Now I think the concept might be be frowned on here, but Iām dying to know how the DAC sounds with a lower distortion core transformer. Supposedly a high silicone steel core might lower bass distortion by an order of magnitude vs M6 steel. VERY tempted to try it, somehow. Hmmmā¦
Just rambling here, but bass distortion tones to me are far more critical than say a 10KHz tone. Because for the bass, all the D2, D3, Dx harmonic distortion tones are sprayed right up into the critical midbass and midband range.
If we remove those unwanted noise tones, I assume the effect is to lower the midband noise floor essentially. Always a good thing IMO.
OTOH distort a 10+KHz wave, I donāt care (within reason of course). Because all the harmonic tones are above the audio band.
PS- Iāve reached out to Jensen, Edcor, et al for help with same but theyāre all ignoring me lol And Lundahl is on vacation currently
JMO. YMMV T
Edit- hereās the temptress herself. The little tart, flaunting that short skirt and all. Measured data from āAudio Transformersā by Bill Whitlock
I donāt think āneedā is really accurateā¦ As delivered - which mine is - the dac is fantasticā¦ If Ted has given an easy avenue to improve the sound with a fairly inexpensive mod for folks looking for āpast Sunlightā ā¦ good for everyone !!! Iām still trying to figure out if opening up the top / and getting the board out is beyond my risk toleranceā¦ LOLā¦
I think you might be missing the point. The DS doesnāt āneedā mods. @ted is being generous informing us that if you are interested in hot rodding, you can. The DS with Sunlight is world class. This DAC has numerous glowing reviews and a large fan base thatās very satisfied with a stock device.
Think about it this way, instead of tube rolling we are transformer rolling.
+1. And I think it is pretty much unmatched in the industry that the designer of a device provides hands on advice to further improve it on hardware level. This is not even including the free of charge sound improvments that came along with each of the firmware updates. The hardware mods involve a level of risk (as some sadly experiencedā¦) but for those who were prepared to take it and were sucessful, they provided great reward.
Surpassed by ā¦ ?
What do you mean surpassed in the technical way or soundwise.
Which DAC did you compare?
I ask because i was also looking for another DAC before de mod.
The DACās that i did like better (SQ) where all above the 10.000.
The level difference caused by the transformer mod is really crazy. I analyzed a bit deeper and recognized that the high level recordings are about the same as before (loud listening levels at 10-11 oāclock) while low level recordings need 90 degree more pot adjustment.
@tedsmith, does this mean, the noise floor is so reduced and mainly noticeable at low level recordings, that it needs such higher pot movements to get the same perceived level for low signals with then even louder than before higher levels? At least this is what I think it is.
I still donāt fully get why lower noise floor means I have to turn the pot up to perceive the same level.
Noise level aside, but does it sound any better? I spend a total of $58 for the two transformers. Did the mod myself. I spend over $2,000 on a piece of HDMI cable, so which is a better value. I say do the mod and when the MKII comes out decide then whether to upgrade or not.
In the main I would suggest that being less fatiguing means some users will turn things up to a higher level overall than they did before. This is consistent with turning lower level recordings up more than turning up higher level recordings. But everyone has differing experiences with this.
I would do the transformer upgrade and listen to it for a while. The power supply mod while reversible, might make resale in your region a little difficult. Tweaking beyond tubes, cables, and phono cartridges isnāt attractive to a large part of the audiophile community
Youāve described the Audiophile conundrum. How to compare really anything. Cables, Speakers, Amps, Preās, Phono Pre, Cartridges, etcā¦
Iāve thought about what it would be like to have a fee based library for Audiophiles where you could check-out a piece of gear to test. Of course the logistics, finances, and liability would be a nightmare. But it was fun to think about. Some dealers have really great demo options. The problem is that no one dealer carries everything and depending where you live, you might not have a dealer who carries something youād like to demo.
And Lundahl is on vacation currently 