lengcm

tee,

Unfortunately I do not own the HP4. That would be my next purchase if I still do not like my Sudgen Headmaster or sort out its problem.

The other thing regarding Sir Tim De Pracacini is that he answers your e-mail personally. Once I emailed him regarding the frequency response of the HP4, he replied personally the next day.... He does maintain good customer relations.

tee,

I am using this Chord Chorus 2.

The Sudgen has been run in for more than 100hrs. However I have just changed my interconnects and that maybe the problem. I'll give it a few more months before I decide on any upgrades or changes.

it's more like sugden doesn't match well with your cans..imo,

I am not too sure.

Hmmm... not too sure about that as I only have my HD600 with me currently, the HD590 is still in Sg. Hopefully when the Equinox cable arrives and after the burn in, it will sound better. Else I will sell the headmaster and try to cough up more dough for either the RKV mkII or the EAR HP4.

I guess the Sugden may be too detailed and analytical, thus losing the richness and smoothness of the vocals.

Well that seems to be the case, all the vocals seem so "dead". However, classical music does sounds really good on it especially sound tracks such as The Lord of the Rings. Not too sure now what to do with the Headmaster. Should have stayed with the good old x-cans v2.

Rameish

What is the price of the EAR HP4? There is a website in UK selling it for US$ 2629

Thank you all for the detail analysis. I have just upgraded from the X-cans V2 to the Sudgen Headmaster. The sound quality did improve with more details and punchier bass. However female vocals do not carry as much emotions as the X-can v2. I guess that is the difference between the SS and the tube amps. The reason for sourcing a DAC was to HOPEFULLY give more emotions to the vocals. I guess right now I have kind of regretted buying the Sudgen.

Getting abit confused here, are you referring to playing normal CD on a SACD/DVD-A player or are you referring to playing an SACD/DVD-A disc on the respective player?

 

As you may have known, all CD players comes with a built-in DAC, unless you are talking about CD transport here. The basic would be a 16 bits/44.1kHz sampling rate and you would only need a DAC if you wish to upsample/oversample over what you currently have. What's available : 16/48kHz??? 24bits/96kHz, 24bits/192kHz

 

SACDs do not use this sampling, instead it uses DSD, where the disc spins at a much higher speed, sampling reaching the Megahertz range to read off the 1-bit stream, so no traditional DAC needed.

Thank you very much your post has cleared lots of my doubts. My aim is to upsample over what I have. Intend to connect the optical out or digital out to a DAC. I was considering the Chord DAC 64. However the price is rather steep.

Right now I do not know what to upgrade first. Should I change my CD player (NAD541i) or get a multi for player (e.g. Pioneer DV-755Ai) or get a DAC to upsample my current CD player?

Any suggestions?

Do we need a DAC for a SACD or DVD-A player?

Please consider trying North Star Design M192. It offers upsampling of upto 192kHz and sounds creamy smooth and rich across almost the full spectrum of audible frequency range. You will hear better decays in the bass / string instruments, while vocal midrange will yield gently with that vaporising touh to make female singers sound warm, transparent and musical. Likewise for acoustic music. For orchestral works, the dynamics are well controlled with good ambience feel, particularly when you listen to symphonies. So far my only negative comment is the lack of remote control. Go to Bretz audio for audition.

How is the price like? Would it be suitable for my current setup of NAD 541i, Sudgen Headmaster and HD600?

Hi all, any good recommendations for a DAC?