Audio Research DAC 9

Alpinist

Alpinist

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Has anyone purchased ARC's new DAC 9 yet? I know that they recently became available. It would be great to hear any owner's or auditioner's impressions of the sound quality.

Thanks,
Ken
 
Hi Guys,

I just joined the forum and saw the thread about the DAC9. I received mine 101 hours ago on the tubes! :-) I thought I'd share my impressions so far then I'll follow up once I get the recommended 200 hours for break in. First, my setup is a pair of Martin Login Ethos, McIntosh MC601's, Mark Levinson No 326s, DAC9, PH8 for my VPI Prime and Soundsmith Zephyr cartridge. IC is all Shunyata Anaconda and speaker wires are AQ Aspen. I've been upgrading and now that I have the DAC9 the next step is speakers but I'll save that for another day.
Before the DAC9 I had a Mark Levinson No360s that did 96k files with a Bryston BUC-1 since it had no USB input. It was no slouch and in fact sounded far better than my Oppo-105d that I use in my HT but I thought that maybe I'd get away cheap if the Oppo was better. The Levinson was clearly on a different level. That is also where the DAC9 is compared to the Levinson ... maybe 2 or 3 levels beyond. The thing I notice most is the totally liquid midrange with maybe the sweetest part being the lower midrange that is completely transparent and three dimensional ... totally. Best sense of depth I've ever heard. In fact ... as far as depth and detail go it really sounds just like my PH8 which since I love Vinyl is a huge win for me! A really good record still has some lower mids and bass the DAC9 can't reach but ARC told me to wait until 200 hours for that! :-) It really is sweet without sounding overly tubey ... just totally open and sounds more real is maybe the best way to describe it. This with all file types up to 192k.

Now for the temporary bad news ... if you are using a Mac like I am (Audirvana+). There is no support currently for anything above 192k. No 384k or no DSD for sure. I've spoken with ARC(my dealer arranged) and their engineers confirmed that they simply overlooked Mac compatibility for DSD and 384k. That said they are committed to bringing DSD to the Mac just no time frame as of yet. I'm guessing several months at least since they are kind of starting over on their Dop implementation for the Mac. There won't be hardware support for native DSD...we can thank Apple for that.

So ... if you want maybe the best DAC of the year with the promise of DSD down the road on the Mac then this one is really hard to beat. Just gives me something to look forward to down the road once DSD works. BTW... DSD works fine on Windows with JRiver ... I just like the Mac better! Anyway ... hope this wasn't too long and hope it helps. Looking forward to chatting with you guys!

George
 
gadawg said:
Hi Guys,

I just joined the forum and saw the thread about the DAC9. I received mine 101 hours ago on the tubes! :-) I thought I'd share my impressions so far then I'll follow up once I get the recommended 200 hours for break in. First, my setup is a pair of Martin Login Ethos, McIntosh MC601's, Mark Levinson No 326s, DAC9, PH8 for my VPI Prime and Soundsmith Zephyr cartridge. IC is all Shunyata Anaconda and speaker wires are AQ Aspen. I've been upgrading and now that I have the DAC9 the next step is speakers but I'll save that for another day.

Before the DAC9 I had a Mark Levinson No360s that did 96k files with a Bryston BUC-1 since it had no USB input. It was no slouch and in fact sounded far better than my Oppo-105d that I use in my HT but I thought that maybe I'd get away cheap if the Oppo was better. The Levinson was clearly on a different level. That is also where the DAC9 is compared to the Levinson ... maybe 2 or 3 levels beyond. The thing I notice most is the totally liquid midrange with maybe the sweetest part being the lower midrange that is completely transparent and three dimensional ... totally. Best sense of depth I've ever heard. In fact ... as far as depth and detail go it really sounds just like my PH8 which since I love Vinyl is a huge win for me! A really good record still has some lower mids and bass the DAC9 can't reach but ARC told me to wait until 200 hours for that! :-) It really is sweet without sounding overly tubey ... just totally open and sounds more real is maybe the best way to describe it. This with all file types up to 192k.

Now for the temporary bad news ... if you are using a Mac like I am (Audirvana+). There is no support currently for anything above 192k. No 384k or no DSD for sure. I've spoken with ARC(my dealer arranged) and their engineers confirmed that they simply overlooked Mac compatibility for DSD and 384k. That said they are committed to bringing DSD to the Mac just no time frame as of yet. I'm guessing several months at least since they are kind of starting over on their Dop implementation for the Mac. There won't be hardware support for native DSD...we can thank Apple for that.

So ... if you want maybe the best DAC of the year with the promise of DSD down the road on the Mac then this one is really hard to beat. Just gives me something to look forward to down the road once DSD works. BTW... DSD works fine on Windows with JRiver ... I just like the Mac better! Anyway ... hope this wasn't too long and hope it helps. Looking forward to chatting with you guys!

George
Click to expand...

Hi George,

Thank you for that wonderful review of the DAC9! From everyone I've spoken with, the DAC9's midrange is amongst the best in tonality, body, bloom and dimension (holographic with great width and depth). This component delivers far beyond its price point. In fact, ARC has been working on it for two years. While the Mac DXD/DSD issues are disappointing for many, ARC is committed to getting them worked out.

Once my dealer's DAC9 is burned in, I'm going to be doing a head-to-head comparison of the DAC9 and Reference CD-9 Player in my system. I'll use my Esoteric K-01X transport to drive the DAC9 via an AES/EBU cable. In the DAC9's corner, it boasts a totally redesigned digital circuit board with the latest Burr Brown DAC chip (now owned by TI) and two 6H30 dual triodes in its analog gain stage. In the Reference CD-9's corner, it boasts an analog gain stage with four 6H30 dual triodes and a power supply with a 6550 rectifier tube and single 6H30 dual triode. It should be quite the contest. I honestly can't wait to compare them.

I've already had the Reference CD-9 in my system once before with the Reference 6 preamp and it quite honestly blew me away with its sonics. My current system is Esoteric K-01X digital player, ARC Reference 10 preamp, Vandersteen M7-HPA mono amps and Vandersteen Model 7 MkII speakers. Analog cables are Audioquest Wild Blue Yonder, power cords are Audience AU-24 SE and power conditioner is AR6-TSSOX.

All the best,
Ken
 
Ken,

I'll be very interested to hear how you think the DAC9 compares to the others! I've never heard any of the Esoteric players so if you could comment on the sound from the K-01X compared to the DAC9 I'd love to hear about it!

Thanks

George
 
gadawg said:
Ken,

I'll be very interested to hear how you think the DAC9 compares to the others! I've never heard any of the Esoteric players so if you could comment on the sound from the K-01X compared to the DAC9 I'd love to hear about it!

Thanks

George
Click to expand...

Hi George,

When I do the comparison of the DAC9, Reference CD-9 and K-01X, I'll comment on the sonics of each one. I'll spin the same redbook CDs in the Reference CD-9 and K-01X, and then feed the same redbook CDs to the DAC9 via an AES/EBU cable from the K-01X transport. This should give me a good apples-to-apples comparison, while maximizing the sound quality out of each component.

Best,
Ken
 
Just a quick update ...could be a while for an update for DSD for Mac and Linux based music servers USB compatibility after seeing the upgrade kit for the DAC8 ... and I'm not sure I care anyway! The reason? I brought home a Berkeley Alpha USB to try out and WOW ... what a difference. Almost sounds like a different DAC. I liked the DAC9 already but with the Alpha USB the sense of depth and size of sound stage is significantly improved along with better detail such that I am hearing things in the recording I didn't even know was there. The bass is much more detailed now as well. The highs are much smoother than before but without loosing any detail or sense of space. Almost like cleaning the wax out of my ears. I was really shocked that this unit could make this kind of difference. It sounds so good now with anything I play that I'm not sure I'll ever feel the need to worry about DSD. So, if you've only listened to the DAC9 via USB, then I would take the time to audition with either a music server than connects via AES/EBU or getting this little Berkeley gem to try out. I can say with confidence the local Berkeley dealer won't be getting his unit back! Heck its already broken in too! :-)
 
gadawg said:
Just a quick update ...could be a while for an update for DSD for Mac and Linux based music servers USB compatibility after seeing the upgrade kit for the DAC8 ... and I'm not sure I care anyway! The reason? I brought home a Berkeley Alpha USB to try out and WOW ... what a difference. Almost sounds like a different DAC. I liked the DAC9 already but with the Alpha USB the sense of depth and size of sound stage is significantly improved along with better detail such that I am hearing things in the recording I didn't even know was there. The bass is much more detailed now as well. The highs are much smoother than before but without loosing any detail or sense of space. Almost like cleaning the wax out of my ears. I was really shocked that this unit could make this kind of difference. It sounds so good now with anything I play that I'm not sure I'll ever feel the need to worry about DSD. So, if you've only listened to the DAC9 via USB, then I would take the time to audition with either a music server than connects via AES/EBU or getting this little Berkeley gem to try out. I can say with confidence the local Berkeley dealer won't be getting his unit back! Heck its already broken in too! :-)
Click to expand...

I've been telling people for years now that if you want a serious upgrade of the USB performance of any DAC, get the Berkeley Alpha USB and don't look back. It's like getting a new DAC.
 
The Alpha USB made a significant performance jump for me. Their advertising line should be "Berkeley Alpha USB, more than just for Berkeley DAC's". [emoji846]
 
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