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RE: Tympani 1-D, IIIa tweeter and custom foil mids using DCX2496

The Behringer lasted less than a week in my use. It was returned and I was disappointed that even toning down the FR with an overall downward slope EQ it was not listenable at all.

I tried M audio multichannel USB interface (they called it an external sound card then) + free download XO software that was slightly informative on what you can do. Could not stand the sound, did not bother with it again, 24/48 mya$$. Went back on the 3rd day. Headphones directly off my laptop soundcard sounded better.

I used REW to measure the speaker drivers but it did not teach me anything I had not measured before on that count, but time issues were a bit more interesting. However, I found that with the LR4 XO that Marchand talked me into there was no choice but to time align all the panels - before I actually did the REW measurements.

I learned that fine tuning the XO for 1st order and 2nd order PLLXO I was better off listening to the warble tones +meter rather than doing sweeps and noise bursts. I could then relate the measurements immediately to what I was hearing. I didn't depart from equidistant placement during any of the XO experimentation till this year.

I have not heard of the Pure Vinyl XO other than from you, I have not tried DEQX or TaCT. When I had the Behringer I did not try the autoalign because its sound made me distrust it by then.

I compared EQ with my White Instruments passive to EQ on the Behringer and was absolutely stunned by how much more transparent the analog passive was. Just not playing the same game.

The issue is that mediocre digital had become unbearable at real live volumes with the Neo8 it reveals everything whether you EQ it to take the edge off or leave it free with its little bump at 6-8 khz. It makes obvious such things as the break-in of a cap or a new solder joint.

I know that folks are not as sensitive as I am to digititis and I know a thick sounding midrange and lower treble can hide it. Like my setup, my friend's Focal Nova Utopia took apart the supposedly good ADC/DAC of the QOL device, I could not get past the obvious digital artifacts to try and evaluate what the device did. Most digital I have come across sounds like the RatShack "gold" interconnects. In PCM you could not get anything passable below $2k besides the Monarchy tube DACs. I got my lead brick 1 bit Sony CD player that was bearable but the Musical Fidelity DAC/Pre made it actually enjoyable on some recordings and had decent imaging texture and tone etc. I could even run it directly without a tube line stage to take the edge off. But that was a sleeper product that had flopped on its single production run since its connections were out of date before it hit the market. It was designed to be a $5k product but was just closed out at $3k for the one production run. I bought it used for bubkes.
You can get good and perhaps even great PCM digital (being less cynical about reviewers) if you do a discrete resistor ring or ladder DAC if you have a good clock and very clean PS on it. Turns out that making those costs a bucket load of money and has only recently become doable at anything resembling a reasonable cost with the drop in the prices of low jitter clocks (by a factor of more than 10). Even el cheapo DSD has fewer digititis artifacts than 2 or 3 grand PCM. It is at least listenable without irritation.

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