Welcome home, Bricasti M1

This must be one of the best purchase i had made. The state of the art DAC from Bricasti Design: M1 Dual Mono D/A Converter.  It is a reference grade DAC that also make its way in mastering rooms like Airshow Mastering, ARF Mastering and Magic Garden Mastering. Mastering guys love this because it makes their job easier and clients happy.

This is a perfect match to my home system. I can hear better. Seriously, it makes critical listening fun.  There are classical titles which i can hear the tone and timbre effortlessly. All thanks to the over-engineering of Bricasti’s ultra-low jitter reduction clocks and their idea of musical energy! Like someone said, they make M1 because they wanted to, not because they need to.

Another tricks in the device are the multiple Linear & Minimum digital filters to play with. Especially for the different mixing standards, pressing between USA, Taiwan and Japanese titles.  Usually, i prefer Minimum 2 for good production and pressing playback. I will use Linear filters to tweak Japanese CD as their production catered for Japanese market. This is another topic by itself on how Japanese audiophiles listen, how they mixed for the market.

Current hifi system setup

The current setup is many years in the making. With the goal to have a studio quality sound reproduction with my bedroom. Not seen here are the various diffusers, absorbent foam and tuning hacks that contribute to a music reproduction that I can settle on the couch without thinking about Audio GAS.

Vinyl setup is dormant now as I mainly love the hassle free of 44.1 Hz CD. It’s only spinning depending on the moods. Another hack not seen here is a CD mat (YS Resonance) which mimics the overall weight of a glass master to stabilize playback and reduce any micro-vibration. The result is trans-formative at a cost of a CD.

For those who stumble upon this post, my hindsight on building a sonic system would be this:  take care of the room, power, cable, racks first.  the music will take care of itself.

In other news, Sterling Sound is moving out from their 20 years old premise to 2 different sites:  Ted & Randy will be in Nashville while the rest of the mastering engineers relocating across to Edgewater, New Jersey. I can’t wait to hear more of their works from the new rooms.

Amphion Argon 2

So I wake up early for a Saturday morning job and while having breakfast thereafter at home, i came upon a WTS post about Amphion Argon 2 speakers. I texted the seller on availability (i think he/she had listed it for 5 years with no takers) and agreed on the timing to collect.  The post described it as a 7 years old speakers with some usual dings and cosmetics issue and my guess it the speakers probably not even played for past years.

I made a fundamental error during transportation by not really securing it properly in the boots (note to self) and that is another story altogether, with me having had to did some minor maintenance to one of the woofer to eliminate the scratchy sound. I am waiting confirmation from Amphion on the woofer SKU# so that I can order a new replacement unit.

Argon 2 by now is a discontinued model in Amphion Argon series and the nearest model in current production would be Argon 3S ( 1″ titanium tweeter, 6.5″ aluminum woofer, 1 passive radiator & crossover at 1600 Hz)

Argon 2 is Finland made 2 way vented speakers that is mid-size bookshelf  of  1″ aluminum tweeter & 6.5″ aluminum woofer (Norwegian SEAS), with a very low crossover at 1200 Hz! The speakers has a gorgeous Uniformly Directive Diffusion to it’s tweeter that is placed in the same distance with the woofer.  UDD deals with the off-axis response of the speakers and in layman term, we gets to hear more of the sound from the speakers and less fro the room.

Sound’stage has a very detailed review of this speakers here.

Verdict: bigger sound than KEF LS50 (capable in its own rights , size and design). It’s high resolution, neutral without sacrificing listening pleasure. It is room placement friendly and it’s totally handmade in Finland.  For the price that I paid and also hands-on tinkering of the speaker(dismantle and all), this is 4 Tuning Forks out of five.

 

Music La

别说人家的唱片录的不好，怪罪录音师头上. 拜托，是你自家音响系统搭配没到班。 #音响调声十戒。 不信试试听卢凯彤的”你的完美有点难懂并不代表世界不能包容 ”

Parasound zDAC

This is a very capable DAC , at a very affordable price point, with XLR output. The power supply is an over-sized torodial power transformer that I used an OEM Accuphase power cord via Plixir AC Conditioner.  All digital signals are up-sampled and re clocks at 422kHz / 24bits.  The sound reproduction is clear and non-fatigue via TOSLINK input (Chord cable). Yet to try a 75 ohms SPDIF digital cable for comparisons.

CD Transport mechanism is another important consideration in pursuit to the 1s & 0s. The sound running from CEC TL51XR and Marantz SA8005 to zDAC is still a noticeable difference.

One main reason I am using an external DAC is due to the fuzzy right channel analog issue (capacitor?) of the CEC. The belt driven CD player has a relaxed reproduction that is gentlemanly like, whilst Marantz SA8005 is clean and accurate.

Verdict: I can live with zDAC until the next upgrade towards Mytek, Benchmark or possibly Lampizator class. That can really wait.