Digital Drive

• Re: New dAck! v1.3 Owner - A Question Please - csown 12:34:12 05/16/05 (2)
  In Reply to: New dAck! v1.3 Owner - A Question Please posted by bamadawg_63 on May 16, 2005 at 11:59:48:

  Hi Nate,

  I have personally heard customers' units modified with Mundorf paper-in-oil and also Sonicaps (in a bypass configuration) to good effect. We voiced the sound with Auricaps, which are relatively full-bodied but some people find it slightly lean-ish (surprising considering that stock sound is already quite relaxed) and others want more resolution. Changing the caps gives quite different flavors of sound but most exchanges typically err on the side of more warmth with a tad of resolution enhancement. We have not tried Vit Q's or the PIO. We are also offering our ultra-resolution teflon capacitor upgrade as a retrofit option for all dAck! types. It improves resolution, tonal depth, and stage.

  Best,

  Chris
  Ack! Industries
  
  

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  • Thanks Chris... - bamadawg_63 16:50:00 05/17/05 (1)
    In Reply to: Re: New dAck! v1.3 Owner - A Question Please posted by csown on May 16, 2005 at 12:34:12:

    I found the Mundorf at Madison Sound - very nice caps, seems inline with the price for vintage Vitamin Q's - which are hard to find in the 3.3+ sizes. The Mundorf look like pretty large caps, would I have to mount these further in the dAck! housing on a board and run wiring to the board and outputs? Thanks for your reply - I am VERY pleased with the unit, as I am kinda new to hi-fi and was using a vintage CDP before. I can finally understand what others are talking about now with soundstage and attack/decay - something my other CDP jus didnt do right. Especially on my Norah Jones CD - seems now I can see/feel the pressure the bassist uses as he strums different strings - if that makes any sense - LOL. I am saving for a better quality transport to use - but I am happy to have the unit now - as I seem anxious to "discover" the music that are on my CDs now. I love classic rock, and I had heard that the dAck! may not be the DAC if that were my tastes. I have found no shortcomings so far with any CD I have listened to, and find myself wanting to listen to different types of music now. Norah Jones is a new discovery, thanks to reading posts here about her. I love good female artists, and she ranks rite up there with Annie Lennox now in my book.

    Many thanks...
    Nate
    
    

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    • Re: Thanks Chris... - csown 18:23:48 05/17/05 (0)
      In Reply to: Thanks Chris... posted by bamadawg_63 on May 17, 2005 at 16:50:00:

      Nate,

      Great to hear you're loving the unit. I'm glad people are still enjoying the original. The Mundorfs are very big and the 3.3 just *barely* fits inside the chassis - don't go any bigger than that. You'll have to watch out that you don't squish the switch assembly wiring and definitely get some more flexible wiring to route from the PCB to the output. The sound is not improved in the classic hi-fi sense (which would be more transparency, more resolution, attack speed, etc; the teflon ultra-rez is more along these lines), but in terms of communicativeness it is definitely elevated by the Mundorfs. It reminds me of the romantic sound of paper-in-oils with their gritty mids combined with enhanced resolution of a film cap. I liked it a lot but I don't think it's something that most digiphiles would prefer; definitely an analog/tube lover's kind of sound.

      About the dynamics and attack speed, the 1.x was geared more towards making everything more pleasant to listen to. The approach was to bring out the depth of performances in terms of musical communicativeness rather than wow factor. The 2.0 addresses many areas of performance that a broader audience wanted more of - especially in dynamic attack, resolution on both extremes, and soundstage performance without compromising the design goals of the original - but the original still has its charms and on some types of music I still cannot pull away.

      Best of luck with your cap tweaks.

      -Chris
      Ack! Industries
      
      

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