TSS Two Chassis Super DAC

Again, what is the point? Do you expect the customer to change settings on the DAC based on the meters? Or is it just eye candy?

The volume control knob will be able to go past 100 so you can listen comfortably to quietly recorded material. If you accidentally leave the volume at, say 120 or 140 then when you play something which is recorded at a more normal volume you might not understand why the peaks are compressed, but you’ll probably see the overload on the meter (whatever its style). If you don’t want the visual feedback you can either not show it or turn off the display. Without a meter or overload indicator I wouldn’t want to support a knob that goes above 100.

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I don’t get why you want a volume control that goes past 100% on anything. If you aren’t blowing your head apart at 100% with any track, you have a gain problem with your setup.

The only time we should need VU/Peak meters is for recording.

Neat.

My favorite is a split meter with two levels for each channel peaking at +6 : 1) peak level with latching hold (until reset), and 2) RMS. This tells me everything I need to know.

Do you use replay gain? I often do (tho not always). Allowing the DAC to get louder than unity similarly allows quiet material to be raised to a more comfortable listening level. Turning it up can give a better S/N than turning up a preamp and it’s more convenient if either you don’t have a preamp or you mostly use the DAC’s volume control.

If you don’t want to ever do that, no problem, but I don’t see why you are arguing against some things that multiple people would use if it does no harm to you.

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I guess those „freak features“ get hidden in a sub menu so no one’s bothered who doesn’t want to think about it :wink:

I think there’s always the demand of expert and convenience users to consider…I just hope this also gets true for Octave and not only the convenience side :wink:

My thoughts on that are similar, and apply also to D’agostino and McIntosh products which I think are all ugly.

Except you can turn the meter off. Or switch it to display something else.

Once you buy you are stuck with D’agostino styling.

Volume is not a global setting common to all inputs, right? I assume the wonder DAC will recall the last volume setting on a per-input basis.

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Would need to be hires and small. The meters on the P20 are ugly…

The tube voltage meters on my Cary SLP-05 are classic…in my…

That’s a strong assumption. If there were multiple volumes, there would probably be a main volume and trims for each input, but with digital inputs 0dB FS is the same from any source so I don’t know why you would need trims.

Really??? I will take these please…

http://cdn.dandagostino.com/images/products/momentum_stereo_silver_2.jpg

http://cdn.dandagostino.com/images/products/momentum_preamp_3.jpg

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For example…
INPUT A - listening at Vol = 80, then change to INPUT B - listening at Vol = 90 (because that was the volume setting when INPUT B was last used), change back to INPUT A Vol = 80 (without having to make any physical volume change).
Because sources connected to different inputs might have different output levels. When you flip between sources you don’t want to inadvertently play the new input too loud.
This is how my analog pre-amp works, but if digital inputs behave as you say then this sort of behavior isn’t necessary.

I admire the engineering and the craftmanship, but not the aesthetic.

Completely agreed. Corny steampunk gone bad.

I love that steampunk analog type styling. Growing up my dad was a master watchmaker and all of those watch parts laying around the house was always intriguing to me. I’m a sucker for the skeleton type watch design too…

Don’t like those D’Agostinos at all. Kind of garish if you ask me.

I’d be very happy to have these in my setup.

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I wouldn’t buy one, but I’d certainly be happy to have one.

These D’ag amps don’t measure all that well. Dan has talked about that. When he was the designer at Krell his aim was to build products that measured well. Often products that measured well didn’t sound all that good. He now aims to design products that sound good, with far less regard to how well they measure.

For me, I look for products that both measure well and sound good. And looking good also helps. Scoring only 1/3 Mr D’agostino doesn’t get my money.

Watch parts are deliciously elegant in its precision and form. Each serves a precise purpose.

D’Agostino styling is all “Look at me!” with little, if any, purpose.

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