… played through an old DAC! At the moment, there seems to be an epidemic of 'upgraditis' - a rush to pick up the latest all singing, all dancing DAC in an effort to wring the best out of our digital music libraries. Recent personal DAC experience suggests that old is not necessarily useless and that significant gains can often be made without chasing modern DAC perfection – and with little fuss or financial outlay. I have been using an original ‘Gatorised’ Beresford Caiman DAC with the stock PSU for a number of years in my modest system. It’s mostly used for playing CDs via my trusty Marantz CD6000KI Signature, which is employed as a transport. I have been very satisfied with the sound but recently have myself been toying with the idea of upgrading to the latest DAC iteration from Beresford, the Caiman SEG. By chance, whilst rummaging through my old bits of kit, I found that I had held onto a Musical Fidelity V-PSU ll, left over from when I sold my previous DAC, a matching MF V-DAC. Looking at its spec sheet I found that, at 12v and 500mA it should be a decent match for my aging Caiman and, to my glee, the plug was a direct fit too making the exchange straightforward. I had no idea what to expect really, beyond the possibility that it could bring about some kind of change if not improvement, and settled down for a bit of ‘critical listening’. From the opening few bars of Jennifer Warnes’ ‘Famous Blue Raincoat’ album, I knew I was in for a treat. The transformation was truly astounding and way beyond what I envisaged. The soundstage was obviously much wider and deeper and there was far better instrumental separation giving a more open, transparent presentation. A vast improvement in sound was apparent across all frequencies: bass was tighter, deeper and had more control and ‘punch’; mids were absolutely sublime, with vocals – especially female – benefitting tremendously from the change, rendering vocal lines much easier to follow and understand in the mix; highs were sweet and with no signs of glare or sibilance. All in all I would say it was a very integrated, detailed, smooth and yet analogue-sounding presentation which was several orders of magnitude better than with the stock PSU. Complex music that before could sound a bit muddled was picked apart with aplomb and revealed in all its glory. Low level detail, reverb and other musical nuances that had never been as apparent before all added a fresh new insight on old favourites and it was like hearing them for the first time all over again. I found myself listening for hours, with King Crimson, Mercury Rev, Metallica, Kitaro, Steven Wilson and Kate Bush gracing the disc tray and the changes/improvements were apparent across all of them, so it wasn’t just a fluke. Without resorting to well-worn hifi cliche, I was absolutely stunned by the improved listening experience brought about by simply changing the PSU, to the point where I’m reconsidering the SEG upgrade – for the moment. A lesson then – before shelling out for that dream DAC with the latest chip on board, try changing the PSU to your old one if you can – you may be pleasantly surprised! Any similar stories?
I agree. The only real reason to upgrade your DAC may be if you want to play different files or ones with more resolution. DAC technology hasn’t changed all that much in terms of sound. I fact in may cases it’s gotten worse in a lot of mass marketed DACs. In my opinion, older more vintage DACs are a means to enjoy digital sound with character.
As I noted in a previous thread, a few days ago I purchased a vintage Lucid DA9624 dac. So far I am more than pleased with the sound. I don't want to jump to conclusions as I've not listened to it long enough for a good evaluation, but it seems to have improved the SQ. I was using the dac in my Yamaha 303 CD player, along with the dac in my Yamaha S501 integrated amp. BTW, I've been using the headphone amp of the Lucid. It seems to be an improvement over the jack of my Yamaha amp. I don't have a complaint.
So, in your opinion the definition of an 'audiophile' is someone who spends untold amounts of hard-earned cash in an effort to keep up with the latest hardware trends rather than someone who enjoys listening to music through a decent, balanced and well-matched system? Reminds me of optics forums where many contributors admit to buying binoculars simply to look at, rather than through - beats me!?
It's not what the industry wants to hear though is it Len? "This gadget from 1986 may well just be as good as anything in a shop window today!" Jennifer Warnes, lovely singer, unique vocal timbre, nice to see someone else in the UK has the records.
I love how everyone bashes Naim and other manufacturers for their external power supply upgrade path. Then someone upgrades a power supply and is stunned by the improvement. Imagine if you plugged your DAC into a Supercap!
A DAC is just a computer in the same way that a calculator works so does an older calculator. The power supply and output are the most age prone. Currently I'm buying old cd players improving their PSU and op amps with good results the DAC is fine. To some extent DAC bit widths and sample rates are more than enough, output stages and power should get more attention.
I don't have a similar story per se, though listening to an older 12 years I believe Dac, but you've hit on two things I consider true. Older Dacs can certainly be as good or better and power supplies are incredibly important.
No problem at all. Perhaps something got lost in the British/US English translation on its traversal across that big ocean! (BTW, your original post made a lot of sense to me.)
