Golden Gate DAC arrives.
- Thread starter Blue58
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Roger, I'd love to think a SS dsd/pcm dac, all bells and whistles, Swiss Army Knife, Swiss build quality (just look at Nagra, Dartzeel, Soulution, Thales), original thinking re ethernet, will beat the more idiosyncratic GG, tubes, Polish built, more individualistic, more bespoke.
But I have my doubts.
It may be more of a Trinity slayer, and we'll have two emminently affordable nr SOTA solutions, SS Nadac $12k+, tubes GG $15k+.
Could put pay to exorbitant pricing that seems to be on an ever upwards spiral - DCS Vivaldi, Trinity, MSB, AN etc.
But I have my doubts.
It may be more of a Trinity slayer, and we'll have two emminently affordable nr SOTA solutions, SS Nadac $12k+, tubes GG $15k+.
Could put pay to exorbitant pricing that seems to be on an ever upwards spiral - DCS Vivaldi, Trinity, MSB, AN etc.
You don't need a GG. Big 7 is good enough, $10k retail. My demos with other sota SS were all on B7, not on GG. The only dac that GG beats is the B7. So, like I said, if you want to for 38E over 37.5DD (assuming for the sake of argument that it is only size that counts), then yes, GG is required
I have zero interest in NADAC. Unless someone with musical tastes who goes to classical concerts and demos orchestral, compares and says it's better. So far NADAC talk is more from those based on "theoretical scientific correctness". Have no doubt it is a great dac
That's not the Bonzo we all know LOL. I thought you were in the hobby for the auditioning too. Surely you're a little driven at least to hear it?
Or is Lampi really the only girl for you, and on bended knee you've promised yourself to her, and will never stray.
And I thought I was the only one who had an emotional connection to gear.
Remember, live classical doesn't sound like tubes. And not like SS either. It just sounds. Period.
You just like Lampi, because you like Lampi. You could like Nadac too.
Or is Lampi really the only girl for you, and on bended knee you've promised yourself to her, and will never stray.
And I thought I was the only one who had an emotional connection to gear.
Remember, live classical doesn't sound like tubes. And not like SS either. It just sounds. Period.
You just like Lampi, because you like Lampi. You could like Nadac too.
No. As I told you earlier, I just said I am not interested in auditioning NADAC, unless someone in London gets it, or until we get some comments in from people who have compared both rather than state measurement and correctness and science. That's all.
As for live classical, I didn't say it sounds like something, I believe most electronics which sounds good falls apart when you play 50 instruments of complex music through them instead of 4, or female vocals, and I think acoustic classical instruments have more of a right and wrong tone than miked music. So for this reason I trust more the taste of people who watch a lot of live classical and use it for demo purposes, rather than just state science and correctness.
To add to that (not related to Lampi vs NADAC but to your comment on classical), baroque and opera does sound like planars with valves. It is for full symphony that you can use SS.
Merging gear is mainly used for recording classical music these days. It's designed to sound exactly like the source from the mic feeds. So unless your looking for coloration, it's a very good choice.
Most of SS which is marketed as distortion free and clean and transparent doesn't sound like real music to my ears. I do like SS for the speed and slam they add, and think in some systems valves + SS can be a good mix. But pure SS has never sounded real to me. I have no idea what NADAC does, but at least your description is drawing parallels that do not interest me.
Just the opposite for me. Valves and analog usually sound muddy/slow compared to live music. SS sounds more like live music. ( When I say live music I don't don't mean listening to one guy and a guitar or someone playing a harp)
Yes, some valves can be slow and muddy. I have made previous comments about how DHT in Lampi is much faster than the SS I have auditioned, as compared to traditional tube products from Jadis or AR (I love Jadis but for other reasons)
I also made a comment about adding SS for speed and slam, but mixing it with valves (for tone and realism). There is a person on this board called Marty whose system is awesome, Steve Williams rates it in the top he has heard in his 50 years in audiophilia, and Marty has Spectrals for speed and slam but a VTL pre that does gives the tone. His system is awesome for orchestra.
As for analog, the tonal density of analog and realism cannot be replicated by digital in most cases (ps: I don't own analog, but just saying). Brass and Violin on analog is super
I suppose you would have to listen to it to judge it. Some people may also think live acoustic music in an acousticly perfect room, doesn't sound right without the added coloration of tubes.
I think at some point we will need to accept that with innovation there's a chance new products can be made better than in the past.
Glad to see your acceptance for SS digital gear
The reason people like tubes is because of the clearly measurable euphoric distortions and colorations. With 64bit floating point DSP, these distortions and colorations can be emulated with "straight wire with gain" style SS/digital gear.Glad to see your acceptance for SS digital gear
Guess you haven't heard Western electric speakers, first speakers ever made.
Next gen SS/digital gear with class D amps, will be able to emulate the sound of any system from the past. You won't be able to tell the 2 apart in a blind test. But yes speakers will be harder due to dispersion profiles.
Will be a long wait. My favorite systems still happen to be the ones played around 1926 - 1930
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