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Telstar wrote:

Not really: it is not true 24 bit. But it should be quite good, exp for the HDCD decode. I have always had a like for hdcds, they sounded better in my old rotel and they sound better even without a hdcd-capable dac.

Romy the Cat wrote:

I do not know if the Berkley DAC will be true 24bit, it is very much might be the 24bit. Pacific was 24Bit processor but the last 4 bit never was used, so in really it was 20Bit processor. Interesting the move from 16Bit to 20Bit has a huge sonic impact, but the move from 20Bit to 24Bit has very little impact. Still, if the Berkley DAC will not activate the HDCD then I do not see what it can’t work at pure 24Bit. Anyhow, some information about it will come out soon on later…

Telstar wrote:

1) The digital transport (i.e. the Soundcard): I learned that the best way to just transport the digital signal from the DAW to the DAC is by using an external, firewire soundcard, with external power supply, such as MOTU or Fireface. Internal souncards gets noise from the computer. Using a Prism Opus would not need this peripheral, but I have no idead how good the Opus is and how stand with the other top DACs, such as the Lavry, the Berkeley, the MSB and others.

Romy the Cat wrote:

Interesting. Do you feel that firewire interface might not be the compromising factors? Also, if you already isolated the soundcard from the noisy computer and have a dedicated poser to it then why do not have the good DACs aboard the card. There are some very expensive cards with “premium” DACs in them. Who knows, they might work out in this configuration

Excuse me Romy, which soundcard do you employ and how is your poser? I assume that it is not inside your DAW. How it is connected to the computer and to the DAC? I think that you are using the pro Lavry DAC at the moment.

For what I have heard, firewire inteface, exp the fw800 is not a bottleneck. I did plan to get a relatively cheap firewire soundcard just to transport the digital signal from the computer to the DAC.

Telstar wrote:

2) The Software: Vista x32 with foobar/asio/kernel mode or xxhighend are the best

Romy the Cat wrote:

Hm, very interesting! Do you feel I need to try other players? I use the logic that it is the best to play the file with the same software what it was recorded. I record with WveLab6 and play the same. I do admit that is not execlsy comfortable but I even thought to write my own…

I did not include professional software, but I tried Cubase with a usb DAC and XP and the results were disappointing to say the least.
I'm pretty sure that Wavelab uses ASIO, depending on your soundcard drivers. I believe that ASIO sounds better in Vista, though. Everything sounds better than in XP Against mac the distance is closer.

Have you ever tried high-res files from Linn Records? If so, how do they compare to your own recordings?

Romy the Cat wrote:

About the TwinDAC – it sound like a bogus DAC, thight I never had it. I automatically discard anything that stresses Black Gate capacitors it is a huge sign for me about the Minority of the designers.  Also the TwinDAC has 2.5kOhm out impedance, are they kidding? There is another aspect. The TwinDAC outputs very low voltage - I do not like it. I want a DAC to swing 5V minimum in order to make me to look at a DAC seriously.

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