Abbas dac 2.1 se
- Thread starter jespera
- Start date
Your impressions of the Merason DAC 1 mirrors what I’ve heard from reliable sources, an excellent product. Your preference for it over the Lab 12 DAC (Reference 1 or theirSE?) tells me more.
I am pretty confident that I would be very happy with it. Well executed solid state output and no tubes to be concerned about, leave it on 24/7 etc.
Yet, I find the Abbas approach most interesting and compelling. My core objective is to have the sound as “natural “ and tonally/timbre as real as I can get with a digital signal path. So I have high hopes and expectations of the 3.2SE.
I am not a fan of the “modern “ tech /hyper detailed/interpolation/algorithm/mathematical derived sound presentation. Too contrived and synthetic/artificial for me.
Charles
A friend of mine has a high spec audio note system. The dac is/was a level 3 but it has been heavily modified and upgraded to something like level 5. I think he has spent at least 20k usd on it.
Also he has spent a lot of money and time and experiments on the streaming side of it.
It sounds very good and, it fact it was the one system that persuaded me that there is indeed life after digital and streaming.
However, cost kept me away from investing in an audio note dac. Instead i found the abbas stuff.
Subsequently, we have compared my abbas dac 2.1se to his. And to my ears the abbas is better. The audio note is more forgiving but it sacrifices detail and resolution relative to the abbas. And it costs 10 times more.
The audio note man sticks to his dac but other abbas stuff has sneaked into the chain. He has bought an abbas phonostage and abbas valve clock for some of his switches.
I have another friend who’s the owner of a lampizator big 7 mk 2. Its pleasant and detailed enough to listen to but in comparison to the 2.1se it sounds delta-sigma. More digital and less analogue.
Also not quite the detail level of the 2.1se anyways. To my ears. Lampi man has bought an abbas dac 3.2se.
@jespera
The LampiZator owner, has he received his 3.2SE yet or is it under construction? The LampiZators are nice but do get rather pricey. The Abbas DACs are exceptionally reasonably priced. Direct selling from him surely a contributing factor.
Based on earlier comments from you, I’ve decided to try the Abbas power cable and SPDIF cable with the DAC. He really seems to like his vintage wire sonic characteristics.
Charles
The LampiZator owner, has he received his 3.2SE yet or is it under construction? The LampiZators are nice but do get rather pricey. The Abbas DACs are exceptionally reasonably priced. Direct selling from him surely a contributing factor.
Based on earlier comments from you, I’ve decided to try the Abbas power cable and SPDIF cable with the DAC. He really seems to like his vintage wire sonic characteristics.
Charles
Lampi man received his dac 3.2se in june. From what i hesr hes very happy with it. But hes doing some major reworks of his system including new electricity and also etherregen with abbas valve clock. When dust settles i’ll go visit and listen.
Audio note man wrote a review of the abbas clock on another forum. I may have posted before but here you go:
audiophilestyle.com
You can safely buy those abbas cables. They have that abbas sound.
Trouble with the abbas gear is that after ive gotten into it, i find it difficult to listen to ordinary digital. I have a little hifiberry box driving a pair of vintage tandberg hs17 speakers in the kitchen. And for what it is it sounds quite ok. But im getting annoyed with it. It just aint abbas.
Audio note man wrote a review of the abbas clock on another forum. I may have posted before but here you go:
Master Clock for your EtherREGEN
audiophilestyle.com
You can safely buy those abbas cables. They have that abbas sound.
Trouble with the abbas gear is that after ive gotten into it, i find it difficult to listen to ordinary digital. I have a little hifiberry box driving a pair of vintage tandberg hs17 speakers in the kitchen. And for what it is it sounds quite ok. But im getting annoyed with it. It just aint abbas.
So, it seems the 3.2 SE has replaced your friend's Lampizator unless he rotates them in his system as some choose to do with audio components.
"Trouble with the abbas gear is that after I've gotten into it, i find it difficult to listen to ordinary digital"
@jespera , that is a good sign from my vantage point. Thanks for providing the link.
Charles
"Trouble with the abbas gear is that after I've gotten into it, i find it difficult to listen to ordinary digital"
@jespera , that is a good sign from my vantage point. Thanks for providing the link.
Charles
Looking forward to reading about the Merason vs. Abbas comparisons! Thanks for posting.
@cal3713
He currently has the Weiss DAC. So Weiss vs Merason DAC1 vs Abbas3.2SE. Fun times ahead. Weiss and Abbas represent polar opposite schools of thought and design.
Charles
He currently has the Weiss DAC. So Weiss vs Merason DAC1 vs Abbas3.2SE. Fun times ahead. Weiss and Abbas represent polar opposite schools of thought and design.
Charles
Hopefully my brain remembers and not doing some audio-psychics opinions ;-) sure it will be heaviley rely on YOUR chain and room!
Not that mach experience, so I can test in direct comparison:
Rotel Michi AKM AK4495SEQ (not so bad, but synthetic/analytical) / Pioneer PD93 PCM63 +- external 3.2SE / Abbas 3.2SE / Weiss DAC 501 (4ch upgrade comes next month, may differ as Weiss will use now ES9038PRO)
P.s.: the really extreme experienced DAC owners are here, awesome community (closed forum, free): https://forum.sonusapparatus.com/t/...source-gear-progression-and-general-thoughts/ (just 1y+ old)
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Even with whatever biases the mind creates, the end result is still informative. Thanks!
“Abbas responded yesterday, delivery will be around December.”
That sounds about right. At the very least Abbas has 3 or 4 orders of 3.2SE DACs to complete. I am certain that he has other jobs to address as well.
He is going to be a busy man. He openly acknowledges that building the 3.2SE is a time consuming undertaking with many independent steps/stages involved.
December-January is my expectation. Any time sooner will be a pleasant surprise.
Charles
That sounds about right. At the very least Abbas has 3 or 4 orders of 3.2SE DACs to complete. I am certain that he has other jobs to address as well.
He is going to be a busy man. He openly acknowledges that building the 3.2SE is a time consuming undertaking with many independent steps/stages involved.
December-January is my expectation. Any time sooner will be a pleasant surprise.
Charles
I've always wanted to do a side by side. I did demo the Sw1X dac ii ,but I only had compared it to my Audio GD Master 7 Sigularity, as I didn't have the Abbas yet.
My impression are that they are 2 different beasts. I think the Audio GD is very accurate, but from I've read to really unlock the AGD one needs to run I2S, which I will be doing in the coming months.
The SW1X is a great DAC it does all the things you want it to do to make the music feel real, it's just a rather expensive way to get there.
After I add I2S to the Audio GD I'll compare my notes with what I had with the Sw1x and we can reconvene. But my intial thought is that they really have vastly different sound signatures, with the Audio GD having a bit less texture than the likes of Sw1X and Abbas.
More tinkering and listening to come!
@limberpine
Thank you for providing your comparative listening impressions.Abbas does seem to be the more cost effective compared to the SW1X DACs given the very similar overlapping philosophical and design aspects.
Charles
Thank you for providing your comparative listening impressions.Abbas does seem to be the more cost effective compared to the SW1X DACs given the very similar overlapping philosophical and design aspects.
Charles
Happy to help. If money were no object, I'd likley have a couple different dacs and pair music with said dacs. What I've noticed with the Abbas and Sw1X is that they are both ruthless with recordings.
Where the Audio GD is more forgiving even though I have it set in NOS mode. At some point I'd like to set it up to oversample and experience that as well.
“What I've noticed with the Abbas and Sw1X is that they are both ruthless with recordings”
That to me suggests that these DACs possess high resolution which is a desirable trait. Both high resolution and also having a natural sound quality is hard to accomplish simultaneously.
Charles
That to me suggests that these DACs possess high resolution which is a desirable trait. Both high resolution and also having a natural sound quality is hard to accomplish simultaneously.
Charles
I've had non audio nerd friends come over to listen, providing me a list of their favorite tunes beforehand and just be floored at how bad some of their favorite recordings sounded and I have experienced as much myself.
Also, I run all my audio into these dacs from my Raspberry pie streamer and Audiopphilleo 2 with Pure power for the USB to spdif converter. Nothing crazy fancy.
With the Abbas I did happen to get a Abbas USB to Spdif converter, Abbas USB cable and Abbas Spdif cable, so I have all of that in between the Raspberry Pi streamer and the Abbas dac.
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