The ultra rich and audiophiles are an entirely different demographics. The former hang out in Monte Carlo and gravitate to country clubs, the latter hang out at Axpona and gravitate towards audiophile forums. The reason is simple. The vast majority of the ultra rich are single mindedly obsessed with some pursuit that generates their financial wealth (typically running a company). This leaves no room for a second obesssion (i.e. being an audiophile). Of course, does does not mean there are no ultra rich audiophiles. However, most ultra rich that spend big $$$ on audio are audio snobs. They do it because they can afford it, not because of a genuine passion.
Perhaps, but not in all cases
Yeah no doubt Ultrafast. I like several things. I have maybe $700,000 of audio gear here. I never go to AXPONA because afraid of crowds. I truly enjoy audio and cars and a couple of other things. I did not buy the gear to show it off. no one comes here except buddies that have almost no money. I bought it because it sounds good to me. we do not entertain or anything like that either. I just listen to my stereos and drive my cars. I live in a tiny town and granted I am the wealthiest citizen but I blend right in. For instance cannot care about clothes. Buy mine at Walmart.
Oh, I remember when 1 Megabyte hard disk was about 3 grand. Heck I remember punch cards and freezing. I had a PDP-11 in my then home.
My guess the truly wealthy have exactly the same level of interest in audio, music, football, whatever, as the rest of the overall population.
Ted what will the output level of the new DAC be? Will it be higher than the DS?
magicknow
As I noted, the right side of the demand curve can get really weird with the very wealthy. And as any economist knows, if there is a demandā¦
I hung with Porsche guys and Ferrari guysā¦ yes both brands are mostly posersā¦ butā¦ When I hang with the Porshce guys, they are all talking about go-fast stuff and modding their carsā¦ all have been to the track. The Ferrari guys talk about the color and the leather. I asked a Ferrari salesperson what exactly did the aero bits on the back of a 355 doā¦ he said āthats part of the aero kitāā¦ OK, I asked ādoes it limit backpressure or does it increase downforceā Salesperson āI donāt know.ā
While it offends our sensibilities that a āgoodā maker builds a $100,000 amplifier unit for only one reason: it sells. It is what the market demandsā¦ ā¦ What would you do?
I will say this: I canāt imagine me buying anything I didnāt think was worth it. I donāt think I am suseptbile to the consumer-oriented emotional weakness of āLook at me! Look at me!ā (Just as I wrote that, I remember myself at the bars 25 years ago in the Cleveland flatsā¦ hmmmmā¦)
Audio equipement has a value curveā¦ and we always ask the question āIs another $100 get me $100 worth of quality?ā This is why I canāt imagine me paying $10K for a DACā¦ particularly when the Junior is so darn good.
Peace
Bruce in Philly
What would I do? Make as many as I possibly could without taking on excessive leverage and blowing my company up. 
Iām a believer in (a) market segmentation and (b) pushing the boundaries of tech and performance as that eventually results in ānews I can useā as the know-how eventually meanders downstream into stuff I can afford.
Also, a good number of 1%-ers have short attention spans and their old toys get sold for a fraction of retail. Iāve built a pretty decent system by being patient. Canāt afford not to be.
Fortunately, in my end of the world Ferrari owners track their cars. Some Porsche owners do as well.
My favorite are the Porsche owners who boost their car has never been driven in the rain. Does it not rain in Germany? What do they use to wash it?
The (more or less) standard 4V RMS for balanced and 2V RMS for single ended. (4V RMS ~= 11.3V P-P, 2V RMS ~= 5.7V P-P) This is approx. 3dB louder than the DS. DSD inputs can also get 3dB louder than that for short periods, the hardware will support about a 8V RMS (~= 22.6V P-P) range to have plenty of headroom for loud SACDs. The unbalanced output will have the option to double the voltage range if your preamp (or amp) has the ability to use an isolated (non-grounded) unbalanced input.
The software will allow you to āgo to 11ā so that you can go above 100 for tracks that are too quiet (if you forget that the level is higher than normal there will be a display if/when that causes distortion.) There will also be 3 attenuator options, -10dB, -20dB and -30dB.
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Iām curious if there is a reason for not lifting the output transformer secondary from ground altogether, or provide a switch to do so? This would allow for double unbalanced output into grounded inputs. Plus it would reduce ground noise being sent downstream, would it not?
Is it going to have a volume memory assigned to each input, or just a global volume?
There are multiple output configuration relays. Thereās an option for symmetric drive vs. differential drive (is center tap hooked to the XLR common). An option for hooking XLR shield to analog output ground or not, an option for analog output ground/common to be hooked to system ground or not, an option to have single ended with the normal ground to + or instead, from - to + (for doubling output level on systems that can accept a isolated unbalanced input)
In general each input and output has a relay option to be completely isolated or to be hooked to the system ground.
The exact software options havenāt been designed yet. Unlike analog inputs which often have differing input ranges, digital input are all relative to (the same) full scale so with a DAC there isnāt nearly as much need for individual input levels (or equivalently output levels) as there is in, say a preamp or an ADC.
In general the TSS will have more options than the DS (e.g. the grounding options mentioned above), but making everything an option is a cop-out on our part. Each option adds potential end user confusion, support problems and bugs. The DS has fewer options than most DACs and rarely does anyone complain about any given āmissing featureā. We strive to eliminate the need for options rather than adding options willy-nilly and pushing the responsibility to get things right on the end users. We are trying to be sparing and avoid the kitchen sink syndrome.
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Presumably a volume limiter feature will be included, like that which was added to DS in response to end-user feedback.
Yep, weāll not be deleting software options that are there now.
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And end user configuration of the analog XLR out hot/cold pin assignments? My Esoteric gives me that option, but I have no idea why. I thought the XLR interface was an electric standard, so donāt know why youād need to swap the pins over. Unless of course your I/C was inadvertently built crossedā¦which has happened to me (no need to mention the brand).
Thatās not a bad suggestion, but it can be handled with the polarity buttonā¦ Swapped hot and cold on XLRās is like metric vs SAE, the States (and some others) did it the opposite of the standard for years. With digital interconnects it just doesnāt matter (itās the presence or absence of transitions that matter not rising or falling.) But with analog interconnects swapped hot and cold was yet another cause for the ārandomā tracks out of absolute polarity problem.
Ted, I do like the attenuator options. I had to build inline -10dB attenuators so the -10dB on the TSS is a bonus that I will make use of when I use my other makes of amplifiers that are single-ended only.
Could you please explain why the need for -30dB ? I donāt doubt you for a nanosecond but just that -30dB seems a lot of attenuationā¦I find -20dB to be too much. But that said, I am only going with my own system(s and circumstance hence not seeing the bigger pictureā¦
Thanks.
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Sure, I understand that. In my example given, I bought a pair of XLR I/C - one was a straight, the other turned out to be crossed - so to be able to swap hot/cold on one XLR output only would have solved that problem. Polarity button I think is a global setting for both outputs?
Just as some people donāt need any attenuation, others need quite a bit. There are customers for which 20dB isnāt enough. My system is a bit of an example: I normally listen to the TV with the volume at -60dBFS tho for some movies I get up to -40dB or so. With music getting anywhere near -20dBFS is shaking the concrete floor and causing hearing damage.
You should have returned them. Thatās quite rare (like buying two tires for your car and having them be different sizes) and having the option to invert only one channel is definitely something that would cause more problems than it would solve. (Tho a couple of times a year I encounter a commercial on the TV that has one channel reversed.)
Thanks, Ted. I see why now. I didnāt view it from that perspective ! I never play movies through my main system or do I play at very loud levels. My wife would have a breakdown if I played music so loud that it started to move the structure of our property and /or blow out eardrums ā¦
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