Great Giant Killer Wolfsen DAC Dedicated CD player-Onkyo C-7030

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by The Beave, Jul 5, 2014.

  1. Tullman

    Tullman Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston MA
    Probably, only 20 year old giants.
     
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  2. motorcitydave

    motorcitydave Enlightened Rogue In Memoriam

    Location:
    Las Vegas, NV, USA
    Hey Beave, since you like that Onkyo, I would check out the DX-7555. It's discontinued, but it's better built than the C-7030. The sound I get from this baby is impressive. It doesn't that it has been broken in for 8 years!

    http://www.stereophile.com/cdplayers/108onk/
     
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  3. Ghostworld

    Ghostworld Senior Member

    Location:
    US

    Good post. I went down the same route. Went through lots of manufacturers and models and, though process of elimination, finally ended up with a 15 year old player that I thought was "just right." Then there was a lot of talk about the new DAC on the block, a nice cheap one, too. I plugged in that DAC and went "Wow!" not even close to my semi-vintage players. So far heads above those players I started ripping my CDs and abandoned that format now I only use DACs. I do miss having a CD player, sort of, it was always fun watching the drawer slide open.
     
  4. The Beave

    The Beave My Wife Is My Life! And don’t I forget it! Thread Starter

    Very interesting Tullman.
    I'm so glad I'm NOT your neighbor or else I'd be broke and on the streets.
    You reside in the next plane wayyyyyy above me-$ wise-but it's very interesting how similar our experiences (within our relative price points we can afford) are.
    In reality I hope I never hear gear like that in a seductive way as it will ruin me forever. I've never gone after gear I couldn't afford-I know myself way too well. And it happened with the OMD-28's. After I auditioned their younger brother the OMD-15's and went back to my Infinity Kappa 6's, it became immediately apparent that I couldn't enjoy music over the Kappa's anymore. Just having that taste of the 'real' next level up really got to me. Hence $4400.00 the OMD-28's. To me that was and is a once in a lifetime purchase.
    But again, it's nice to see the same kind of similarities in the different price ranges.
    Hey. Happy Friday!!@
    the beave
     
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  5. GuildX700

    GuildX700 Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    ARRIVED!

    No damage, popped the cover to check things, now powered up & spinning break in discs.

    A few observations/nit picks:
    Has a very nice matte black finish that does not show fingerprints much.

    Clean front panel layout is disturbed by an oddly protruding headphone vol control. It would have been nice to make that a detent-in on/off to shut the headphone amp off when not in use and then the knob also would not protrude so much.

    Inside is a very clean layout, 1 cleanly designed main board which floats on plastic standoffs free from the chassis. Very little wiring. The obvious hero inside is the reasonably large power transformer (for audio only?), and a very small one (for display/non audio?). Too bad they did not partition off the transformer section from the rest of the chassis with some metal shielding.

    Controls/remote seem well laid out. Although I really do appreciate the front display 3 level dimmer ability why in the world would they not also let you completely shut it off??? My Yamaha CD-C600 changer will shut off the headphone, display, and digital output all with 1 button. Kind of a clean running mode.

    The bottom/sides are made from 1 reasonably thick piece of metal, too bad they did not do the same for the cover which is very flimsy. I put a sheet of damping material and a slab of granite on the top to kill it's vibrations.

    In operation, it's transport runs quiet, the drawer is a bit slow to open/shut, but the disc is read fairly fast.

    A few days of burn in and we'll see how it fares.
     
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  6. RonW

    RonW Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    Mine arrived last night. I'll be running her later tonight and will get back.
    The box looks like it was just handed off the shelf. Perfect.
     
  7. RonW

    RonW Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    This player sounds really nice! It's only been on for 1/2 hour or so and I can definitely hear some very nice resolution and accuracy. It loves to play!
    Listening right now to Love "Forever Changes". Very nice detail I was not hearing on the CDB-650 although a great player.

    The newer Wolfman DAC's definitely make a huge difference in the presentation. :)
    Great presence and separation as well.
    Sounding better every minute she's playing. That's fascinating. Headphone amp is very good it loves my Grados.

    Awesome Beave!
    Thank you...
     
    Last edited: Jul 11, 2014
  8. The Beave

    The Beave My Wife Is My Life! And don’t I forget it! Thread Starter

    GuildX: you should be a design engineer! I 'ditto' all of your points and in a perfect world it would be like that wouldn't it?? :p
    But then again, they don't ask us for our opinion do they???
    But remember the price point. And think of all the 'plastic' units there are out there, like the cheaper Teac stuff and the Sony stuff. They really did put some overkill into this.
    Now, time for another beer, and then I'm going to put 'Johnny A' in the 7030 and dig the tunes......:edthumbs:
    the beave
     
    RonW likes this.
  9. The Beave

    The Beave My Wife Is My Life! And don’t I forget it! Thread Starter

    Hey, it's very nice of you to say but truth be told, If I could turn one person onto this deck, and they ended up with something Better than what they had, that's all that needs to be done.
    And it Does get better after about 40 hours. You should notice the Bass region extending and at the same time 'tightening' up. Also the midrange will start to take on depth and the treble area will also take on 'ambience' especially in the cymbals. It's subtle at first, but put on a well recorded CD you know well after the burn in period and without 'blasting' it, just relax and see if you can hear what I'm describing.
    Again, the 'Johnny A' 'Get Inside' disc I use as a reference is a brickwalled CD. Crazy you say that I use that particular disc but two things:
    One, the CD is 'recorded' VERY well and there is a lot of dynamics, that unfortunately are squashed by the brickwalling......BUT
    it's also a very good disc to test DAC's to see what they can pull out of such a convoluted mess. And the Onkyo with the Wolfsons does a very credible job at pulling out some spatial information (air around the ride and hi-hat cymbals) from such a compressed disc.
    So..... I await to hear, good or bad from you.
    Just remember, My Journey cost me a couple of thousand dollars over 7 different decks, and I ended up putting the 7030 BACK into my system as my main CD player and the others are packed up sitting to the right of me.
    Don't read anything too heavy in that. It just is the way it turned out and that is why I started the thread.
    Now, back to our regularly scheduled program.
    Have a great friday night and reward yourselves for putting in an honest weeks worth of work.
    the beave
     
    RonW likes this.
  10. RonW

    RonW Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    Thanks Beave. I noticed subtle changes in the first hour and am very excited about what is to come. I'll be getting out some nice CDs this weekend and let her play. What a sweet player really. Yes it's been a long week and this was worth waiting for.
     
  11. c-eling

    c-eling They're made of light,We never would have guessed

    Your not making it any easier on me Ron :D At this price though it may be a good idea in case my SBTouch ever kicks the bucket
     
    Last edited: Jul 11, 2014
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  12. RonW

    RonW Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    I haven't opened mine but I'm with you on all points. I can't buy anything this nice at this price. I'm looking forward to the run in on this player.
     
  13. RonW

    RonW Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    I was the same way at first. Don't stress over it just buy one you will love it. Promise...
     
  14. RonW

    RonW Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    You know what? I'm really happy for you guys. Nice job.
     
  15. Last edited: Jul 11, 2014
  16. GuildX700

    GuildX700 Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    I'm going for at least 48 straight burn in hours, I don't even want to hear it until then.

    Then the first comparison will be to my Elite DV 48 AV multiplayer, even though it has Burr Brown 192/24 DAC's my guess is it'll go down in flames, the build quality of that thing is a joke, it weighs like 3 pounds how the hell they call it Elite is beyond me, it is very small, and I can't imagine having to do DVD, SACD, DVD-A and CD all in that small of a box and pull it all off. I bought it mainly for the DVD-A & SACD, at $99 closeout it made sense at the time.
     
  17. GuildX700

    GuildX700 Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
  18. cathare34

    cathare34 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brussels,Belgium
    a question do you connect the c-7030 to your amp (analogue rca) or coaxial through your dac ?
     
  19. The Beave

    The Beave My Wife Is My Life! And don’t I forget it! Thread Starter

    Use the analog RCA. Just use good quality connects. That way your getting the DAC sound from the 7030.
    the beave
     
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  20. The Beave

    The Beave My Wife Is My Life! And don’t I forget it! Thread Starter

  21. Tullman

    Tullman Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston MA
    So, this out performing the 90's vintage player you have?
     
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  22. frank3si

    frank3si Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Castle DE USA
    Onkyo, meet Onkyo...

    [​IMG]
     
  23. RonW

    RonW Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    Yes. The clarity, resolution, detail and imaging are better. I would expect that with the newer DAC's in this unit.
     
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  24. duvallite

    duvallite Well-Known Member

    Just got an email from Amazon saying mine has now shipped (ordered last Sunday), with delivery scheduled for tomorrow (Sunday). I doubt they are actually doing a Sunday delivery, but who knows. At least it's now on the way, so I'm happy so far.
     
  25. RonW

    RonW Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    I think they ran out for a short time. You'll get yours early in the week I'm sure of it!
     

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