Abbas dac 2.1 se

[jespera]

@gerihifi :

One thing that you owe yourself, is to try your abbas dac with a good cd transport as source. Will take sound even more towards “authentic”.

Im sure the ladies will appreciate it.

 

[charles1dad]

@jespera ,
+1
While waiting for my Abbas 3.2SE to be built I decided it was time to delve into audio streaming. The large volume of music available via subscription Qubuz and Tidal was appealing.

When my DAC arrived and connected with the Pro-Ject RS2T CD transport the result was pure sonic bliss. Redbook CD sounds astonishing good. I’ve been sidetracked from the music streaming endeavor. I’ll eventually get there.

 

[gerihifi]

@gerihifi :

One thing that you owe yourself, is to try your abbas dac with a good cd transport as source. Will take sound even more towards “authentic”.

Im sure the ladies will appreciate it.

Tested already with my Pioneer PD-93...works very well, but not so much difference as the PD93 PCM63K is pretty good...even with his age ;-)

 

[gerihifi]

@jespera ,
+1
While waiting for my Abbas 3.2SE to be built I decided it was time to delve into audio streaming. The large volume of music available via subscription Qubuz and Tidal was appealing.

When my DAC arrived and connected with the Pro-Ject RS2T CD transport the result was pure sonic bliss. Redbook CD sounds astonishing good. I’ve been sidetracked from the music streaming endeavor. I’ll eventually get there.

Agree!! I also still order regularly good CD recordings, like from ECM records,
I also enjoy it a bit more than streaming, as I play usually the full CD and not press next...next..next in my Quobuz playlist ;-)
Prefered CD setup: high efficiency speaker with Tube AMP

 

[gerihifi]

As I've started a simple community page to share setups. If someone is interested, have a look here and maybe you wanna add yours as well:

HiFi Setups - Couchsurfing

Meet audiophiles and music enthusiasts all over the world.

hificouch.world

P.S.: current Hamburg setup would be mine, if someone interested to listen to Abbas gear.

Rgs
Gerald

 

[gerihifi]

Update to listening sessions with 2 'Audiophiles': standoff

Both of them where sure to clearly identify the 'Vintage Abbas DAC', but it wasn't that easy.
Playing again HiRes 96khz/24bit, it was still not an obvious result.

YES, the Abbas needs some hours to burn in, I fully understand when Abbas recommends 200+h!
Btw: changed output from copper to pure silver interconnects, like it more.

Conclusion: the Abbas nor the Weiss I'll ever sell, end of story!

I wish Abbas would also hit the directon to build tube amp's with the same passion, sure I'd blindly order. This build quality was also from my very experienced DIYer fully confirmed, very, very well built!

Sunny greets from Germany, Hamburg!
Gerald

 

[charles1dad]

Update to listening sessions with 2 'Audiophiles': standoff

Both of them where sure to clearly identify the 'Vintage Abbas DAC', but it wasn't that easy.
Playing again HiRes 96khz/24bit, it was still not an obvious result.

YES, the Abbas needs some hours to burn in, I fully understand when Abbas recommends 200+h!
Btw: changed output from copper to pure silver interconnects, like it more.

Conclusion: the Abbas nor the Weiss I'll ever sell, end of story!

I wish Abbas would also hit the directon to build tube amp's with the same passion, sure I'd blindly order. This build quality was also from my very experienced DIYer fully confirmed, very, very well built!

Sunny greets from Germany, Hamburg!
Gerald

Gerald,
Yes, excellent built construction and internal layout. I keep the top cover off, I just enjoy viewing the interior. Regarding the burn-in period, 200 hours is a good recommendation.

However in my opinion it continues to improve beyond this juncture. Terrific at that point for sure yet more to come sonically. I have not heard the Weiss 501 DAC but certainly I defer to your listening impressions.

All I can confirm is that the Abbas 3.2SE DAC is superbly well done.
Charles

 

[Artnet]

Update to listening sessions with 2 'Audiophiles': standoff

Interesting comments on the silver. I like both and change them out every so often. The silver for me can offer more detail but the copper more real particulaly with the Abbas SPDIF. Can be useful with different recordings and genre but mainly for a change.

Very encouraging results all round ! particularly the Sunny aspects.

Dont ask, my 3.2 is sitting at the Kiev postoffice cleared customs and awaiting departure.

 

[jespera]

Update to listening sessions with 2 'Audiophiles': standoff

Both of them where sure to clearly identify the 'Vintage Abbas DAC', but it wasn't that easy.
Playing again HiRes 96khz/24bit, it was still not an obvious result.

YES, the Abbas needs some hours to burn in, I fully understand when Abbas recommends 200+h!
Btw: changed output from copper to pure silver interconnects, like it more.

Conclusion: the Abbas nor the Weiss I'll ever sell, end of story!

I wish Abbas would also hit the directon to build tube amp's with the same passion, sure I'd blindly order. This build quality was also from my very experienced DIYer fully confirmed, very, very well built!

Sunny greets from Germany, Hamburg!
Gerald

Conclusion: the ladies have better ears than the audiophiles …

Previously Abbas has made some very impressive looking few watt single ended power amps based on unusual valves.

In recent years hes done headphone amps that can double as pre amps. Ive also seen pictures of a prototype hybrid amp with germanium in the output stage. I’d love one. Think id work well with my tannoys.

 

[charles1dad]

@jespera
“Conclusion: the ladies have better ears than the audiophiles”

Ha, funny you wrote that, as I felt the same. Although by most standards I would be categorized as an audiophile, I thought the 2 females provided more insight and astute listening skills.

I admit obviously that’s just an assumption. I was not there for either of the two blind test listening sessions. So I am only going by what Gerald has posted here.

The two female/musician listeners used the term “authentic “ in describing the Abbas 3.2 SE DAC. This nails the essence of this component in my opinion. I am impressed how both of them easily identified this quality.
Charles

 

[jespera]

Lay people dont have their hearing distorted by what they think other audiophiles think, what it costs, engineering dogmatism, etc.

So it’s often worth listening to what they say.

 

[charles1dad]

Lay people dont have their hearing distorted by what they think other audiophiles think, what it costs, engineering dogmatism, etc.

So it’s often worth listening to what they say.

Good point. Also given that one of the women sang and the other plays piano are noteworthy factors. They have direct exposure to natural musical sounds. Less likely to be awed/impressed by emphasized/hyper detail leaning presentations.
Charles

 

[gerihifi]

...fully agree to your comments!

I think we audiophiles are "thinking too much analytic" during listening, including myself!
People playing music or singing, like my 2 friends, are purely focusing on melody, instruments and voice...and combine that...we Audiophile always tend to try to analyze only instruments and voice and missing to put them in context.

My 2cents
Gerald

 

[charles1dad]

...fully agree to your comments!

I think we audiophiles are "thinking too much analytic" during listening, including myself!
People playing music or singing, like my 2 friends, are purely focusing on melody, instruments and voice...and combine that...we Audiophile always tend to try to analyze only instruments and voice and missing to put them in context.

My 2cents
Gerald

Your “2 cents “ is legitimate.
It did not escape me that the 2 female musician listeners describe the other listening system alternative as “fatiguing.” This was very telling to me.
Charles

 

[Treehaus Audiolab]

Just got a note from Abbas; my USB-Coax converter is on its way from Kyiv. It took him a bit longer to ship because he was waiting on power transformers.

Ill be curious to hear it against the basic converter here (Schiit EITR) and the higher end (Mutec MC3+)

 

[limberpine]

Just got a note from Abbas; my USB-Coax converter is on its way from Kyiv. It took him a bit longer to ship because he was waiting on power transformers.

Ill be curious to hear it against the basic converter here (Schiit EITR) and the higher end (Mutec MC3+)

Nice! How much are these from Abbas now?

 

[limberpine]

I attended an audio meetup last night and wanted to share an interesting experience.

We did a back-to-back-to-back with Tape/Vinyl/ Abbas 2.0 DAC with a common jazz track from each.

We started with tape, "the best analog source there is" and moved to Vinyl and last did digital.

The guy who brought all the tapes and the reel-to-reel machines had walked away while the tape was playing. We switched sources, to Vinyl, then to digital but accidentally left the tape machine playing. He walked back up and said: This is a really good tape, isn't it?

I had to let him know that in fact, we were listening to the 2.0 DAC with the Abbas USB/spdif converter.

He didn't know what to say and frankly, I think he was a little shocked.

To be fair, IMO there was more detail in the music coming from the DAC, but there was a touch more warmth coming from the tape and vinyl. We were all surprised at how awesome the 2.0 DAC sounded and went on to play many more tracks back and forth, which was super fun and eye-opening because the cost of this DAC is in line with how much a couple of tapes sell for now and gave us 99% of the sound we wanted.

Figured you all would appreciate this.

 

[Treehaus Audiolab]

Nice! How much are these from Abbas now?

300 USD + shipping. I couldn't tell you if it is in case or not, it wasn't quite clear speaking to him. Either way ill make it work and its a steal compared to Mutec (which honestly, hasn't really impressed me)

 

[Artnet]

I think we audiophiles are "thinking too much analytic" during listening, including myself!

Very much agree.
My other half sings not professionally but in several choral groups of a standard that is high and we have a small piano in a humble shared listening space.
What interests me listing to discussions with other musician friends is the observations of live performances. The pace, Staccato and Legato, rhythm, pitch, how a note sounds flat sharp you get the picture.
Some of this discussion I am able to contribute to but really I just listen because my musical knowledge is limited. But some of it makes perfect sense when I am listening to a recorded performance and helps me understand.
There are of course books on singing that refer to the whole body as the instrument, that resonance in the head and other parts effects the sound, quite a complex instrument to tune and perfect.
The subtle nuances that we audiophiles sometimes experience are always or mostly there in a live performance. These are not easily revealed in a recorded performance sometime because we cant hear them or sometimes they are not there.
Its obviously about the recording and the system being revealing enough.

Why am I going on about this in the Abbas thread.

Well I have been keeping quite, busy with work and school holidays but also finding time to listen to music.
This arrived

Some have seen this before
This one had my name on it in paper of course.



Of course it was all there.


Very next day the front, AC cable and tubes turned up. 12-14 day's to get half way around the world from a war zone WOW.
Fantastic packaging and all arrived safely.

It has been warming the room for over 2 weeks now.
I was discussing with an audiophile friend the burn in process and what i am hearing. The observations are similar.
Within the first 10 -20 hours for me you get an insight into what the DAC will sound like.
Then there are changes you will hear to its base and mids sound staging etc, all be them subtle.
For me it started to sound more settled at the 80 hour mark but once you hit 100 + it's way better.

The other more interesting part of my discussion with this person was his observation of the TDA1541.
A lot is made of frequency response (easily measured) but not alot of what he called micro dynamics. That is what i am hearing now the Staccato and Legato the space around notes, plenty of what i call detail and air.
Tonally this is the most impressive DAC I have heard so limitations there but truly hard to stop listening.

Now I am burning in a few NOS tubes to start some comparisons but truly think I will just get lost in the music
Forgive the poor photo but I will get to posting some more.

 

[charles1dad]

@limberpine


“We were all surprised at how awesome the 2.0 DAC sounded and went on to play many more tracks back and forth, which was super fun and eye-opening because the cost of this DAC is in line with how much a couple of tapes sell for now and gave us 99% of the sound we wanted.

Figured you all would appreciate this”

Thanks for sharing this listening experience. I’m not the least bit surprised by the positive reactions of you all. I’ve said it before. The Abbas DAC is astonishingly natural and just sounds right.
Charles