in the pipeline, but so little time.

I'll let you know how mari amachi sounds over my dCS stack.

Cheers