Well, this is kinda my top list, and also not really top in value either lol (although value can be somewhat inferred I guess lol)
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Any chance at all you still have the aic-10 and can try and see if the apl pushes it too far or works well?
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Unfortunately I don’t have it anymore so I can’t say
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Kinda what i expected. Will be currious to see your thoughts on the dv2
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…as usual, thanks a lot for sharing!!
As you said, I think speaker synergy makes a huge difference in DAC comparison, even the little bit I’ve tested was surprising, when I’ve heard them on different speakers.
Type of music also makes for me quite some difference - never and will never like to fiddle around wirh upsampling, crazy filter settings and audirvana/roon craziness…must catch me right away, thats my DAC choice…
Totaldac…i go to france in may, will step by at Vinc boat and hopefully a listening session 
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Would the Sonnet Pasithea be categorized, by sake of family tree with the Morpheus, as being situational?
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No idea since I’ve not heard it, so can’t say. I should also say that really all of these DACs are situational since synergy can really determine a setup in some cases, it’s just that I couldn’t really find any good synergy in any of my tested setups, and it doesn’t help that’s not really to my general preferences either, so I felt it was more situational and specific than other options I was testing at the time
I would make the assumption that they share similar characteristics/traits, but I don’t know for sure
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OK, fair enough and yes, I was speaking to the Satisfaction table not value in PT2 - and noted that there you stated personal prefs - same/similar as with May, Terminator too for that matter lol
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So I wouldn’t consider it similar to the may in sound of course, but I also think I wouldn’t say it has the same sort of embellishment or polishing the may has. The may works to make things sound more agreeable, spacious, and nuanced than they actually are although listening deeper you realize some of these shortcomings (or at least I did). I do not think the sonnet does this, it’s just a very specifically colored/voiced dac with more specific synergy needs. I didn’t find that pairing pickiness and more hit or miss nature in the may for comparison
Terminator was really the only one I just didn’t like and didn’t think it was worthwhile to consider. I still do like both the may and sonnet but wouldn’t own myself and they didn’t fit well into my system, but I don’t think I could really ever suggest someone consider a terminator given what they go for so that was really the only bad apple out of the bunch in my eyes
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This is what I was meaning to imply above - You thought they weren’t necessarily bad as a whole just not good for you. With the Exception of the Terminator - that is clear and understood and I was poking the bear a bit above, my bad.
Thanks M0N
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Yes, I can absolutely see why someone might want to pick them over other options and I can see how it can slot into some systems quite well, all depends on what you are after
I just try to not comment on it since others seem to like it lol
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Just to br frank, i wouldnt consider the pasithea at all. Its probabaly the worst dac ive heard iver 3k rrp. Detail is high but stage is flat like hd800 with 0 layering and a wierd tonality. Maybe it was a synergy abomination with aic-10, but yah. It was rough…
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I can confirm the morpheus was a miss with the aic lol. It generally does have that “wall of sound” stage where everything is one just big wall/mass lol. I will say that stage dimensionality really did improve with better quality digital signal in, but it didn’t fix the problem or remove that wall of sound characteristic, just make it somewhat less flat to where it was more tolerable imo. Tonality I found alright although not my preference, although I did find it pretty organic, so that wasn’t all that unusual to me
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I tried it with the hermes and su-2 kte. Tbh i think the beat it sounded was usb directly since it rounded it off slightly and reduced glare a bit. Overall, idk. That demo just made me utterly uninterested in the company when basicaly every dac i had heard at half the price was just wholisticaly better in every cattegy except maybe (and only maybe) raw detail
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Oh really, interesting, I basically thought usb was noticeably worse than feeding it with something else lol. Either way, wasn’t that big of a fan though lol
I’ve never really been a metrum or sonnet fan myself either, always thought there were better options for the money. I can only really suggest one if someone wants that more wall of sound characteristic and yes the detail was pretty respectable
Makes me wonder how much the pasithea is over the morpheus, since I thought overall performance was acceptable enough given you can basically get them for 2.5k new now, wonder if the pasithea didn’t really improve on what the morpheus offered
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Keep in mind i only had a few hours with it, but usb reduced my main issue with it so i liked it more.
Yah, i still havent heard moerpheus, but what i heard frlm the pasithe isnt how i see morph described (outside of the wall of sound aspect). Instead it was hyper energetic but still not super slammy and instead kinda glarey with a bit of a V shape.
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Oh interesting, yeah the morph is more laid back and smooth from my experience, more midrange focused as well, it actively would benefit from more bite and forwardness lol (although it’s hard to really do anything to give it that without making the wall of sound presentation even more prominent)
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Yah, pasithea was a weird one. Like if you described it to me, it sounds like something that I think would work excellently with AIC → SUS but holy shit did it just not. I basically feel the opposite about pasithea than I do Meitner MA3 (if someone described the MA3 sound to be I wouldn’t have demoed it but ma3 → aic is the best ive heard sus to date.
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The claustrophobic presentation was the biggest flaw for me. There were things I liked about the Morpheus, but stage and separation wasn’t on the list!
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Not to change the subject but with all the DAC knowledge on this forum… I searched for comments on Exasound Audio. I could not find any comments. Has anyone listened to or has knowledge of this dac? Exasound E62
This is made in Toronto and seems to be a reputable company. I have heard mention of this brand on (Thomas and Friends) You Tube video.
Tks
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