Jim Johnston Posted June 7, 2021 Share Posted June 7, 2021 Just for some context , what amp and speakers are you running. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray H Posted June 7, 2021 Share Posted June 7, 2021 1 hour ago, Mason Safari said: Thanks Ray I have tested NODE 2i Against my PC , against my ASTELL & KERN A&ULTIMA SP2000 and the results was the same to me... also I heard that NODE 2i is very good by itself so I hope get Gaia to improve the digital source... Hey Mason, To be Frank I’m not surprised you aren’t hearing any difference between those three sources. The sp2000 is an impressive device, but it’s still a portable device optimised for organic playback direct to headphones. Not outputting a signal to a high end dac. A proper desktop device that is designed to output as clean a signal as possible to the DAC would be most appropriate. I imagine if you you got hold of a decent second hand streamer/server in the second hand range 2-3k would show noticeable gains in sound performance. if you don’t have access, perhaps when I’m in Sydney, I could loan you my Innuos or Matrix element X to see if it does make a difference in your system. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginman Posted June 7, 2021 Share Posted June 7, 2021 I agree with Ray H's comments. Get yourself a decent streamer like a Lumin U1 Mini or an Auralic Aries G1 / G2 or G2.1. I am sure you will hear a definite improvement with either of these 2 streamers with the Dave. The G1 is cheaper than the M Scaler too. Perhaps you could get a home demo on the G1 - Len Wallis in Lane Cove sells them and can do home demos. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mason Safari Posted June 7, 2021 Author Share Posted June 7, 2021 1 hour ago, Ray H said: Hey Mason, To be Frank I’m not surprised you aren’t hearing any difference between those three sources. The sp2000 is an impressive device, but it’s still a portable device optimised for organic playback direct to headphones. Not outputting a signal to a high end dac. A proper desktop device that is designed to output as clean a signal as possible to the DAC would be most appropriate. I imagine if you you got hold of a decent second hand streamer/server in the second hand range 2-3k would show noticeable gains in sound performance. if you don’t have access, perhaps when I’m in Sydney, I could loan you my Innuos or Matrix element X to see if it does make a difference in your system. Thanks Ray , that would be great if I can test that ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mason Safari Posted June 7, 2021 Author Share Posted June 7, 2021 1 hour ago, Ginman said: I agree with Ray H's comments. Get yourself a decent streamer like a Lumin U1 Mini or an Auralic Aries G1 / G2 or G2.1. I am sure you will hear a definite improvement with either of these 2 streamers with the Dave. The G1 is cheaper than the M Scaler too. Perhaps you could get a home demo on the G1 - Len Wallis in Lane Cove sells them and can do home demos. Thanks Steve assume I have M Scalar, then how get a good streamer would improve my system ? also I am curious to test Gaia + NODE against Lumin U1 Mini or an Auralic Aries G1 / G2... so I can get G1 / G2 home and test and if not happy return? should give him a call... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginman Posted June 7, 2021 Share Posted June 7, 2021 In fact, Len Wallis also sells the Dave too. So would be worthwhile to pop over and get a demo with The Aries G1 with the Dave vs Dave alone. See what difference that makes. I did a home demo on a weekend of the Hugo TT 2 at Len Wallis early last year and I could not part with it afterwards and I ended up purchasing it (much to the dismay of my wife ). I recalled that they took a photocopy of my driver's licence and my credit card for security. But I suggest calling them up and get them to organise a demo in the store with the G1 with Dave. See how you go. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ittaku Posted June 7, 2021 Share Posted June 7, 2021 8 minutes ago, Mason Safari said: Thanks Steve assume I have M Scalar, then how get a good streamer would improve my system ? also I am curious to test Gaia + NODE against Lumin U1 Mini or an Auralic Aries G1 / G2... so I can get G1 / G2 home and test and if not happy return? should give him a call... My call would be the opposite with that hardware. It won't make a difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mason Safari Posted June 7, 2021 Author Share Posted June 7, 2021 9 minutes ago, Ittaku said: My call would be the opposite with that hardware. It won't make a difference. Thanks Ittaku which Hardware ? Upgrade of my streamer ? Or add Gaya to my Node? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ittaku Posted June 7, 2021 Share Posted June 7, 2021 4 minutes ago, Mason Safari said: Thanks Ittaku which Hardware ? Upgrade of my streamer ? Or add Gaya to my Node? I don't think a different streamer will make an audible difference with the Dave at the end of your chain. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mason Safari Posted June 7, 2021 Author Share Posted June 7, 2021 I believe it is debatable and not easy to have final verdict here...so far I also came to conclusion the streamer wouldn't make auditable ( to me) differences... that was the main reason I have sold my Rega CD player ( used as transport) ...But I thought Gaia would make a different now I intend to test both ( better/ more expensive streamer with and without Gaia) if I can do the test/ demo and will report... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray H Posted June 7, 2021 Share Posted June 7, 2021 38 minutes ago, Ittaku said: I don't think a different streamer will make an audible difference with the Dave at the end of your chain. Hi Con are you saying this because you think the Chord is agnostic to source or because you believe differing streamers/servers don’t change the sound or improve sound quality ? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ittaku Posted June 7, 2021 Share Posted June 7, 2021 4 hours ago, Ray H said: Hi Con are you saying this because you think the Chord is agnostic to source or because you believe differing streamers/servers don’t change the sound or improve sound quality ? Because the Dave would be very good at isolating itself from source noise, and reclocking its timing signals, and that there'd be better ways to improve the sound than buying another streamer. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mason Safari Posted June 7, 2021 Author Share Posted June 7, 2021 14 minutes ago, Ittaku said: Because the Dave would be very good at isolating itself from source noise, and reclocking its timing signals, and that there'd be better ways to improve the sound than buying another streamer. Thanks Con Can you please provide more details about ways improving the sound rather than streamers ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ittaku Posted June 7, 2021 Share Posted June 7, 2021 4 minutes ago, Mason Safari said: Thanks Con Can you please provide more details about ways improving the sound rather than streamers ? Would need a rundown of the rest of your equipment to be able to make a sensible recommendation, and why the heck are you up at this hour as well? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bunno77 Posted June 7, 2021 Share Posted June 7, 2021 12 hours ago, Ray H said: Ditch the Node and buy a better source rather than try the scaler. The Dave at least deserves the chance to sound close to its best. +1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mason Safari Posted June 7, 2021 Author Share Posted June 7, 2021 5 hours ago, Ittaku said: Would need a rundown of the rest of your equipment to be able to make a sensible recommendation, and why the heck are you up at this hour as well? He he , I sleep very little as I have 2 full time job how about you ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ittaku Posted June 8, 2021 Share Posted June 8, 2021 8 minutes ago, Mason Safari said: He he , I sleep very little as I have 2 full time job how about you ? I'm an amateur astronomer and have been getting up at 4am for the planets currently, and that's my current sleep schedule, but it's been cloudy. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pretender Posted June 12, 2021 Share Posted June 12, 2021 (edited) In my experience, however limited to $2000 dacs , the quality of the streamer is as important as the dac. Once your have electrical noise in the chain, precise reclocking is going to do little for you. starting from a clean signal matters and I don’t think that a computer or even the node provide it. I agree that it would interesting to compare Lumin+ Dave to Computer+Gaia+Dave or Node+Gaia+Dave. Quite confident that option 1 wins hands down. In my case I thought there was little difference between my MacBook as a source and the node 2 but replacing the Node by a Sotm sms200 was a revelation of what a good streamer does. And the Sotm is still entry level… I would be inretested to know if you think that you have lost in sound quality by replacing your Rega Apollo by the Node 2i. I would expect so. Edited June 12, 2021 by pretender 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mason Safari Posted June 14, 2021 Author Share Posted June 14, 2021 On 13/06/2021 at 8:32 AM, pretender said: In my experience, however limited to $2000 dacs , the quality of the streamer is as important as the dac. Once your have electrical noise in the chain, precise reclocking is going to do little for you. starting from a clean signal matters and I don’t think that a computer or even the node provide it. I agree that it would interesting to compare Lumin+ Dave to Computer+Gaia+Dave or Node+Gaia+Dave. Quite confident that option 1 wins hands down. In my case I thought there was little difference between my MacBook as a source and the node 2 but replacing the Node by a Sotm sms200 was a revelation of what a good streamer does. And the Sotm is still entry level… I would be inretested to know if you think that you have lost in sound quality by replacing your Rega Apollo by the Node 2i. I would expect so. One of the reason I sold my CD player was that I couldn’t distinguish between from CD player from the flac files I converted from same CDs… at the beginning I thought I an hear better sound from CD player but then I couldn’t tell blind tested so thought to remove one variable from the equations… I have already ordered G1 so should report in few days … 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginman Posted June 14, 2021 Share Posted June 14, 2021 Look forward to your comments about the G1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts