Alpinist (Ken) - how is your new system?

Kuoppis said:
Superb looking system Ken, really nice. I bet the sound is immaculate.

Also like the racks, have been considering that alternative as well.


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Thanks Kuoppis! I’m really enjoying both the Esoteric Grandioso K1 and Berkeley Ref2 MQA DAC as sources. The K1 delivers a broad soundstage with terrific layering and refinement, while the Berkeley offers a tube-like presentation with wonderful texture and delicacy.

What I realized at RMAF is the Esoteric master clock significantly raises the performance of the Esoteric players in terms of realism and enhanced soundstage. So the Grandioso G1 master clock has now been added to my wishlist, along with the Aurender N10 MQA when it comes out. It never ends! :D

As for the Solid Tech Radius Racks, I love them. They are solid as a rock, you can order custom length columns and they are reasonably priced and don’t break the bank.

Best,
Ken
 
I wonder how the Grandioso sounds with the separate clock, as nice as it is already without.

And I was not aware of a N10 MQA version coming out, hopefully they do that for the other models as well.


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Kuoppis said:
I wonder how the Grandioso sounds with the separate clock, as nice as it is already without.

And I was not aware of a N10 MQA version coming out, hopefully they do that for the other models as well.


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I heard the Esoteric K-01X Player with and without the G-01X Master Clock at RMAF. I would say it resulted in at least a 20% improvement in sound quality, no exaggeration. It made the K-01X sound like a different component in terms of both realism and imaging.

I spoke with the Aurender representative at RMAF and he said they expect the MQA version of the N10 and W20 to be out in January 2018. They already have the MQA beta version working but still need to get approval on the MQA licensing. They expect to pass on a small charge to the customer for the MQA software upgrade of approximately $50 to cover licensing fees.

Best,
Ken
 
Alpinist said:
I heard the Esoteric K-01X Player with and without the G-01X Master Clock at RMAF. I would say it resulted in at least a 20% improvement in sound quality, no exaggeration. It made the K-01X sound like a different component in terms of both realism and imaging.

I spoke with the Aurender representative at RMAF and he said they expect the MQA version of the N10 and W20 to be out in January 2018. They already have the MQA beta version working but still need to get approval on the MQA licensing. They expect to pass on a small charge to the customer for the MQA software upgrade of approximately $50 to cover licensing fees.

Best,
Ken
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Thanks Ken. Congrats on a beautiful system. So as I already own an N10 at some point I can pay to have it upgraded? I am currently passing MQA through to my Mytek DAC.


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La Dolce Vita said:
I am currently passing MQA through to my Mytek DAC.
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If you're already using a MQA certified model of Mytek DAC, having MQA Core decoding in the transport does not bring any benefits. In fact the transport will automatically turn off its MQA Core decoding once it sees that you have a USB MQA Full Decoder DAC.

If your DAC is not a MQA Full Decoder, then having MQA Core decoding in the transport is very beneficial for the playback of MQA music, compared to no decoding at all.
 
wklie said:
If you're already using a MQA certified model of Mytek DAC, having MQA Core decoding in the transport does not bring any benefits. In fact the transport will automatically turn off its MQA Core decoding once it sees that you have a USB MQA Full Decoder DAC.

If your DAC is not a MQA Full Decoder, then having MQA Core decoding in the transport is very beneficial for the playback of MQA music, compared to no decoding at all.
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Thank you! Very helpful. So the N10 MQA will add benefit when using with my Lampizator DAC but not with my Mytek (which is already decoding the MQA). Right? Thanks again...


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Yes, if the N10 adds MQA Core decoding as the Lumin U1 already does, then both will benefit LampizatOr. The LampizatOr needs to be PCM-capable for this to work. For a DSD-only LampizatOr, you need the transport to be able to upsample everything to DSD (which Lumin U1 is capable of).
 
wklie said:
Yes, if the N10 adds MQA Core decoding as the Lumin U1 already does, then both will benefit LampizatOr. The LampizatOr needs to be PCM-capable for this to work. For a DSD-only LampizatOr, you need the transport to be able to upsample everything to DSD (which Lumin U1 is capable of).
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But you need a DAC that can render MQA in order to get full MQA.
 
Mike said:
But you need a DAC that can render MQA in order to get full MQA.
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Exactly - So to recap... the Mytek fully decodes MQA so I’m getting complete and comprehensive unfolding or decoding there with the N10 even now.

If the N10 becomes a N10 MQA in January or the like it will work well and provide some benefit with the Lampizator but not fully decode MQA, in effect stopping before the third unfolding (only a licensed DAC with the right hardware can do this).


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Listening to Telarc’s Rhapsody in Blue, Eric Kunzel and Cincinnati Pops, William Tritt on piano. Playing through the Berkeley Ref2 MQA DAC. It sounds startlingly real. I really can’t wrap my mind around what I’m hearing. Total immersion. I feel like I’m sitting tenth row at Lincoln Center. I’m not worthy.

Ken
 
Damn right Ken, you need to downgrade! Congrats, I love that feeling & it is so hard to achieve but very easy to ruin. Enjoy before the chemicals from the passing of the audiophiles moon imbalance your judgement & you change something
 
La Dolce Vita said:
Exactly - So to recap... the Mytek fully decodes MQA so I’m getting complete and comprehensive unfolding or decoding there with the N10 even now.

If the N10 becomes a N10 MQA in January or the like it will work well and provide some benefit with the Lampizator but not fully decode MQA, in effect stopping before the third unfolding (only a licensed DAC with the right hardware can do this).


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Not just third unfold, but aliasing filter to swith pre-ringing to post ringing. Tradeoff of frequency domain (pushed into ultrasonics) for time domain improvement. MQA seems to work best with 24-88/96 material vs 24-176/192 material, at least with chart readouts. Finally you get the green light that says the artist personally approved the release. This is the most bogus part though, as logistically this seems unrealistic and based on some private music I heard that people would not share with me, artists and families have BLOCKED the best audiophile versions and only approved the reverb filled compressed crap. You should hear the draw dropping unreleased versions!

Of course, all of Berkeley/MSB and dCS claim to implement MQA differently, so no way to generalize about it.

I agree with Mike here, if it sounds good to you, ROLL with it!
 
Alpinist said:
Listening to Telarc’s Rhapsody in Blue, Eric Kunzel and Cincinnati Pops, William Tritt on piano. Playing through the Berkeley Ref2 MQA DAC. It sounds startlingly real. I really can’t wrap my mind around what I’m hearing. Total immersion. I feel like I’m sitting tenth row at Lincoln Center. I’m not worthy.

Ken
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Right on Ken, congratulations for putting together a system that "does it" just the way you want. Beyond all the techie wizzardry, getting to the point your system "does it" is, after all, what we all strive and yearn to achieve with our systems.

My own system has taken a giant leap forward on the digital side with inclusion of the Rossini DAC. Had a half dozen audio buds over last night to listen to the Rossini and nothing but glowing remarks. As my dealer said "the Rossini will kick your DAC8 squarely in the nuts with a steel-toed boot then laugh while it lies there moaning"—at that it does!
 
I guess taste matters.

The week before Sarasota, I spent the evening at a dCS dealer commercial launch event locally here in CH listening to the Full dCS Vivaldi stack. It was pretty nice, but not totally my cup of tea. Certainly no jaw dropping on my part, even with that atmospheric retail price.

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Bobvin said:
Right on Ken, congratulations for putting together a system that "does it" just the way you want. Beyond all the techie wizzardry, getting to the point your system "does it" is, after all, what we all strive and yearn to achieve with our systems.

My own system has taken a giant leap forward on the digital side with inclusion of the Rossini DAC. Had a half dozen audio buds over last night to listen to the Rossini and nothing but glowing remarks. As my dealer said "the Rossini will kick your DAC8 squarely in the nuts with a steel-toed boot then laugh while it lies there moaning"—at that it does!
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Hi Bob,

Congrats on your Rossini DAC! It’s a tremendous addition to an already stellar system.

Enjoy!
Ken
 
Bob - congrats on the DCS Rossini. Great piece!


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Randy Myers said:
Very nice Ken!
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Thanks Randy! I’m in source heaven over here with the Esoteric Grandioso K1, Berkeley Ref2 MQA DAC and ARC Ref CD-9. I’ve got something for every mood or format!

How are your KEF R700’s breaking in? They are beautiful looking speakers. I bet they sound fantastic!

Best,
Ken
 
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