Hi folks,
I'm upgrading my system and have been on a DAC search for a few months now. I'll regale you with the saga sometime in the future, but right now I need some help/advice.
I'm down to two DACs, the TotalDAC D1-dual and an MSB platinum (options TBD).
Until I heard the D1-dual, the MSB was the best I had heard in my system. I have yet to do a direct comparison between the two but I am certain I could be happy with either.
My setup is pretty simple: the DAC outputs need to feed two paths, one for speakers and one for headphones.
The speaker path is about 8m of audioquest single ended cable to VTL deluxe 300 monoblocks to Nola metro-grand speakers.
The headphone path is balanced out of DAC to Headamp BHSE to Stax 009.
My problem: digital volume control of 20-30dB is the spawn of the devil, at least as compared with no digital attenuation. I assume this surprises absolutely no one on this forum (I've been lurking for years).
My recollection of the MSB in my system (compared that day with Ayre, Bricasti, Romulus) was that the MSB volume control (platinum version, switched resistors I assume) significantly whomped the others (caveat: Romulus did not have it's analog volume output stage installed, so volume was cut in JRiver).
Right now I have the TotalDAC and with volume control set to 0 or that vicinity, the sound on my Stax is as good as I have ever heard........a clear keeper.
However, with the VTL/Nola, I need to add about 30db attenuation on the DAC and the magic says bye-bye.
To corroborate my theory, I did some additional listening with the Stax setup with the DAC at 0db and 28dB of digital attenuation, with the BHSE volume control used to match the volume at the Stax...............no contest as expected, the 0dB setting on the DAC magical and the 28dB setting with a flattened soundstage, less air, detail and low end.
As many have already advised, a good preamp will solve this problem.................but I wanted to simplify, reduce components and cables, etc.
So option 1 is to compare the MSB directly to the TotalDAC and see if 1) it is as good or better with the Stax and 2) assuming the first part, see if the MSB
volume control solves my problem and is much more transparent (I expect it will be but need to check).
The MSB option, of course, comes as a cost which is not a lot different than adding a good preamp.
Last night I did a little searching and found a potential solution that I wanted to run by folks here.
What do you folks think of the Luminous Audio Axiom II 'Walker Mod' as a passive, single input, single output volume setting for the single ended speaker path?
I imagine setting it to an approximate value of somewhere in the 20db-30db range and using the TotalDAC volume control for the remote controlled final 5-10db of volume adjustment.
Do you think that would get me most of the way there (i.e. buy back the big losses in sound quality due to 30db of digital attenuation)?
Cheers and thanks in advance for the advice.
I'm upgrading my system and have been on a DAC search for a few months now. I'll regale you with the saga sometime in the future, but right now I need some help/advice.
I'm down to two DACs, the TotalDAC D1-dual and an MSB platinum (options TBD).
Until I heard the D1-dual, the MSB was the best I had heard in my system. I have yet to do a direct comparison between the two but I am certain I could be happy with either.
My setup is pretty simple: the DAC outputs need to feed two paths, one for speakers and one for headphones.
The speaker path is about 8m of audioquest single ended cable to VTL deluxe 300 monoblocks to Nola metro-grand speakers.
The headphone path is balanced out of DAC to Headamp BHSE to Stax 009.
My problem: digital volume control of 20-30dB is the spawn of the devil, at least as compared with no digital attenuation. I assume this surprises absolutely no one on this forum (I've been lurking for years).
My recollection of the MSB in my system (compared that day with Ayre, Bricasti, Romulus) was that the MSB volume control (platinum version, switched resistors I assume) significantly whomped the others (caveat: Romulus did not have it's analog volume output stage installed, so volume was cut in JRiver).
Right now I have the TotalDAC and with volume control set to 0 or that vicinity, the sound on my Stax is as good as I have ever heard........a clear keeper.
However, with the VTL/Nola, I need to add about 30db attenuation on the DAC and the magic says bye-bye.
To corroborate my theory, I did some additional listening with the Stax setup with the DAC at 0db and 28dB of digital attenuation, with the BHSE volume control used to match the volume at the Stax...............no contest as expected, the 0dB setting on the DAC magical and the 28dB setting with a flattened soundstage, less air, detail and low end.
As many have already advised, a good preamp will solve this problem.................but I wanted to simplify, reduce components and cables, etc.
So option 1 is to compare the MSB directly to the TotalDAC and see if 1) it is as good or better with the Stax and 2) assuming the first part, see if the MSB
volume control solves my problem and is much more transparent (I expect it will be but need to check).
The MSB option, of course, comes as a cost which is not a lot different than adding a good preamp.
Last night I did a little searching and found a potential solution that I wanted to run by folks here.
What do you folks think of the Luminous Audio Axiom II 'Walker Mod' as a passive, single input, single output volume setting for the single ended speaker path?
I imagine setting it to an approximate value of somewhere in the 20db-30db range and using the TotalDAC volume control for the remote controlled final 5-10db of volume adjustment.
Do you think that would get me most of the way there (i.e. buy back the big losses in sound quality due to 30db of digital attenuation)?
Cheers and thanks in advance for the advice.