Count DACular 😂

100% this guy is fantastic. He could stay at my house and give them the keys anytime of the day very trustworthy.

What were your existing DACs if you don't mind?

@@ekjellgren As time has progressed, I find that I now very much prefer the NOS mode, clocked internally, rather than using the I2S clocking. You can really alter the sound with the various settings, so depending upon your system you can tune it. Previous DACs starting with previous favorite: SPL Audio Mercury mastering DAC (AKM 4493 chip). The internal 120v discrete op-amps make a really robust and dynamic presentation. A really good sounding DAC. The only problem is that it has no I2S input. I was using AES. The AES output of the Singxer SU-6 is not at the same quality as the I2S output, so that holds it back at least a little bit. RME ADI-2 Pro FS R Black Edition. Wonderful features, but two limitations. The internal output stage seems weak compared to the SPL Audio Mercury, and also no I2S input. This is also an AKM chip unit. CraneSong Solaris studio DAC. This was the first commercially available DAC (to my knowledge) that included a sub-picosecond jitter clock. Also an AKM based chip, but it really brought new levels of jitter control to the pro audio community without needing an external clock. No I2S input. I loved this DAC for years, tested against Dangerous Music, Universal Audio etc. Competes sound quality wise with the RME. Universal Audio x16 uses the ESS Sabre 9068AS DAC chipset. Tons of studio features, Thunderbolt 3 connection only, although there is an AES, but not as the primary source. Greatly improved with external clocking by a GRIMM CC2 sub-picosecond clock.

Thanks for watching and contributing continuously. Cheers

Yes this would be a great theme!

❤❤❤ I really love this guy very intelligent, and his vocabulary of describing sounds is off the charts. You are Lord of the rings.😂😂😂

While I can't comment on Denafrips DACs (I only had Ares II), you might want to look at 6moons review of Harmony DAC. Reviewer there owns Terminator+ and he actually slightly preferred this one in his system which led him to purchase it after the review was done.

@@iiWiReviews I read that, with great interest, because I currently have a Cen Grand deluxe, which was his preferred DAC until this one. Now I'm in a bit of a quandary...

@@cheeky1664 What are your thoughts on the Cen.Grand DSDAC 1.0 Deluxe? I'm torn between choosing it or the Laiv Harmony or the Audio-GD R7HEMK3...

@@SartajAnand I only have experience of the Cen Grand deluxe, so I can't offer any wisdom I'm afraid. The Cen Grand is brilliant but it's interesting learning that something half the price is as good or even slightly better....

I have a Pontus II. I don’t think this has the low end slam like the Pontus. I’m sending mine back because it stopped working before it broken in didn’t notice anything particularly better.

They haven't sent it to him...

@@marcusbrsp How attentive of you Sherlock.

@@mariodrv I know, right. But you need to understand that reviewers will, usually, only review whatever companies send them. So, maybe your question should be asked to the company who did the Pedja Rogics Audial S5...

Hi from Belgrade! You currently have a very respectable DAC. The thing is that I haven't heard it so any attempt to give a good advice would be pure speculation on my side.

@@iiWiReviews Thank you for your honest response. I wish you a nice weekend.

It would sound very very good and it's a very fine pairing. That said, Harmony DAC is more transparent of the two and A6 would be the one setting the maximum soundstaging and tone richness limit in that pairing.

Competes with the May KTE from reviewers.

There were 2 used Holo May KTE that sold on US Audio Mart in the past few days for $4200 and $4500 USD (plus fees). Both sold within 1 day of listing at that price.

Ah those Darko and Sandu, they just couldn't let me have this one. Now I'll never become the lord of the DACs. 😤

@@iiWiReviews…and Tarun beat you on The Auralic Vega!!! 😮

Well, I simply can't get mad at him with that lovely accent, can I? 😄

Not much better than the pontis too if at all

One headphone reviewer said high end Chord has more power. This appears more Chord-like in comparison he said but the price will get a lot of looks (listens).

Well I bought one for my main system and it's amazing. Still burning in, but it gets better each day. Large soundstage, holographic, detail, separation, layering. Just awesome. For my secondary system though, I'm still keeping an eye out for interesting musical dacs. Would love to see you get one of those Audial S5b dacs for review that is based on the vintage TD1541A dac chip with some type of internal R2Rish design. Would love to see how that compares to the modern dacs you've experienced and reviewed to get a reference point. Some say it beats $30K dacs.

Which review? That is the comparison i am looking for

@@stijnvanderlooy5311 kzfaq.info/get/bejne/rZlmgdhoys3WYoE.htmlsi=c9MhKKDgdYoFqDDp

@@stijnvanderlooy5311 www.youtube.com/@VirtualHiFi/videos

@@stijnvanderlooy5311 can't link it because of the nazi algorithm. But the channel has virtual and hifi in it's name

Off to the Goolag! Big Totalitarian Tech.

I am planing to review Cyan 2 soon. Hope it can be at the end of the month.

It has been reported to play DSD512 by a popular reviewer who confirmed this.

Those are both possible end-game components, you might as well unsubscribe. 🙂 Enjoy!

Thanks. I agree about black and gold. It looks very stylish in real life, in my opinion... And build quilty together with internals commands respect. It's clearly not "yet another DAC".

@@iiWiReviews agreed,

Yes, my Iris 12th improved the sound quality of both my Ares 12th and Pontus II 12th-1. source= Apple Music

1. Resistors are passive and very stable electronic components. Some older and cheaper designs used to be sensitive to temperature change, but new technologies and materials have overcome that problem in recent years. So I don't believe that any R2R DAC will ever going to exhibit any instability caused by that. On the other hand, electrolytic capacitors in the power supply are most prone to losing their value over time. Still, those are probably good for 10+ years when we're talking about this level of quality. Also, aged capacitors are an easy and cheap fix even for a local electronics repair shop. All in all, an R2R DAC without network capability and too much software onboard that could go wild should be one of the longest-lived components of your system. 2. I wasn't aware that model even existed, there are so many of them every year. I'll take a look. 3. I'm trying to get SU-X in for a review and I hope it will happen but it's still too early to tell for sure. Haven't been thinking about DX9 so far. An educated guess is that it will probably match the performance of the D90 III and A90D stack but save you some money in the process. If you only need a DAC, I wouldn't be looking into the DX series, standalone DAC models always outperformed it at the same point - a big and powerful amp takes a big chunk of the available budget.

Good choice. Enjoy it!

I tried it with Fulcrum and Bach, but not with baseline AI preamp. But I don't see any potential problem with the pairing that you're asking about. Both components are very revealing but not in an analytical and dry kind of way. That said, I know for a fact that you have an awesome DAC already. 😉

Thanks so much! 😊

Glad you like it and thanks for your support!

Agree it would be a more interesting comparison. Have youtried the Leo Bodnar GPS clock? I've had very good results with it & my R26.

@@RogRogs I didn't try the Bodnar clock for a couple reasons....Firstly, the need to provide an external power supply opened up the can of 'which one'. And also it has only a single output, while I need at least two outputs for the R26 and the U18. And maybe a third one, if I get an LHY switch. Certainly the published phase noise spefications of the Bodnar clock are very impressive.

@@rontoolsie The Precision GPS Reference Clock has two outputs & ATM I'm just running it powered via a USB cable from my music sever & it sounds great, although I have plans to power it from my BreezeHiFi LPS (from Ali) which will hopefully improve the SQ further. There's an interesting thread on "The Audio Standard" all about it.

@@RogRogs I think you will find that the clock is very sensitive to the quality of power you give it. Very recently I tried a new high spec 'fuse' in my OCK-2 clock, replacing the generic 1A fuse. And the improvements were immediately evident, and bigger than those obtained even putting similar fuses in my monoblocks, which are far more power hungry than the master clock.

@@rontoolsie Thanks for the tip - I'm making a voltage regulator box with 2 x LT3045 voltage regulators from ldovr, so hopefully the DC supply from the LPS should be squeaky clean!

Thanks for your support! 👍

A8's DAC performance is slightly below Gustard R26. While that's very decent on its own, it sounds kind of flat next to Harmony, both in terms of space and dynamics.

Hi, Aune S17 pro is my favorite headphone amplifier up to 1000, and also the best I ever reviewed because I didn't really do headphone amps above 1000.

Venting means releasing some strong emotions and opinions, after which people usually feel calmer. So I'm just willingly offering people to vent by commenting anything they feel like, even if it's about my personal looks. 😄 Just like I like saying what's on my mind and sharing my emotions on this channel.

I’ve got the Pontus as well but the way they’re talking this thing punches way above it and beats the Terminator. Check out Steve Huff’s review if you haven’t.

@@sean_heisler I already checked the Steve Huff's review. I'm not interested and I don't care about the design but the sound! Steve is sensitive about design... Anyway, the section about the power supply and the isolation get my interest, so about sound. The LAiV dac get, for sure, my attention like this iiWi's review.

@@pinkyfloydyfan1 yeah, yeah. I hear you. IIWI reviews does a great job at describing sound, definitely one of my favorite reviewers. I’m not a big fan of Steve Huff to be perfectly honest but the guy has heard a lot of top dollar stuff and I actually think he is in fact more interested in the sound that aesthetics. But anyway, I’m as interested in sound as you and I also own the Pontus. So I’m with you.

I can tell you…. That it is an amazing dac… nothing beats it for the price. I have the LIAV dac too… there close… it will come down to system matching

​@@krismccall4911 would you be able to give us a deeper comparison of the two? Soundstage, tonality, dynamics, bass weight and speed, note timbre, naturalness, and which systems may benefit which dac? It's the first I have heard of the dac8 and I'm quite intrigued!

@@KXP70 - the dac8 is highly detailed, very well defined soundstage very deep wide (not to wide)spacious and holographic. Its character is neutral nothing emphasized in the spectrum. Really great with dance, disco electronic and rock music it has speed and punch. Very dynamic. The Laiv has some of the same characteristics… it’s soundstage is deep, well defined, its wide…but not bloated wide, it isn’t as dynamic as the dac8, but dynamic enough for sure. It has a midrange thats has more character clarity and weight… more natural there….. so vocal focused music shines. Differences are simply… the dac8 has a touch more up top detail, more dynamic faster tighter bass. The laiv more midrange clarity weight and realism voices are definitely floating in front of you . The bass has a touch more texture. Other than the midrange… the difference is small.

Interesting about this clock. What's the biggest difference you could feel?

@@jansimon1597 Hi - in my system, there were improvements in all areas, dynamics, clarity, bass extension. I noticed more attack from percussion, could understand lyrics better & could hear basslines I hadn't heard before - soundstage increased in width & depth too. If you search for "R26 & Leo Bodnar Clock" you can find a thread on The Audio Standard with many people's experiences of this upgrade - there seems to be a special synergy between the R26 & this (relatively) inexpensive clock.

I too added an external GPS, 10k Mhz, OCXO clock and it really brought refinement to the R26 that I did not expect (only cost me about 80 dollars); stock, it's already a wonderful beast. Across the board the resolution, staging and dynamics went up. It is subtle at first but as the clock warms up (it is oven controlled after all) it really makes me sit there like 🤤 Try it and see if you are interested.

That's usually how it works. Better products cost more.

@@Pete.across.the.street I don't agree. Especially in dacs, after a certain point in price, the differences are minor (if any). Majority of differences are by the room accoustics, speakers and amplifier. When comparing decent dacs, details and resolution are mostly differed when using headphones and even then, when using a good pair, the differences are minor at best

Thanks for your support! I already answered your other question about A8. Unfortunately I can't help with this comparison since I haven't had the chance to hear Wandla.

@@iiWiReviews yes you did. Thus the “One more question“ reference. Thanks again! 🙂