Which Front End?

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi suteetat - I agree that was a bad error on my part :~(

 

I thought the Mogami was a bit to forward for my taste and the Gatham was just right for me. It sounds like the Mogami may be the right choice for you anyway! Maybe it's good I messed up :~)

 

[Suteetat]

Hmm.... sad to admit this but I have to say that I like Mogami wire less than Lynx stock cable. I left my computer on running signal through Mogami wire for 3 days straight and has been listening to it everyday for the last 5 days or so. While the sound continue to improve slowly, the sound just does not improve in the way that I like. Detail is not as great as Lynx cable. Midrange and treble, while getting smoother as the cable breaks in, remains too aggressive for me. Lynx cable put the instruments just a bit in front of the speakers which is the perspective that I like. Mogami however is even more forward, just a bit too much for me. It is hard to describe but I would say that Lynx stocked cable is more musical,less fatiguing, more mellow overall. I shall wait to see how the Audience cable things turn out to be. I hope it will be a major improvement over Lynx cable! Otherwise, Gatham would be next

 

 

[Mike in MD]

I can just imagine all the high blood pressure and red faces in the "it's just numbers" crowd if they ever read this thread. This is a great hobby. All sorts of unexpected things.

 

Mike

 

[Suteetat]

Well, it is a free world after all If they think it's just numbers, good for them!

I don't claim my opinion to be the absolute final truth so everybody should

take my comment with a grain of salt. To my ears (last time I did an audiogram,

my hearing is still ok ), in my system, in my unscientific non blinded A/B test,

this is what I hear and I am perfectly happy with my conclusion, placebo or no

placebo effect as long as my listening experience is more enjoyable, why not!

(now I am ducking).

 

 

[jadis192]

Suteetat, trying to get this thread back to music........can u tell me if the dual XLRs are significantly better than the other digital ins on the DAC? Does the clock make a huge difference? Thanks

 

[Suteetat]

Jadis, I definitely prefer dual XLR over single XLR as far as Lynx cable is concerned.

Overall, as far as digital input is concerned, my Esoteric dealer claims that between P05-D05, they had best result using iLink connection.

I also use iLink connection between my SACD player to D05 but I really have nothing that I could use to compare coax vs toslink vs XLR vs iLink easily.

 

I have not tried Lynx-D05 with and without word input from D-05. Since that option is already there and I don't think it would hurt anything so I have always been using clock input from D-05 to Lynx. However, in the next few months, I definitely would like to try Esoteric External clock and compare it to D-05's clock.

 

 

 

[Suteetat]

I now have the Audience wire for a few days and has been burning it in for the last couple of days. The wires used was Audience 18 AWG standard. I wanted to use 21 AWG OHNO wire but it is not available locally currently and Audience is only selling it in bulk so no luck locating it so far. However, even with 18 AWG, the result is very good. I definitely prefer it over the stock Lynx cable. Singing voice is more rounded and smoother than stock cable with good extension at both ends of the spectrum, very good clarity but a touch on the lean side.

My only complain is that the good recording sounds even better but not so good recording sounds more unbearable.

 

I showed Redco cable to a local distributer of Cardas. He thinks that he could send the wire back to Cardas and have Cardas replaces Mogami wire with Cardas wire and have factory terminates and seals the cable.

I still have some doubt as Cardas wire is not that small and I don't see how they woudl fit two of their XLR cable in the HD26 easily. Anyhow, since I have a spare set of Redco cable, I left it with him and see what Cardas has to say.

 

 

 

[danish]

I just bought a mac mini for music playback and until I've decided which firewire interface to use the mini is connected directly to my Esoteric D-05 with toslink.

I have a few 24/96 files that I converted from FLAC to WAV and I would like to playback the files in native format in Itunes. I thought I could change the sample rate in MIDI settings but it says "Audio Output not supported". How do I get 24/96 out of the mac? Is there a limitation of the optical input on the D-05? Any tips would be much appreciated.

 

Thanks

 

Thomas

 

[danish]

Ok, found it. Had to choose output in "Properties for" in the left side of the window. Doh! Please excuse me, this is my first mac..:-|

 

 

 

[danish]

I have a question for you D-05 owners. Did any of you manage to control the clock of the D-05 from a non-Esoteric device? I'm currently using a TC electronic X32 firewire interface connected to the D-05 with a BNC cable. If I connect the BNC cable from X32 word out to the D-05 word in the D-05 just displays "No word". It works fine if I use the word out on the D-05.

 

Regards

Thomas

 

[audioengr]

Duh...

 

[danish]

..

 

[Suteetat]

Thomas, I tried clock output from Lynx card to D-05 clock input but that did not work either but no problem with clock out from D-05 to Lynx clock input as well. Not sure if I did anything wrong with the setup or not. Seems unlikely that D-05 clcok input would only work with Esoteric clock though.

 

[danish]

Thanks for testing this. I might try to ask Esoteric about this issue.

 

 

 

 

[catastrofe]

Here are some comments from Esoteric customer service regarding clock signals. I was trying to synch my D-05 from my G-03X but couldn't get a lock. I'm now running a MacPro with Lynx AES16e and both the Lynx and D-05 clocked by the G-03X.

Hope this helps. . .

---------------------------

Dear Robert,

 

I received a response from Japan which I have attached here:

 

"The general rule is that if you connect a clock to a DAC, the clock must also be connected to the transport from which the DAC is receiving the digital audio signal flow. The four situations are:

 

#1. Transport (with clock) + DAC (with the same clock as supplied to transport)

-> OK. The whole system chain is under a same clock management.

This is the recommended connection.

 

#2. Transport (with clock) + DAC ( without clock)

-> OK. Digital audio signal output from transport will be re-clocked.

Although the digital signal output from transport will be improved

with less jitter, word sync between transport and DAC still is not working so

there will be some amount of inter-component jitter.

 

#3. Transport (without clock) + DAC (with clock)

-> NG. Word error. DAC will not lock to a digital signal because it contains

a different clock signal supplied to DAC.

 

#4 Transport (w/o clock) , Transport (with clock) + DAC (with clock)

-> Transport with clock will be OK. but Transport w/o clock will be NG.

You have to set up the DAC's clock to "PLL2" when you play w/o clock.

 

The customer's system config is #3, so unfortunately the customer will have to disconnet the G-03X from his system, and set up the D-05 to "PLL2" mode. Or, if he wants to keep the G-03X in use, he needs to upgrade the transport (MAC mini) to a sound card. P-05 + D-05 will be clocked by the G-03X. When he want to use another transports (MAC mini), please set the D-05 to PLL2 mode."

 

You will not be able to lock your DAC to the G-03X until you upgrade the MAC with a sound card that accepts a word clock input.

 

Best regards,

 

Tim

ESOTERIC Support

 

 

[danish]

What I understand from this is the D05 cannot be clocked from the transport/FW interface/soundcard.

I was looking for a way to switch sample rate on the mac without having to change clock on the D-05.

 

 

[danish]

Just wanted to tell other D-05 owners out there, that the clock word sync from the Weiss AFI1 to D-05 clock input works absolutely flawlessly. Another thing is that the AFI1 outputs 176.4 and 192 khz through single wire AES into the D-05, which I didn't think was possible. With Amarra playing there is no more buttons to press and no mouse clicks when changing between tracks with different sample rates. Just press play..

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi Danish - I am a big fan of external clocking but it doesn't really work with Amarra. Did I read your post correctly that you are using an external clock and Amarra?

 

[danish]

 

Hi Danish - I am a big fan of external clocking but it doesn't really work with Amarra. Did I read your post correctly that you are using an external clock and Amarra?

 

 

Yes, I'm using the word clock out of the AFI1 and into the dac. There is a small click from the DAC when it synchronizes to the incoming clock signal.