Cables and DACs

[wee tee cee]

Had a wee session today with digital cables/interconnects/DACs.
The protagonists consisted of gary/,brian and ali tait

[brian2957]

Interesting day mate . Your Quad speakers sounded very impressive indeed with the valve amps . Thoroughly enjoyed the day . Thanks for having us over.

[wee tee cee]

With all the hardware in the frae it was great to be surprised that a cable had the biggest impact...with all the chopping and changing

[Yomanze]

What DACs and cables did you guys compare then? Any highlights?

[wee tee cee]

cables...mark grant wtb silver co ax
silver bullet oyaiade
mcrus ultimate


dacs

mf m1
rega
alis valve dac



interconnects
tq
mg 1500

[John]

So what were the results Tony

[Ali Tait]

Cheers for having us over Tony, was an enjoyable day, and it was great to hear a pair of Quad 63's again. Fabulous speakers.

Dacs were - MF M1, Rega Dac, and my Nick Gorham valve special. I took along some cables too, a pair of TQ Black I/C's, an Oyaide silver digi cable and a MCRU Ultimate digi cable.

Quick take on the day, all dacs were good, but the valve dac again took the honours. Most noteworthy was the MCRU Ultimate, a large step up from the Supra Tony was using, and we all felt the cable made a bigger difference than any of the dacs.

As Gary noted, once we had the best sound of the day, it became all about the music and we forgot all about the kit. Just a great sound that you could happily listen to all day.

[wee tee cee]

great to hear the rega kit in my set up....the dac proved up to its reputation, musical and enjoyable-improved on my mf m1 in treble and bass stakes.

Ali has in his corner the bespoke valve dac that can take on all comers...once again it stood out for its effortless presentation and ability to cut to the chase-the music!!!
What really surprised us all was the influence of the single digital cable between vlink and dac. Gary had brought along the 192 vlink which proved a noticeable upgrade over my mk1 v link.
The different digital cables (all co-ax) were surprising, to say the least......

[Yomanze]

Ah I was going to ask whether Gaz took the V-Link 192, if I were to get into computer audio then this is what I'd buy (again, as I sold it to Gaz!).

Yes digital cables make a difference because of the designed-in flaws that appear especially when using RCA cables.

[Ali Tait]

This was an RCA cable, using Eichmann silver bullets. Dunno what David does with it, but it's one special cable. It was head and shoulders above the others.