Here’s a TLDR before my short novel below, lol: Using a JCAT card in my PC significantly improved the sound of my Directstream Mk1 coming out of my PC using USB and also reduced perceived sibilance slightly.
Hi guys, first post here. I am a longtime audiophile since 2005ish. I have built my speakers
and have tried a few mid and lower range products throughout the years. Once refurbed
directstream DACs came online for the reduced price I finally took the plunge. I had owned
one of their much earlier model DACs around 12 years ago that I bought second hand and I loved it. It got sold eventually in the neverending upgradeitis and discovery process.
I generally think of myself as a rational empiricist in most domains. In other words if I cant truly hear a difference I wont suggest an upgrade. Even though I do have mild tinnitus, my hearing is generally quite good and I’m 41 years old. I can hear clearly upto around 13khz. I also used to make computer electronic music for what thats worth. Despite my empiricism, I always leave the door open to the possiblity that there are reasons why something sounds better even if I dont understand why that is.
Anyhow, Ive been really into studying speaker design and have gone through many drivers and finally settled on a two way using a 15" 18 Sound 500W woofer for the low end and a Joseph Crowe 8x5" horn powered by a B&C DE500 compression driver for the top end.
There’s something special about a two way and the clarity and phase coherence as well as polar response is pretty hard to beat IMO.
I had been using a DEQX to design and prototype the speaker and finally once I was happy with it (crossover around 1200hz 2nd order on the 15, 1st order on the horn) I switched to the DS Mk1 dac. Im using my PC as a source and I was under the impression that it was ‘source agnostic’ in other words USB right out of the PC would be ‘as good as it gets’. Well I have to be honest when I first tried it I was disappointed. It was just ever so slightly better than the DEQX and the sibilance from digital I had been hearing was still there. It had gotten to a point where I really had lost alot of enjoyment in music due to the annoying effect sibilance had begun to have on my ears. It was slightly better with the DS dac but not much.
I had purchased a JCAT femto card a long time ago and had issues with it working with my gemini USB cable so I hadn’t been using it recently but finally today I switched to just a regular USB cable and got the JCAT femto card to work. WOW, what a difference. Honestly, it sounds so much better and I cant really explain why. The ‘wholeness’ and ‘stability’ of the aural image is back and the sibilance is drastically reduced! ‘ess’ sounds no longer irritate me as much. Its only been a few hours, so I will update in the following days to confirm this isn’t placebo but I’m feeling fairly confident its not. fingers crossed
Anyways, I’m just giving back to the community a bit with this information in case it helps someone. I don’t know if other DDS or internal card solutions will work as well, but if you’re having annoying sibilance issues with your digital audio or just aren’t feeling like your DAC sounds great I highly suggest trying this out, or I suppose other options like the air lens (although I havn’t tried it). After this, I am even going further I just inquired about ordering an external LPS for the femto card and will see if that makes further improvements as well.
I know this is getting long, sorry for the book here lol. One last observation: I had tried the JCAT femto card previously with my DEQX and was underwhelmed…I thought about this and what I cameup with is that possibly the DEQX just isnt resolving enough to notice a difference but the DS IS. And yet without the JCAT the DS dac was ALSO underwhelming. The source absolutely does matter. No wonder this hobby is so confusing… you just have to keep experimenting and don’t give up.
Cheers all,
Elias
PS: (not audio lol) In case someone thinks I work for JCAT I dont, lol. I live in Canada and I think they’re in Europe somewhere. This is just my own humble opinion put out there for the benefit of whomever. I have consumed so much of what other people put out there I wanted to contribute something of my own.
Much ‘smoother’ sound but no less detail just less harsh. Much easier to ‘relax into the music’. Before the sibilants had a ‘spitty’ quality to them. I have a monster graphics card in my PC so it probably creates alot of noise.e I think the Femto is filtering alot of that out. Will update again once my Farad Super 3 5v power supply arrives to see if there is more to be gained…