Audiolab Posted May 11, 2014 Posted May 11, 2014 Thanks bro, cannot stop playi music! Time for u to join us! That's very nice looking dac. Happy enjoying your new toys bro.
Jsen Posted May 11, 2014 Posted May 11, 2014 Will do so when the time is right as I'd just paid for a F9000 tv as a mother's day gift for my mom. ;)
kzone Posted May 11, 2014 Posted May 11, 2014 My favourite character of the DAC (for now) is how the softer instruments n vocals are able to hold its own space n tonality amid the louder instruments. .. so enjoyable! Every music piece is like hearing it for the 1st time all over again.
Audiolab Posted May 11, 2014 Posted May 11, 2014 What I like is how the separation and resolution of the Dac that is able to resolve "messy" and complex songs to make them sounds good! I use to have a list of good and bad sounding cd, now they are all good sounding! My boy was enjoying Pitbull this morning!
Audiolab Posted May 13, 2014 Posted May 13, 2014 Sat down to listen to the Concord with CDP combo after having about 80 hours of run in for the Concord 1 DAC, the Absolute Transmission power cord and XLR digital cable and 2 x DA&T filter. Just can't stop smiling every time a track is being played. The musicality of the dac, the bass punch as well as the seductive vocals just make you want to play cd after cd.its very difficult to describe what's so good about the dac, all I can say is that it just make music sound right and enjoyable. It just sound better and better as it ran in. Now looking forward to 100 hours of playback before I then start to run in my Mac mini with the Concord Power USB cable system.
Audiolab Posted May 14, 2014 Posted May 14, 2014 After 90 hours of run in for my Concord and the recent addition, I invited Steve over for a tuning session to set all my sources to sound good. Last time round during installation, due to time constraint, only the cdp was tune properly to sound good with the Concord. This time round, the intention is to get my Mac Mini tuned and then add Apple TV and my Sony Bluray player into the Concord's input to maximize the quality of the Concord. 1st up was the doing settings on the Mac Mini and iTunes to maximize the quality of sound output from Mac Mini. With every change that Steve does, the sound quality improve and we finally manage to get the quality to a very good level which both myself and him is satisfied. Next up was adding Apple TV optical output I to the Concord. For music lovers who do not know how good can Apple TV sound, I am willing to do demo for owners who are keen at my convenience. Minimal tuning can be done to the Apple TV except adding a DA&T filter and then making sure the polarity of the power cable is correct and also placement of the Apple TV on console. Final item added was my Sony Bluray's digital out into the Concord. I am only using the basic Sony BDP-S5100 and it's connected to a Weiduka AC filter. Player is sitting on Guizu isolation blocks. Played Michael Buble's Fever from the DTS demo disc and the sound quality jus put a smile on my face. So now my system is essentially complete and it revolves around the Concord DAC providing musical performances from 4 different sources! Now is to let the Concord further run in (200 hours) or so and I will then update again on more progress.
sigma Posted May 15, 2014 Posted May 15, 2014 Congrats! Can I request a "backside" photo of the concord? Would like to see the inputs and outputs available. Thanks
Quest88 Posted May 18, 2014 Posted May 18, 2014 Did broler Quest do an AB with Dac2x? Sorry was overseas this whole week. I did several weeks ago but not a complete AB (as I tried without the astin trew concord usb) so will leave aside comments on performance for now, although I think the emmlabs should be ahead in this area given the price. Character-wise, emmlabs dac2x is more neutral while the astin trew is a bit colored but is more musical and enjoyable to listen in my system. With the astin trew concord dac, the musical flow was much better and it was easy to just listen to. Currently with removal of quite a number of my tweaks, my system with the dac2x is more 'plain' sounding although technically competent - kind of like what I can imagine a studio type of system sounds like. It's rather ironic because I got the emmlabs dac2x to bring my system to become more neutral back then. I can theorise either the emmlabs is more revealing of the flaws of my PC, or that my system is just rather neutral now and some added coloration helps.. or maybe a bit of both factors and more. Will do a proper AB and then report back. I'd say the concord dac is worth looking into.
kzone Posted May 24, 2014 Posted May 24, 2014 Final item added was my Sony Bluray's digital out into the Concord. I am only using the basic Sony BDP-S5100 and it's connected to a Weiduka AC filter. Player is sitting on Guizu isolation blocks. Played Michael Buble's Fever from the DTS demo disc and the sound quality jus put a smile on my face. Tried connecting my entry level samsung bdp via optical to the concord n watched a couple of bluray concerts... quite disappointed so far, connecting it via HDMI to my Marantz SR6003 sounds better. Wats the best way to get good 2.0 sound fm BDP?
Audiolab Posted May 24, 2014 Posted May 24, 2014 I am never a big fan of optical cable except for the Lifatec which I am using with my Apple TV now. For my Sony Bluray player, its connected on coaxial out with Steve's Absolute Transmissiom cable. And it sounded great for both bluray concerts and movies. If possible, try coaxial connection from your Samsung and see how sound change. If not, get a good optical cable. From what I learn from Steve, not all blu ray player sound good also. I was contemplating to upgrade my basic Sony bluray to maybe a Oppo or some others. However, after Steve hear the sound reproduction from the Sony, he strongly recommend me to keep it as it sound very good. Do also note that not only the concord need to be run in general, the specific inputs also. So u may consider letting the bluray run in the optical input and see if there is any improvement. Tried connecting my entry level samsung bdp via optical to the concord n watched a couple of bluray concerts... quite disappointed so far, connecting it via HDMI to my Marantz SR6003 sounds better. Wats the best way to get good 2.0 sound fm BDP?
kzone Posted May 24, 2014 Posted May 24, 2014 am using a glass optical fm many years back. Can't use coaxial.. my bdp doesn't have one and the coaxial input on the dac is taken up by the cdp anyway.
Audiolab Posted May 24, 2014 Posted May 24, 2014 Coaxial input being used by cdp can always be overcome with using the BNC instead using an adaptor. It will still sound better than Optical. U may want to consider the Lifatec if u really keen to keep the Samsung. Alternatively is to change a bdp. My Sony one is very affordable! Based on my test, I upgraded from Version 1 of Steve's digital cable to the current version, even that brings a significant improvement. So I am sure the cables plays a significant part for music reproduction. am using a glass optical fm many years back. Can't use coaxial.. my bdp doesn't have one and the coaxial input on the dac is taken up by the cdp anyway.
kzone Posted May 24, 2014 Posted May 24, 2014 Was trying to watch a movie just now and only crackles sound came out. played around with the audio settings of the blu ray player and got very impressive immersive sound on stereo! hurray! now must find time to try again the concert Blurays I watched earlier with the present setting.
Audiolab Posted May 24, 2014 Posted May 24, 2014 Good stuff bro Kzone! I am sure with a good quality optical cable your enjoyment will be even better!
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