@Audire - Joe, I don't know if this is a reasonable question or not but I am wondering if you have or will be assessing the sound of the Ideon DAC on it's own versus the sound with the Time included ? Net net, is/will the Time an overriding factor as you compare against the EMM , Horizon etc. ; are there other re-clockers involved with those other brands? Please feel free to correct me if I am not thinking correctly about the Time. Thank you
The sound that’s is so glorious is with the EMM Pre (gain set to “0” on the DAC). It’s presently playing. However, with the Vitus we discovered that we needed to adjust the DAC gain to “2” to get it to sound its very best, but it was still shy of the EMM presentation.
@Audire - Joe, I don't know if this is a reasonable question or not but I am wondering if you have or will be assessing the sound of the Ideon DAC on it's own versus the sound with the Time included ? Net net, is/will the Time an overriding factor as you compare against the EMM , Horizon etc. ; are there other re-clockers involved with those other brands? Please feel free to correct me if I am not thinking correctly about the Time. Thank you
The Ideon w/o the Time is excellent, but with the Time it is world class. There’s more detail, bass seems superior, and the mids and highs are to die for with the Time. Without the Time the DAC is still very good, and is superior to everything else I’ve heard, but with the Time it’s a definite step in performance.
IMO Vitus is a much better Pre than the EMM. There‘s better synergy with their amps. There is less noise. However, the EMM is working better with just this one DAC. The Ideon eliminates noise too. Vitus using the EMM DA2V2 sounds marvelous. We will be doing the same tests with the Horizon using both the Vitus and EMM Pres. I was told by someone who just upgraded to a Horizon that I’m in for a huge treat. We will see what happens then.
The Ideon w/o the Time is excellent, but with the Time it is world class. There’s more detail, bass seems superior, and the mids and highs are to die for with the Time. Without the Time the DAC is still very good, and is superior to everything else I’ve heard, but with the Time it’s a definite step in performance.
Joe thank you for the response. Once you get the Horizon and listen to it on its own, is there anything technical that would preclude trying it with the Time? If not , is that something that you would consider doing? Thank you
Joe thank you for the response. Once you get the Horizon and listen to it on its own, is there anything technical that would preclude trying it with the Time? If not , is that something that you would consider doing? Thank you
Aurender word clock and Ideon usb/spdif reclocker are different animals. Horizon should work with Time but I don’t think it’s word-clock ready. That said, I’m very curious to see/hear what prompted Aurender to make a word clock that is far pricier than any of their other offerings thus far.
Today we tested the Vitus Line Stage again. It was beyond magical. Apparently the Ideon DAC hadn’t enough time to settle the last time we demoed. The Vitus was also cold the last time. This time it was connected for a long while.
The Vitus MP Line Stage is a keeper in our present list of to purchase items. The sound stage exploded like a prism revealing all the different layers of sound. It‘s like a tide rolling in. It out performed our EMM Labs Pre.
Only one more DAC to demo (Lampi Horizon). To date the Ideon + Time (or even w/o Time) is the absolute best DAC we’ve demoed. Even w/o the Time it outperformed the other DACs we tried. With the Time it is off the charts excellent, easily surpassing such DACs, as EMM, MSB, etc. “to us” and “in this particular system.”
As far as the Ideon + Time, after it left here it went to a reviewer. A new review should be coming out soon. The reviewer also has a Horizon, so hopefully he will compare the two.
I'm waiting to demo the Horizon at present. So, far Ideon is number 1. There’s no competition between it and the other DACs we’ve tried. But the Horizon is supposed to be very special.
After hearing the Horizon we will be making a decision.
IMO Vitus is a much better Pre than the EMM. There‘s better synergy with their amps. There is less noise. However, the EMM is working better with just this one DAC. The Ideon eliminates noise too. Vitus using the EMM DA2V2 sounds marvelous. We will be doing the same tests with the Horizon using both the Vitus and EMM Pres. I was told by someone who just upgraded to a Horizon that I’m in for a huge treat. We will see what happens then.
Thanks. Good idea. We will try that while Fred is here. At least I’ll ask. I‘m hoping our new Vitus Masterpeice Line Stage will be here as well, but most likely not.
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