This one has always intrigued me and I've been a long-time fan of Rowland's products (and continually frustrated at the lack of rhyme or reason to the product line).
I'm currently running a Wadia 931/922 digital setup and am seriously considering going to one of the "new" DACs on the market which may not be an all-out assault on the state of the art, but appear to be delivering excellent results in smaller and cheaper packages. I've been planning to look at the Bricasti M1 and I keep coming back to the Aeris as well.
I'd be interested to hear from other members who have had some experience with it.
It does as per my prior e-mail, I am driving that directly with Modwright KWA-100SE.Variable output = volume control.
(...)To be honest, I do not like the volume control from the DAC and I believe the gain is way too high(...)
One paragraph (of http://www.hpsoundings.com/2013/01/rowland-aeris-dac/) caught my eye.
"Various methods of encoding and decoding digital music have come and gone, but these small steps forward (with occasional steps backward) have ultimately resulted in reasonably decent sounding products. Many of these digital audio improvements arose from massive R&D investments in computer technology; had it not been for the constant advances in IC chip technology, our digital devices would surely sound poorer than they do today. (Evidence: today’s $300 Digital-Analog-Convertors have significantly better sound than the $30,000 DAC’s of yesteryear.) Recently, the market has become flooded with DAC’s providing great results– signaling a new age in the sound of digital "
That is possible. The DAC has an unussualy high output voltage (7V), meaning that unless you use an amp with very low gain and/or low sensitivity speakers, you will need a preamp.
My problem is it's not way for me to gauge what db I am at as it only show 2 lights and it only show the following, if you tune volume all the down, only the light at left lights up but not the right, when you push the volume up and see the left light dim gradually and the right side lights up gradually and naturally if you push the volume all the way up, only the right side lights up and the left light will be off. That why I feel not comfortable using the DAC directly with my power amp.
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