flanders Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 22 hours ago, bjs said: Listened to: Leonard Cohen - You want it darker Hans Zimmer - Mesa Bandas de Corneta y Clarines - Ecce Omo Wisp - Keeper of the Hills Pulp - Common People Akdong Musician - Dinosaur Tshegue - Muanapoto Clark - Serbian Daffodil John Hopkins/king creosote - john Taylor's month away Thanks for the song list, making my way through them now! What DAC have you replaced? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjs Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 Replaced a musical fidelity M1DacA 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjs Posted November 14, 2019 Share Posted November 14, 2019 Just a quick note. A mate came round on the weekend and we tested his Chord Mojo dac running on battery against the Klein III with upgraded power supply. The result was pretty obvious. The Klein III was much fuller and more 3D. This was very noticeable on female vocals. Also, the Klein III handled some electronic tracks easily with which the Mojo struggled. On a Chemical brothers track, the Mojo added in some feedback which was quite noticeable. My friend also noted that piano was more present on his Sibellius test track. The soundscape also was larger and the bass better defined. One analogy was that the difference was like moving from my google play to my mate's tidal. There was just more information, more space and an ease of presentation. Obviously, the Mojo wins when it comes to portability and as a headphone amp. However, for a home system, it was no contest. The Klein III was the obvious winner. 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZanyZapper Posted November 14, 2019 Share Posted November 14, 2019 Hi. Has anyone been in position to hear the difference between a Klein 3, the Fein 1, and a Grob and are able/willing to share their thoughts? Thanks in advance. Zane. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLAH BLAH Posted November 16, 2019 Share Posted November 16, 2019 On 31/10/2019 at 11:05 PM, bjs said: Replaced a musical fidelity M1DacA Snap! I replaced the same Dac with the Klein Dac 11...just a fuller sound all around! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snoopy8 Posted November 17, 2019 Share Posted November 17, 2019 On 14/11/2019 at 5:33 PM, ZanyZapper said: Hi. Has anyone been in position to hear the difference between a Klein 3, the Fein 1, and a Grob and are able/willing to share their thoughts? Thanks in advance. Zane. This is an up to date list of reviews and impressions on Gieseler DACs. Scattered among them are a few comparisons 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herbs Posted December 20, 2019 Share Posted December 20, 2019 Sorry if this is a dumb question, Plugged into windows 10 via USB. Do all music files work MP3, FLAC, WAV, aswell as all PC sounds and games. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gieseler Audio Posted December 20, 2019 Author Share Posted December 20, 2019 I would assume they will all work but I have only tested it with Flacs & waves. Make sure you install the Amanero Windows 10 driver from here. https://amanero.com/drivers.htm 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suopermanni Posted December 20, 2019 Share Posted December 20, 2019 3 hours ago, Herbs said: Sorry if this is a dumb question, Plugged into windows 10 via USB. Do all music files work MP3, FLAC, WAV, aswell as all PC sounds and games. Cheers I've used the Klein DAC III on my PC and as long as the sound is in stereo, it will work. Okay, it won't work with DSD I don't think. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JPete9 Posted January 3, 2020 Share Posted January 3, 2020 (edited) I was looking through the classifieds history and i can see many of these have changed hands. Is there a cause related to the product? or is it totally unrelated and more just audio guys moving stuff around? Has anyone had a poor experience or really changed their minds on the glowing initial reports after a while? Any thoughts on how it compares to a topping D50 (i know super low end) but i haven't spend up on a DAC before...is it night and day better or marginally only with golden ears? Cheers! Edited January 3, 2020 by JPete9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snrub Posted January 3, 2020 Share Posted January 3, 2020 I'm one of those individuals that had a Klein III with PSU and sold it on. I wish I hadn't. It was part of a system that wasn't getting any use. I wanted stuff I would use, so I sold the Klein to raise funds for that. Now I'm in a situation where it would have a use again. I can't compare it to a Topping D50, but I did have a D30 as part of my head-fi system early on. I never owned both at the same time, therefore haven't A/B compared, but from memory the Klein was by far the better DAC, all around. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snoopy8 Posted January 3, 2020 Share Posted January 3, 2020 5 hours ago, JPete9 said: Has anyone had a poor experience or really changed their minds on the glowing initial reports after a while? Not sure if this is good form to ask for poor experience on a sub forum sponsored by the manufacturer??? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suopermanni Posted January 3, 2020 Share Posted January 3, 2020 6 hours ago, JPete9 said: I was looking through the classifieds history and i can see many of these have changed hands. Is there a cause related to the product? or is it totally unrelated and more just audio guys moving stuff around? Has anyone had a poor experience or really changed their minds on the glowing initial reports after a while? Any thoughts on how it compares to a topping D50 (i know super low end) but i haven't spend up on a DAC before...is it night and day better or marginally only with golden ears? Cheers! I can tell you that, in my case, it was more about me moving stuff around and trying new things! From the threads I've seen for Clayton's stuff on sale, most of it is this or condensing of setups. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krappo Posted February 24, 2020 Share Posted February 24, 2020 Hello All, Ordered the Klein lll yesterday . Many Thanks Clay 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krappo Posted February 26, 2020 Share Posted February 26, 2020 I purchased my first Klein about 3-4 years ago and was duly impressed then, But now and running the same setup connected to my New KIII am totally blown away from the warm depth and clarity that my ears are agreeing with. And will only get better. You've done it again, Mr Clay. Many Thanks 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete_mac Posted February 26, 2020 Share Posted February 26, 2020 29 minutes ago, krappo said: I purchased my first Klein about 3-4 years ago and was duly impressed then, But now and running the same setup connected to my New KIII am totally blown away from the warm depth and clarity that my ears are agreeing with. And will only get better. You've done it again, Mr Clay. Many Thanks It's a worthwhile upgrade, isn't it!!! Clay's the man! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matth Posted February 26, 2020 Share Posted February 26, 2020 (edited) 10 hours ago, krappo said: I purchased my first Klein about 3-4 years ago and was duly impressed then, But now and running the same setup connected to my New KIII am totally blown away from the warm depth and clarity that my ears are agreeing with. And will only get better. You've done it again, Mr Clay. Many Thanks Thanks for sharing:-) Matt Edited February 26, 2020 by matth 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gieseler Audio Posted June 11, 2020 Author Share Posted June 11, 2020 (edited) Hi Guys, some internal photo's of the latest Klein III USB only version using a revised 2020 pcb. Highlights are. Extra regulators around the DAC chip providing independent supplies for all voltage inputs on the DAC chip. So a total of six regulators just for the DAC chip vs three on the original design. Built in basic Kraftwerk style PSU using Nichicon Gold Tune capacitors. Special soft recovery Schottky diodes & transformer snubber circuit. Nichicon audio type blue KA series capacitors for DAC & USB board decoupling. Optional femto master clock mode upgrade. New low impedance emitter follower design Linear Technology regulation for all circuits. This is without a doubt the best ever sounding Klein III. This Edited June 11, 2020 by Gieseler Audio layout 6 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bricki Posted June 12, 2020 Share Posted June 12, 2020 6 hours ago, Gieseler Audio said: Hi Guys, some internal photo's of the latest Klein III USB only version using a revised 2020 pcb. Highlights are. Extra regulators around the DAC chip providing independent supplies for all voltage inputs on the DAC chip. So a total of six regulators just for the DAC chip vs three on the original design. Built in basic Kraftwerk style PSU using Nichicon Gold Tune capacitors. Special soft recovery Schottky diodes & transformer snubber circuit. Nichicon audio type blue KA series capacitors for DAC & USB board decoupling. Optional femto master clock mode upgrade. New low impedance emitter follower design Linear Technology regulation for all circuits. This is without a doubt the best ever sounding Klein III. This Hi Clay I have been following along here for a while and reading all the reviews of your dacs but this is my first post. When you say that it has a basic krafwerk style PSU.... Do you mean that the design is not as advanced as your krafwerk enhanced PSU design? Or do you mean that it is a roughly equivalent design? Also do you have anymore details regarding the femto master clock upgrade? Is this clock used for the USB board as well? Or just for the dac chip? Will this dac be called the Klein IV as per the PCB in the pic? I am currently using a chord mojo in my main system and I've been considering upgrading for a while and your dacs seem to meet my requirements of having a narrow feature set and being entirely focused on sound quality. That's what I'm looking for . 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gieseler Audio Posted June 12, 2020 Author Share Posted June 12, 2020 (edited) The on board PSU is roughly equivalent to a Kraftwerk but just scaled down a bit & with less current available. However during listening tests I tried powering the DAC with a enhanced Kraftwerk PSU & there is a slight improvement in the sound. RE femto clock upgrade option. The Amanero's firmware is reflashed to slave mode so it no longer uses its own clocks. Then the the two Crystek femto clocks become the master clock for the whole DAC. They then drive the Amanero & DAC chip directly. It was a lot of mucking around because each clock has to be separately enabled depending on the sample rate. To be honest I'm really not sure if it made much difference and I need to add about $200 to the DAC to cover parts cost & the extra labour. The Amanero is powered by a double regulator with very low noise so the jitter levels are already very low & this is probably why the clock upgrade is not having a big effect. No this is not a Klein IV - at the time I designed the board I did envisage that it could be though hence the Klein IV label on the pcb. Yes you are spot on about the minimalistic design, it is aimed at maximum performance but with very basic features. Edited June 12, 2020 by Gieseler Audio 5 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herbs Posted June 13, 2020 Share Posted June 13, 2020 (edited) Is this the new dac that has it's own thread or is that a new different model altogether? Edited June 13, 2020 by Herbs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gieseler Audio Posted June 13, 2020 Author Share Posted June 13, 2020 No - this is the current Klein III but with a new revised pcb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herbs Posted June 25, 2020 Share Posted June 25, 2020 How much will the latest Klein III cost? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gieseler Audio Posted June 25, 2020 Author Share Posted June 25, 2020 (edited) The current Klein III with that revised 2020 board is still $650 - that is a USB only version. The S/PDIF version is $700 but it doesn't have all those extra regulators etc and is an earlier board. unfortunately I can't supply any at the moment as I'm waiting on output transformers from the US which have been delayed in shipping. Edited June 25, 2020 by Gieseler Audio 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matth Posted June 28, 2020 Share Posted June 28, 2020 On 25/06/2020 at 8:53 AM, Gieseler Audio said: The current Klein III with that revised 2020 board is still $650 - that is a USB only version. Hi Clay, IMO, the revised Klein III is better than ever and such a minimalist DAC with a very good price. So after releasing the upcoming Klein IV will the Klein III be yet available or will it be replaced by the IV? Thanks Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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