As I mentioned a few days ago I had the opportunity to compare the SCD-1 vs the SCD-1 + Audio Note 3 Signature vs SACD-1.To put things in context Steve Ronchlin reviewed the Audionote 1 kit and found it to sound superb, Martin Colloms of HiFi News reviewed the DAC5 and said it was excellent and very close to the sound of SACD. It is different from other DACs becuase it uses 1x oversampling, has gentle filtering, transformer coupling, and a valve stage. Unfortunatley the DAC 5 is 18,5000 UKP. The DAC3 has most of this and costs less than 3000 UKP. It is also said to rival SACD but uses conventional CDs.
So 3-4 days later with many, many comparison sessions, with a wide variety of listeners and music this is the result of the outcome.
SCD-1 vs SACD + AN DAC3; the CD comparison. Pretty clear here the DAC3 won. It was cleaner with less electronic hash. Better delineation of the musicians, easier to listen to, better bass definition. Surprisingly it had better pace, rhythm and timing; very naim like but without the relentness of some of their CDs. This was getting very interesting as there was a good margin between the two and SACD was starting to look nervous. Could this be the real upset billed by others ??
SACD vs SCD-1 + DAC3; the big comparison !!. The winner was SACD, easily. Oh dear I was roooting for the DAC3 but it was not there. The SACD sounded dimensionless and unconstrained. That is in both senses of the word in a spatial way and in a dynamics way. The sound had no boundaries and sounded so natural. The Miles Davis track was just in the room. With CD it sounded really good but as soon as it things got going it seemed to compress the image and mid frequency dynamics. And so it was with the other CD/SACDs.
A real pity as I am getting a little frustrated by the lack of software but feel that will change with time. I had hoped for an SACD type sound but with CD availablity. No so, and by a good margin.
I kept detailed notes from the listening if anyone is interested but the bottom line is the bottom line.
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Topic - And the Winner is ???? - George Sallit 11:32:26 03/22/00 (5)
- Audio Note DAC 3 uses oversampling - Steve 10:29:01 03/23/00 (0)
- DAC3 does have oversampling - Kelly 08:15:37 03/23/00 (2)
- Re: DAC3 does have oversampling - George Sallit 11:06:40 03/23/00 (1)
- Maybe you've got an Audio Note DAC 3.1????? - Steve 14:27:03 03/23/00 (0)
- How many hours - Mike K 12:07:50 03/22/00 (0)