bodiebill

Not yet :-) Due to Buchardt's overwhelming success they were first postponed to last week, when I received the bad news from Mads Buchardt that mine did not pass quality control, which I am glad they take pretty seriously. The A500's are now expected end of May. Not a big problem for me as I just moved house and am still finding out where to place my gear for best SQ. Actually, I think I found it: best results so far with the speakers placed diagonally, i.e. on two sides of a room corner. So now I can refamiliarize myself with the sound for later comparison with Buchardt setup. Trial period is

😊 I got that Stephsne no problem. But you could be right in the end notwithstanding... We will see...

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

For what it is worth, some people report great results feeding analogue signal into high-end active speakers such as Dutch and Dutch, Kii or Buchardt. These speakers obviously include ADC. These reports made me curious and I will receive Buchardt A500's for a 45-day trial period starting in February. Not sure yet how the ECD gear will fit in such a setup, but there are many possibilities and I will experiment...

Modest answer: the only English version I know is the somewhat awkward one that I translated myself: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_-ZRamF6w2EwGybCgdeIsmz82-1K9Iuk-Q6D3yLufyw/edit?usp=sharing

I only use the power stage of my integrated Cayin tube amp. That means I can use the Cayin's remote to operate another preamp as shown here. On the pic it is still the Lightspeed attenuator, but I am planning to do something similar with my current preamp (also The Truth, with thanks to @hopkins) after I have moved house. (With the SVC this option looks less obvious.)

I tried directly from the DA96 with a Hifiman HE-6, known as very demanding headphones, and indeed volume was too soft and it sounded 'off'. With a Taket H2 + its own TR2 box, the SQ is great.

Thanks Matt! I was too lazy to do my homework :-|

Will the PowerDAC have an analogue volume control? Will it be based on the SVC24 shunt -only attenuator principle?

Many design challenges need to be overcome when building a house on a volcano (read: streaming over the network). I now prefer building my house in a quiet hamlet (read: stand alone source). Of course I understand that many prefer streaming but this may be incompatible with top-tier SQ unless a fortune is spent. I now feel better omitting the whole network chain (other than for controlling the UPL96, which is another thing) and use a stand alone SD- or USB player. SQ goes up, €€ investment way down. You might say user-friendliness goes down also, but I did not expe

Agreed. Maybe I am a bit peculiar, but I sleep much better now that I do not have to think about the complex (and expensive) chain with network connections, linear power supplies, usb cleaners etc. And I like the ritual of preparing a UPL drive or SDTrans SD card. It is like making tea or putting on a vinyl record. It enhances mindful listening :-)

They are close, but I slightly preferred I2S with a very short (20 or 30 cm) flat HDMI cable. (Sorry for OT.)

True, but this would would be a comparison between €333 >> €635 vs >€10.000 >> €333 >> €635 so even if the latter would be as good as the first, I would not change anything in my setup. and with the coax-ready DAPI, maybe I could finally try (as I cannot imagine a Taiko Extreme to be cleaner than this): SDTrans384 >> Power DAC (€550 >> €???) :-)

I am very sorry, but I do not remember :-| I sold my ISO Regen some time ago. I feel I no longer need it for my ECdesigns DAC (using ElectroTos) and certainly not for my Terminator (using I2S).

Actually, I happened to have this problem just now...