The
SECOND BATTLE OF GIANTS
JULY 2008
After almost
half year since the first top player contest many players tried to beat
my top four: the Lampucera,
the
Grundig 9009, the Azur and the Shanling. Or should I say the game was
between
the DACs really: The CS4397, The Wolfson WM8470, the Burr-Brown 1794
and the old Philips TDA1541AS1.
I decided that
it is time to call a second game. The Revenge. The champions went back
to their pits, regrouped, improved, tuned, took doping and generally
got prepared for the new bloodbath.
We have four new contenders which all
surpassed the old champions. So let the battle begin !!!
1. As good as the stock unmodified Cambridge 640C lampized externally
with 6H1P tube was - it was seriously beaten by the Arcam CD73,
with
same wolfson but better power regulation and better part tuning, and
also better lampizator - internal 6H6P SRPP of second generation
(meaning that the resistors of 620 Ohms were changed now to 39 Ohms)
2. As good as the tweaked Big Boss Grundig 9009 was, it was beaten by
the slim kid - The NAIM CD3
with non oversampling mode, no tuning, and
one triode Siemens ECC801S as internal lampizator.
3. The lampucera is
now the super tweaked version with good power
supplies, with the caps upgraded to a mix of os-cons and tantalums, and
the output is via a 6H6P in triode mode cathode follower. It uses
Obbligato oil caps unlike the old test having no name MKP's.
4. Finally - the burr brown dac chip PCM1794 of the shanling - I don't
have it now, so
the fourth corner will be for lampized
SATCH
DAC
- the theoretically best TDA1541A dac box ever
made.
Additional runners up are: Nakamichi CDP-2e and fabulous Philips CD753.
And as a surprize - the old DENON 2560 with Analog Devices
DAC AD1862 returned with new energy.
The winner of this contest will go to another house and it will
challenge good old Audionote DAC4 SE. Things will be interesting this
summer!
My amp is hot, my speakers are toed in, my chair is comfy, lets listen !
Ouuuggh this is gonna be tough. The bar is rised so high, that it is
very exhausting to listen for such small nuances and find minuscule
differences, if all players here are TOP CLASS and selected from
thousand mediocre boxes. In every case I just want to jump shouting YES
this is it ! I love this sound.
Anyway - I can share with you what I heard.
1. NAIM CD3 - this slim'n'ugly
thing looks like a joke but after lampization and removing 5 opamps per
channel it opened up, exploded with details, and attacked me with
totally unveiled image of live musicians. This player redefined what is
possible to do with TDA1541A S1. If you think that TDA1541A is just
good
midrange and woolly bass and shy trebles - think again.
The NAIM sound is like a dream of TDA1541A afficionado come true.
The
NAIM people know something about the TDA1541A which I don't know yet. I
tried same caps, better regulators, all kinds of tricks and never
arrived on such good sound.
Partly thanks to the ultra pricey supertube - very explosive dynamics
surprised me. Siemens ECC801S is a super expensive silly tube which
extracts the last detail and last drop of juice from the TDA1541A. When
I
added the NOS (non-over-sampling) mod (very very easy in this
player) it responded with magic causing goose bumps like never before.
This is the first player in series of champions, so it is too early to
draw conclusions or to call a winner but before trying the other
5 - so far - compared to all my previous experience - the baby
"pancake" Naim CD3 becomes for a while the KING OF CD PLAYERS. I can
not imagine one single smallest area where I can hear any weakness.
Also the ergonomics, the good taste design, the ultra large and legible
display, the understatement look, the super high reliability of manual
drawer - puts it on top of the list for people interested in the
ultimate, cost no object CD playback. Unfortunately it is hard to
find and quite
pricey. I guess 500 Pounds is a minimum ticket plus lampization.
2. The Lampucera with
full tuning.
I can not stop
admiring my Chinese princess. There is no debate - the
CS4397 rightly belongs to the elite of DACs. On such simple
PCB as the Lampucera and with all SMD caps bypassed by 10 uF tantalums
and all electrolytes replaced by 330 uF oscons ( by 6,3 V) -
with DAC-DIRECT output to Lampizator - the 6H6P configured in anode
follower triode - and with Obbligato oil capacitors (Or should I say
canisters). this board DAC produces sound which I expect from 5 000
Euro top of the line CD player.
Overall this sound has no weaknesses, it delivers everything it does in
the best form. If I was hard pressed to "find something on this sound"
I would say that sometimes, and only in direct comparison to the
best players - it sounds a little bit "plastic" . Kind of synthetic.
Next minute - I don't hear it at all, but sometimes the warmth of
voices in the Naim or the Arcam captures my attention. Maybe after
better cap selection - this plastic feeling would disappear. If I
remember well, os-con sounds just like that - a little plasticky -
compared to the better Blackgates.
Don't get me wrong. This remark is only VERY VERY subjective and small.
Like a complaint about the uncomfortable cigarette lighter in a
Porsche.
Overall, if I didn't hear the NAIM I would say that Lampucera rules,
but unfortunately there is only one position for the king so Lampucera
can be a Queen. Considering the board price - some 20 Pounds before
shipping - it is a DREAM. You can have 25 Lampuceras for one NAIM.
3.SATCH dac
fith full mods
SATCH dac has been described in
its section in details. With NOS mode, some tantalum bypass, and with
SRPP lampizator with 6N2P tubes - it created a new reference
immediately. The typical hifi descriptive terms which we used for other
players in this contest were replaced in our vocabulary with the likes
as Holy Shit, Oh My God, and the like.
The satch does everything that the NAIM does plus it is more refined,
it sounds deeper, more magical, more awsome in the hallucinations
departments. It is the dream come true. For a week I just listened. I
have probably pulled 100 CDs and I loved every minute of
listening. Satch is not really a product - it is basically
a DAC chip naked, with lampizator attached.
It shows that the potential of the good old TDA1541A is extremely
strongly related to the surrounding circuitry. TDA is like a musical
instrument - it plays what the artist can play, without sound of its
own.
As far as DAC boxes go - I haven't yet heard a better one.
4.ZERO DAC with
AD1852 dac chip
This silly looking cheap DAC after lampization with Triode
cathode follower totally surprized me. I did not expect it to
sound this good. There is something very right about the warm
timble of music. Bass is very good, details are rich and natural , I
just loved it. I rank it as real high end, in this particular contest
it comes last but just a hair behind Lampucera. I believe some people
would pick ZERO as a better choice.
it was the fourth time the DENON returned to my lab for upgrade.
I changed the tubes to 6N2P and the Analog Devices AD1862 DACS were in
current output mode. I
used a pair of mono DACs without using the second mirror pair.
I added tantalum caps directly on chip's pins for three power supplies
per DAC. It sounded great but shy in the bass. I replaced tantalums
with OS-CONS - 330 uF by 10 V and the bass returned. The additional
caps
were necessary because the power supply regulators are very far from
DAC chips.
What can I say - the DENON really came to life with the best tubes
known to me today. The bass, mids and trebles were as good or better
than from any of my other contenders, but there is one aspect where the
Denon DCD2560 wins - the size of soundscape. The DENON DCD2560 has the
widest,
highest and deepest soundstage I ever heard. It has energy, power,
slam, drive, details - I always dreamed about. I can not find one
smallest flaw in the DENON.
It also looks great and the ergonomics are great.
In this contest - the ranking is the following:
Denon 100, SATCH 95, NAIM 90, Lampucera 85, Zero dac 80
points.
The Nakamichi CDp-2e did not sound good enough to make it to this
listing but it was nevertheless VERY good. Equal to the best Sonys like
227ESD or 337ESD.
I had to return the Denon to the owner, so it was the Satch which went
to the friend's house to play against the Audio Note DAC4 upgraded to
DAC5 status with blackgates which could form a nice will of a rich man.
6. Audio Note DAC 4 (4,5) against the Tube Satch
The SATCH in the context of a 70 000 Euro system - top of the
line Verdier 845 monos, Verdier 4 box preamp, and Audiomeca Mephisto 1
transport with Top Lowther horn 2 way speakers and all top Kondo
cabling - was really at home. It sounded heavenly good. I mean the DAC
played as expected in this system - natural, powerful, energetic and
totally analog. Smooth and magical.
However after switching to DAC 4 based on the AD1865 DAC (one stereo
piece) and the same receiver as in SATCH - CS8414, and the tube
equivalent of 6N6P - the superb ECC182s - it beats the SATCH. It is a
small difference, very small, but the A-N has more detail and more
power energy. It sounds as the SATCH on steroids.
Totally fabulous DAC, and rightly so for the price tag of 19 000 Euro
(or so I was told). If I havent heard the DAC4 I would say the
system is in perfect synergy with the SATCH.
There we have it - the 500 dollar SATCH comes 94 % close to the AN
which is my world reference player. Can I say more ?
So I am going back to my lab to chase the dragon and eventually beat
the A-N. If memory serves me, The Denon DCD2560 was 99 % of the
AN.
A fully hotrodded and lampized Revox B225 with two TDA1540 DACs may be
the one to beat AN DAC4, who knows. Kind of a black horse of the race.
A YEAR LATER
The lampized Behringer DAC
was the closest one to beat the Audionote.
It was so close that the difference did not matter anymore. Well -
facts are - they were equal. And the Behringer 9624 costs only 300 Eu.
.......................................to be continued
........................