That’s the thing - I’m sort of ready to order a Venus II because that is what I was going to get before the Spring 3 came along. I really want to hear one and if I like it so be it. Not as an upgrade from Spring3 just something different, but then a Term II in the right colorway showed up, lol and I spun out for a moment. Now I’m rethinking it all. If I could swing the other 2K I’d seriously look at a Wavelight or a balanced Amber 4 - the Baltic 3 is just too much of a stretch on a couple fronts at this time so must remain a dream.
Also I’m not really unhappy with what I have, its more a curiosity - the proverbial you’ll always wonder until you have thing. Sort of the same reason I got the Yggy.
Well, if you did go with a denafrips, I’d presume the terminator ii is higher performing than the venus and more of an upgrade from what you have now, but I donno
You could likely easily swing a used amber 3 if one showed up, and for a wavelight a dealer discount might lighten the cost as well (since generally dealer discount is what they sell for used). Would also of course give a mention to a la voce s3 being an amazing value used. Same with a ma1v2
Makes total sense, that’s the same boat I’m in now lol
Only on their amps that were designed with the headphone out in mind, so personally I don’t think those count
Which only got popular thanks to the thx craze
There’s actually a decent amount of people running their headphones off speaker gear, and always has been, it just hasn’t been trendy until recently, you just have to find them since they weren’t very vocal in the past
The Pontus II is a great DAC for its used value (around $1500 these days), I really liked mine.
@Delta9K i got my Wavedream Edition Balanced for $5000, used obviously, including shipping and fees. If you can get to that range I highly recommend it. Big upgrade over the Spring 3 for my ears at least and definitely better deal than the Wavelight.
Yes the wavedream really is a better value, and step up over a wave light. I really wish I did my dac comparison with the wavedream instead but it just was above my price cap, and also would have been very unfair to compare to the other dacs lol, so I had to pick wavelight. My real thoughts on what options to consider under 5k are better represented in the expanded tables in the bottom where I could actually include the wavelight. It’s definitely one to consider if you are looking in that range
@M0N Have you heard any linnenberg dacs? Literally just stumbled upon a name I didn’t recognize and was curious if you’ve heard it or not. Looks interesting…
I just realized I phrased this wrong lol, I meant to say that I got my APL in lol, it already came in. Had it warming up and set up, only getting to listening this morning, turned on for about a day now.
Since my FM stuff is delayed a bit (and no fucking clue when the clone will arrive), I’ve just plugged it usb into the antipodes (and associated things in front of that), rca into the ll1.1s (no way to test balanced at the moment, hopefully it’s equally good single ended). This was meant for the FM setup, but it will do fine here for now as well lol
Settings wise, it’s been set to convert all pcm to dsd512 (filter set to zero, although I don’t think this matters when converting to dsd, will change this up later), dac volume maxed (although I’ll likely get tired of dealing with the lamms and start using dac volume later on lol). Not really much more to it.
Quick note on tubes, it has them in there, and I have no desire to touch them or change them or whatever, and from my knowledge they are stock ECC99, I took off the little tube cover and can see no marking on them so donno what they are
So far I have 2 first thoughts:
This is what nagra should have been
Why the hell is nobody talking about this brand, like at all
In Germany LinneberG is well known for HiFi purists. So the Telemann DAC (not produced anymore) is shockingly awesome. A forum member in aktiv-hoeren offered me for €2.3k. Unfortunately i got 2 days before my Weiss DAC501. 4 people told me that this DAC beats 10k ones, so his products are quite estonishing.
Correct, because Ivo said he is focusing on higher end DACs. Assume too crowdy in the 5k space…this new one i’ve not heard, just read in German forums, this one is extremly good, but still some say, previous model already amazing for that money.
Berkeley recommends AES/EBU; it has ten times the voltage compared with SPDIF (5V vs. 0.5V), which reportedly confers a slight advantage in timing precision.
I’m so happy you spoke up, @FiCurious, seller accepted my offer and better yet after a brisk 5hr drive on my part i can get to hear it in HIS system before i take it home. This will help give me a point of reference too. I’m pretty excited Berkeley Alpha 1 Reference dac being added to the family.
Berkeley Alpha 1 Reference dac being added to the family. 