soulution 760 D/A Converter Inbound!

By the end of next week I hope to be conducting an in home demo of soulution's new flagship DAC. I will be using my reference system with the soulution 725/711/541 SACD and Raidho D5's.

I was mightily impressed by the what I heard thru the 760 at RMAF. It was the best digital I have ever heard before. But to my ears it did not sound like digital at all.

I'll be comparing the SQ to the Berkeley Reference DAC which I also hope to received next week. We'll see how many degrees of separation there is between these two units.

Of course some may contend or concede that yes maybe the 760 does sound better than the Berkeley but is it worth 3x or 4x the price. To the rational man the answer might likely be no.

But I hope to plumb the synergies of an all soulution system to see if the degrees of separation in SQ provide a "rationale for a rationalization". ;)

Leroy - looking forward to your impressions.

Wow - fun times.

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Originally Posted by Mike

Leroy - looking forward to your impressions.

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Me too, very anxiously!

Me three!

Damn!!!
Now I have to order one for me
:)

Very much looking forward to the listening experience on this one Le Roy

Le Roy, this should be a lot of fun! I'm also very interested in the outcome. That Berkeley is supposed to be the cat's meow! It will be interesting to see how the Solution compares.

Hi Mark, thanks for checking in. I hope to have received both units by the end of the week. But on Friday my wife and I have activities and outings that will tie us up until later on Sunday. That's the way the calendar worked out. Wife doesn't want to hear about working around all these boxes showing up. :rolleyes:

But at least I'll have a chance to plug the Berkeley Ref DAC plugged in during that time and get it on its way to run in.

On Sunday afternoon the Chicago Audio Society is hosting Paul McGowan of PS Audio. Paul will be bringing with him some of the same things that were at RMAF in including the BHK amps and latest version of Directstream DAC. Paul is always very entertaining and informative as some who get his daily posts know.

There is a new digital port on the back of the soulution 760 labeled I2S. Well it is new to me. I hope to learn more about this. I've tried read up about on Computer Audiophile.

In any event I hope to get the DAC duel started on Sunday nite.

Please don't tell me the Berkeley rocks the dac world :D

Le Roy brings up a good point. Most of us will draw a line in the sand where marginally better performance is not worth the extra cost. From what I have heard lately the mega bucks DAC's may sound really good but they haven't performed that much better than $10k-$20k units. (maybe several even lower)

The best I have heard is the MSB Select preproduction unit. There is no way I would ever consider this $90k DAC. I should have the opportunity to hear the Berkeley unit this weekend. I'll find out if it makes stays on the list as an option.

Jim,

Since you have an MSB dealer around you, ask to audition the DAC V, either Signature or Diamond. Not comparable to the SELECT, but then nothing else is...

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Originally Posted by asiufy

Jim,

Since you have an MSB dealer around you, ask to audition the DAC V, either Signature or Diamond. Not comparable to the SELECT, but then nothing else is...

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Same dealer that carries MSB has the Berkeley now in house. I have had some of their MSB in my system in the past.

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Originally Posted by Odyssey

By the end of next week I hope to be conducting an in home demo of soulution's new flagship DAC. I will be using my reference system with the soulution 725/711/541 SACD and Raidho D5's.

I was mightily impressed by the what I heard thru the 760 at RMAF. It was the best digital I have ever heard before. But to my ears it did not sound like digital at all.

I'll be comparing the SQ to the Berkeley Reference DAC which I also hope to received next week. We'll see how many degrees of separation there is between these two units.

Of course some may contend or concede that yes maybe the 760 does sound better than the Berkeley but is it worth 3x or 4x the price. To the rational man the answer might likely be no.

But I hope to plumb the synergies of an all soulution system to see if the degrees of separation in SQ provide a "rationale for a rationalization". ;)

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Hi Le Roy,

I can't wait to hear your impressions from your DAC shootout. I guess I'm expecting the 760 will sound better than the BRD at four times the price but the question is how much better? My Esoteric K-01X is inbound too and soon I'll be posting my impressions on this digital player. I guess I could do a K-01 / K-01X shootout but I think we all know how that will turn out.

All the best,
Ken

Hi Le Roy,

I hope all is well with you. Any updates on your DAC shootout??

All the best,
Ken

Berkeley, Berkeley, Berkeley!

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Originally Posted by Alpinist

Hi Le Roy,

I hope all is well with you. Any updates on your DAC shootout??

All the best,
Ken

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The Berkeley will be going up for sale soon!

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Originally Posted by Odyssey

The Berkeley will be going up for sale soon!

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More details ASAP. Thanks.

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Originally Posted by Odyssey

The Berkeley will be going up for sale soon!

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Uh oh, I know what that means!

Attachment 13506

The Berkeley Reference is an awfully good DAC. It is an Awe filling DAC. Perhaps I was a bit hasty in saying it would be going up for sale soon. It is too good to put back on the block right away. I am in Chicago now and will be returning to Austin next week for the winter. The Berkeley will make the trip with me. I'd love to hear in in my much smaller listening room there. I think that it lives up to its billing as one of the best PCM DACS out there. It is a true reference DAC. Although you can't input DSD directly into the Berk there are ways around this by using JRiver Media center.

Back to the 760. I first heard it at RMAF. I said it was the best digital I have ever heard. I kept being drawn back to the room time and time again. It was so good I thought I was imagining things. One sign of how good it is, was when they would switch equipment that they were playing. Without singling out any other equipment specifically, I would notice when something else other than the 760 was playing the number of people in the room would start to thin out.

This is one of the larger rooms at RMAF. When the 760 was put back into the chain and a number of songs had been played I would notice that not only were all 15 chairs filled up there were a number of other people standing. Not everyone in the room knew what medium the songs were coming through. They just knew that they were hearing great music. The 760 was being feed with a Macbook Pro optimized with JRiver via a Nordost Heimdall USB cable playing redbook files. After hearing this I begged the distributor to send me that DAC. His response was that this was a prototype not for customers to home audtion. I begged and begged and he relented. I believe that the production units will be released before the end of the year. I have heard from the manufacturer that the production units sound significantly better than the prototype that had for home demo!

So the day comes that the Berk and the 760 arrive to my Chicago listening room. After playing the Berk over consecutive days I first start by comparing the Berk to the Soulution 541 SACD/DAC with network streaming that I already own. Via USB the SQ of both units are somewhat similar.

At this level of quality I'm not sure that there are any wrong choices just personal preferences. To my ears, overall the 541 is a few horse lengths ahead. It is not better by furlongs to the Berkley. The Ethernet connection is superior to USB. So it is not a totally fair fight because the Berkeley does not have a Network connection to stream from the computer or the NAS. The 541 has this built in. Another person might conclude that the Berk was horse lengths ahead. We all have different taste buds and hair cells in our ears.

Before I make further comments about just how much better the 760 is to either of these other two DACS, I hope to be able to hear a production unit of the 760 in Austin. This 760 is so much more expensive than the other two that it is going to be a "have gun will travel" unit for me. In other words when I move from one residence to the other the 760 would travel with me for the season. I expect to hear great results.

One other comment. In addition to have all of the other interfaces you would expect the 760 to have including Ethernet, it has an I2S connection on the back of the unit. I'm not exactly sure how this would work but it seems to be something that is built into it for the future.

Stay tuned.

Thank you for the write up Le Roy. Well done.

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Originally Posted by Odyssey

The Berkeley Reference is an awfully good DAC. It is an Awe filling DAC. Perhaps I was a bit hasty in saying it would be going up for sale soon. It is too good to put back on the block right away. I am in Chicago now and will be returning to Austin next week for the winter. The Berkeley will make the trip with me. I'd love to hear in in my much smaller listening room there. I think that it lives up to its billing as one of the best PCM DACS out there. It is a true reference DAC. Although you can't input DSD directly into the Berk there are ways around this by using JRiver Media center.

Back to the 760. I first heard it at RMAF. I said it was the best digital I have ever heard. I kept being drawn back to the room time and time again. It was so good I thought I was imagining things. One sign of how good it is, was when they would switch equipment that they were playing. Without singling out any other equipment specifically, I would notice when something else other than the 760 was playing the number of people in the room would start to thin out.

This is one of the larger rooms at RMAF. When the 760 was put back into the chain and a number of songs had been played I would notice that not only were all 15 chairs filled up there were a number of other people standing. Not everyone in the room knew what medium the songs were coming through. They just knew that they were hearing great music. The 760 was being feed with a Macbook Pro optimized with JRiver via a Nordost Heimdall USB cable playing redbook files. After hearing this I begged the distributor to send me that DAC. His response was that this was a prototype not for customers to home audtion. I begged and begged and he relented. I believe that the production units will be released before the end of the year. I have heard from the manufacturer that the production units sound significantly better than the prototype that had for home demo!

So the day comes that the Berk and the 760 arrive to my Chicago listening room. After playing the Berk over consecutive days I first start by comparing the Berk to the Soulution 541 SACD/DAC with network streaming that I already own. Via USB the SQ of both units are somewhat similar.

At this level of quality I'm not sure that there are any wrong choices just personal preferences. To my ears, overall the 541 is a few horse lengths ahead. It is not better by furlongs to the Berkley. The Ethernet connection is superior to USB. So it is not a totally fair fight because the Berkeley does not have a Network connection to stream from the computer or the NAS. The 541 has this built in. Another person might conclude that the Berk was horse lengths ahead. We all have different taste buds and hair cells in our ears.

Before I make further comments about just how much better the 760 is to either of these other two DACS, I hope to be able to hear a production unit of the 760 in Austin. This 760 is so much more expensive than the other two that it is going to be a "have gun will travel" unit for me. In other words when I move from one residence to the other the 760 would travel with me for the season. I expect to hear great results.

One other comment. In addition to have all of the other interfaces you would expect the 760 to have including Ethernet, it has an I2S connection on the back of the unit. I'm not exactly sure how this would work but it seems to be something that is built into it for the future.

Stay tuned.

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Excellent review, Le Roy, thanks so much for writing it! I think I called it in post #14. I think a more appropriate comparison with the 560 DAC from a price standpoint would be the Esoteric Grandioso, DCS or Trinity DACs. The question is, if you're are going to bring the 560 DAC back and forth between Chicago and Austin, then why hold onto the BRD? Best of luck with your journey, from a geographic and an audio perspective!

Ken