Kevin has a vast amount of experience with HiFi gear. I got to know him a few years back and he struck me as very experienced, knowledgeable and puts a lot of thought into what he says or writes. He will have heard many more than two or three high end turntables. He also has had level five AN gear and knows PQ personally, so he is able to discuss the design of the table with him to help in his review and of course, his own findings. If I remember correctly Kevin has an engineering background, so when he discusses those design engineering principles, he has a good basis to work from. I respect Kevin’s opinion as you can tell, because of our previous emails and discussions. Don’t brush aside what he is saying because you want him to have four other tables to compare it to. I don’t know anyone that has a setup like that with identical tonearm sand cartridges to keep everything equal.
Don, can I ask you what the Signature version brings to the table compared to the regular DAC 4.1x Balanced?
Regarding the switch on the back of the DAC’s, my DAC3.1x/ii Balanced does have the Balanced/Single Ended switch but I’ve never been able to get it to actually switch between two sources.
That is peculiar, I have the same DAC now and the switch is working perfect between CD (balanced) and streaming (RCA). How is your setup?
Yup, odd indeed. I tried my CD transport on the coax and my Roon bridge on the balanced input. The output to the preamp was via single ended RCA. Couldn’t get any sound when using the Roon bridge. So I thought perhaps you had to also use the balanced output when feeding the DAC via the balanced input, but that doesn’t help me as my preamp has no balanced inputs.
Have you tried it the other way: I use the balanced input on CD and RCA/coax on streaming (Audiolab)?
The CDP doesn’t have a balanced output. I suppose I could have tried to find a worthy SPDIF to XLR converter.
Richard thank for the AN porn and an article suggestion for you, a photo tour of the better Hong Kong audio shops. There is so much amazing gear there, and a lot of stuff we never see in the US or other countries for that matter. I hope you'll consider it!
I did post a thread series of the bigger second hand shops - but I could add some photos of my own experience to that thread. I did post one a long while back to audiokarma Here is the thread on these forums The Hong Kong Audio Experience I'll try and add some photos to that thread
@Richard Austen I noticed, that you have Empress mono blocs and AN-K. Have you ever tried to listen the K's with your Empress hooked up to them? Can this combination play loud enough in a small room?
This is what I am using right now Except I am running the M1 Phono now. Plenty of volume level - 13 by 18 is my living space with 9 foot ceilings. I never had an issue with the OTO driving either the K or J. According to the manual - the K is designed for between 7-150 watts.
Thank you for your reply. You have a beautiful system and a great view. I have the K's and I might be able to get a pair of this fantastic mono blocs. Will see.
I have had my M5 RIAA since May and it seems to get better every time I switch it on. Just beautiful depth to my LPs - it makes me want to play music deep into the night.
I went back and double checked. The selector is for the input. There are in fact two inputs; one single ended RCA and one XLR. I had both inputs being used, but only one powered on at a time, so no issues. Here is a picture of the back of my DAC: Audio Note DAC 4.1/X Balanced Signature | Audio Note CDT 3-DAC 4.1X Balanced Signature-7906
Having checked with AN, apparently some DACs do/did have it (an input selector switch), but it wasn't necessarily a case of switching between two inputs, more more like a reconfiguration of the input transformers. Like you I can have both the RCA and XLR inputs connected as long as only one of them is switched on.
I ordered a custom made turntable cover that was very well made and simply lifts off of the stand and I place it behind the listening couch in my living room, while playing music. The best part is that it also protects my IoGold cartridge when the turntable isn’t being used. Here is a picture of it sitting on a wall mount at my last house: Vertere Acoustics SG-1 Turntable | IMG_4137
I wish that I could tell you. I am the second owner of the CDT3/DAC 4.1/X Balanced Signature combination. The original owner purchased it new from Soundhounds. When he retired, he wanted to travel the world or start a new hobby that he had never tried before. I forget which as it was just a passing comment from my dealer, who sold it to me. So, I went from an older CD 3.1/x to the combo that I have now. The technician at Soundhounds is very smart and ran through both pieces to check them out for me. He replaced a couple of small components (resistors and capacitors) that were starting to cause concern to him. They were replaced before I ever laid eyes on the two pieces. He told me that they were now as good as something brand new. I can tell you that Steve and Warren had agreed last year or the year before that they felt that the DAC 4.1/X Balanced Signature was the sweet spot in the AN lineup. The pieces above were better but the price went way up and quickly. I feel that it is a very analog sound that you may not be blown away by at first. But the more that I have listened to it over the years, the more I have enjoyed it. It has a very natural presentation to the sound. I hope that helps a little. You may see a better description of the differences in Amherst Audio’s web page. The owner wrote up his experiences and impressions of the different levels of AN DACs, along with some other components.
I’m sorry to hear that you couldn’t get that to work for you. I have one input being fed by the CDT3 and the other by my Roon. It worked nicely. But...I did buy a Mutec MC3+, so I think that it fed the XLR signal and the transport fed the single ended signal.
Has anyone ever setup a large piece of wood or marble, or some other material, to create a false wall behind their AN-E speakers like Warren Jarrett used to? I have read that he got very good results, when the wall behind was less than ideal. I have just moved into a new townhouse and the listening room is my living room. I have hollow interior walls behind my speakers that are made out of gyproc. I am not getting the same quality of sound out of my system that I had at my last house. I am going to experiment some more, but I have a slightly hollow or cupped mouth sort of sound to the lower kids and bass. And it definitely has less bass impact. I wish that Warren was still here with us as it would be a lot of fun to share experiences and ask what he thinks would work. I have another room that I can use but I massively prefer the current location as the stereo is in the area that I live my daily life in. So, I can have music on and part of my life, rather than going to a room in the basement. Any recommendations on how to do this and get good results like Warren did at HiFi shows?
Thanks Don! It makes sense that it has a very analog sound. I also heard that the DAC 4.1x Balanced Signature is the sweet spot, that it has a lot of the DAC 5 qualities but with a lesser pricetag . We can exchange experiences with the DAC when I get it, it is har waiting for the produciton of it.
No experience as such, but a friend of mine had one E in a corner whereas the other only had a backwall. He built a shelf next to the E that wasn’t in a corner, and even after he put some records in it, I don’t think it improved the bass. If anything, it got a bit more boomy, but in any case the effect was small. This isn’t an exact science, though, so in the end I think one has to try. I would think that the more dense and solid, the better. At least when were talking about bass impact. The bigger, the better too--at 20 Hz, the wavelength of sound in air is about 17.5 meters. Which means that you're in some kind of nearfield at least out to 2.9 meters from the source. See rant below. RANT--only read if you're interested in being confused at a higher level, like the author: Sound close to the source displays a complex mixture of (incompressible) fluid behavior and compressible wave behavior. And the less like a true monopole the source is, the farther from the source you need to be in order to be able to ignore the flow field. Not that you necessarily want to ignore it because it also has pressure associated with it, so your ears can hear it--if you are listening to open headphones, you are in fact listening to the flow part of the field at low frequencies. Even for a (mathematically) true monopole, the contribution from flow and sound is equal at about 2.9 meters at 20 Hz. So for low frequencies most of us are listening to a mixture of incompressible air flow and a compressible, traveling sound wave. So who cares? Well, the flow part behaves rather differently from the sound part of the field. Mainly, it doesn't reflect but bends and distorts instead, making it difficult to predict exactly how it will interact in a real-world environment with stuff like furniture. And if the source isn't a true monopole, the fluid part of the field extends farther, and complexity increases. While we normally treat the typical box speakers as monopoles at low frequencies, the chart below shows that they can't be true mathematical monopoles. That would require them to expand & contract equally in all directions. In which case they wouldn't need a cabinet (like the Devialet Phantom, which is closer to a true monopole). Now take a speaker that can't be a true monopole at very low frequencies, put it in a room that typically isn't built for good sound, confound the problem even further by adding a second speaker, and then we may begin to understand why so little of all the advice that's out there on how to deal with bass seems to work everywhere. Like Richard says, the E's will play well in most rooms, but getting that true otherworldly bass remains difficult and hard to predict.
I have a custom made turntable cover for my Nottingham that looks very similar, except it isn't clear and in addition to the cutouts on the side to act as hand-holds, there are cutouts on the back for the cables. I'm wondering if and when I decide to go with a TT3, I can continue to use it. Don't know the dimensions of the TT3 but I think because the Nott has a thicker platter, I should have enough height to clear the TT3's tonearm, etc.
J A Michell offer a 'one size fits all cover' which is available for about $70 (exc. delivery) on the British Audio Products Online website: J A Michell Unicover - Turntable Cover / Lid The blurb with it claims that it will fit any t/t, but I can't say whether that includes the TT3....good luck with the search
I had a discussion about dust covers for the TT3 with PQ two weeks ago and his response was: "We will not offer a dust cover for any of the TT Threes, to make something that really keeps the dist away it would have to be huge and basically cover the entire table, so it be very expensive, almost impossible to ship without packing it in a crate etc. etc. what we will do is post drawings on the web site that show our proposed design and then encourage customers to have it made locally, but someone who makes shop or show displays in acrylic." The TT3/Arm3 combo is: 18 7/8" wide 18 7/16" deep ~ 7 1/2" high Height is an estimate since my table is sitting on some pucks.