GoodSoundClub - Romy the Cat's Audio Site

In the Forum: Didital Things
In the Thread: The LavryBlack DA11 Stereo DA Converter

Post Subject: DA-11 landedPosted by Antonio J. on: 4/22/2009

I got it yesterday from the Spanish distributor. First thing was bringing it here to the computer to try the USB feature. The PC recognized it immediately as USB audio device. Without reading the instructions manual, something I usually do - not reading it I mean-, I had to fiddle a bit to get familiar to the controls to get the DAC linking the stream.
I played one of the BSO 24/88 files and just used a pair of headphones into its own headphones out, probably one of the crappiest ones I own. Using foobar to play the files, I wasn't able to use the Kernel mode, but on DS and set up at 24bits, the thing worked well. Can't say much about pure sound quality, but one interesting thing I noticed is that using the Lavry, the difference between a 24/88 and 16/44 stream regarding space amplitude and "presence" -I can't explain it better in my limited audio vocabulary- was way more obvious than when using the PC's sound card.

The "image" controls are one for each channel. They move further to the stage extremes the players, so you can go from practically pure mono to ultrawide stereo. I think I like better at 0.

At this moment I've put it in the main rig for some burn-in before any serious listening, if that thing is feasible and meaningful in my system. First impressions, using just headphones, are good. It doesn't sound completely sterile as I recall being its direct competitor the Benchmarck DAC-1.

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