New Linear Power supply upgrade for DMP A-6

Nicely put.

OTOH, it does get tiring to read "That's just your subjective opinion, and as such is total rubbish", not just once, but repeatedly and often in the same thread.

 

I’d say he has no “passion for the hobby” with the amount of insults he throws around! Hardly encouraging for others to be told they know little. I have over 50 years of listening experience, does that count for nothing?

 

On the A6, the EQ features are not part of the DAC, but dealt with by the main CPU. On the A8, they are connected with the DAC function.

 

@Monkey3017 the key point is that the measurements of say a Topping dac may be objectively a little better, but there will be no audible difference our ears just can’t discern those differences.
If you look at the measurements of the A-6 you will see that they are all way below the threshold of audibility, which means that the unit is audibly transparent you just can’t get better than that.
The A-6 is transparent, it isn’t ‘dry’ it isn’t ‘bright’ if you understood the measurements you would understand that.
I would advise not reading any subjective puff pieces they mean absolutely nothing, use a site like ASR to select components which are properly designed, state of the art components ( as good as anything at any price) are relatively in expensive.
The real gains are to be found in loudspeakers and their interaction with your room.
EQ just keep it to reducing room derived bass peaks ( boomy bass).
Keith

 

I presume you are referring to me too? It was meant to be sarcastic .

You see, I believe measurements are important but they don't say the whole story about a component (my opinion) and what I was trying to tell him is that expectation bias applies to everyone, even himself, and a sentence in his comparison says exactly that. I respect and accept others opinion and never said his conclusion was not correct. What I have difficulties to deal with is when "these others" start looking down at me saying "I don't understand" or I need "thinking".

Alan, I respect the way you express your opinions (I think I even gave you compliments for what you wrote somewhere) but in this case I have the feeling that you are looking only at one party only because is the one being attacked, and missing why all this started (my feeling, nothing personal). Well, if you didn't notice already the guy is no newcomer as far as lack of respect is concerned. He looks down at people who doesn't agree with his beliefs and treats them like are mentally challenged. You may understand that at a certain point, if he starts it, respect it's not my priority anymore either.

And since you are mentioning forums with a cultist approach, he is coming from one those too. On ASR you get the same treatment, you get banned if you insist with subjective opinions....and members there are not really shy of bashing at and exorcise these people. I know it as I regularly read the forum because of some interesting things being discussed or reviews I am interested in. I am not a member though as I am really not interested to be part of a community of cultist. Extremism, like expectation bias, works both ways. I think it's the wrong way, I like a moderate approach but if I get shit, I can shit pretty well myself too. Keith is following ASR practices here too, with a couple of other members following in his wake.

Ignoring him is not option either. He is all over the place, over and over with same thing...avoiding him would mean not reading the forum. I mean, why? This is a product support forum where everybody is free to talk about their experience with A6, whether objective or subjective, supported or unsupported by unsighted ABX level matched listening test and so on. If someone hears a difference with an LPS, then he hears a difference. If some other says that he hears the ME sounding better than the standard one, then for him it sounds better. Waste of money? Each individual spends his money as it pleases him the most. The guy is on a crusade, he stated it more than once, and I beware of these kind of people....in the wrong places they make damages as they walk over everyone and everything in the name of their beliefs...I have met quite a few of them in the real life.

 

Thank You. I understand.

For an experiment I got my old CD Player (Onkyo C 755) out of the cellar and connected it to my Topping L50 via RCA. The A6 is connected via XLR. I adjusted the volume on the A6 because XLR was a bit louder.
Using the little switch on the Topping, I can switch between RCA and XLR (no popping sound or anything like this appears).
I can play the same track from CD and from internal SSD, ripped from the same album.

I listed to Lindsey Stirling (her 1st album) - and - I cannot hear a difference when switching sources. None.

I put in Supertramp - Crime of the Century. (AAD, it seems to be original CD)

In the song "Rudy" there is alot of background noise, sound from the railway station, quite three dimensional.
I am listening with the Hifiman Sundra. Here I heard a clear difference.

I switched over to the Topping PA 5 II with the KEF LS50. I cannot hear a difference there.

3rd CD: Phil Collins, Face Value. Original CD.
Also here I hear a difference beween the CD player and the A6 with headphones.

So, what difference do you think I heard?

 

I am not sure what you are comparing, to make a really valid comparison, levels have to be matched to .1dB with a milli volt meter from the outputs of the devices and the comparison has to be conducted unsighted, ie you must not know which you are listening to.
The point of unsighted comparison is purely to ascertain whether there is a discernible difference.
Keith

 

I expected the A6 to be audible better. I also expected it to be brighter, maybe more silibant.
It was not. The sound was exactly the same, to my ears at least. The little switch on the amp makes it very easy to forget which input is which.
So, at least for my setup, there is no difference between those DAC chips. (The Onkyo uses an AKM chip.)

Using the PA 5 II and bookshelf speaker there was no audible difference.

But with head phones there was a difference and that is the stereo representation. Obviously not pronounced with a solist like Lindsay Stirling.
With Player (1) the music had more room, with player (2) it was closer to my head. That effect was not subtle.
But as I said, no noticable change to the music, added noise or such.
I assume if you have a good speaker setup, better than my book shelf speakers, you can hear that there, too.

 

Why would you expect the A-6 to be brighter or more sibilant?
The A-6 is audibly transparent it simply reproduces the input, neither adding or subtracting.
If the Onkyo is adding audible distortion ( distortion is anything not in the input) then that would be evident in its measurements.
To repeat to be valid the volumes of both devices would have to be matched and someone else would have to swop inputs.
No one in the audio industry wants you to make this kind of unsighted comparison, you will never hear cognitive bias being discussed.
The industry just wants you to swallow the lie and keep buying.
Keith

 

Because thats a reputation of the ESS chips I read quite often.

I find this comparison interesting because I can confirm for myself, that the DAC in the A6 is as good as necessary for my speaker and amplifier setup.
And if I find it "dry" sometimes, this is rather caused by my speaker or myself.

It also shows that the Onkyo CD Player is a very good device and it is good I took it out from my cellar.

I did not expect the difference in "soundstage" though, if I may call it this way.

 

I have never had any problem with sibilant "feeling" with ESS Sabre chips. It's very difficult to recognize ess vs. akm chips.

 

Quote,
‘Because thats a reputation of the ESS chips I read quite often.’
This is a perfect example of the kind of nonsense that gets propagated around the internet without any substantiation or evidence whatsoever and which is completely refuted by measurement.
When you read this stuff ask yourself is there any actual evidence, or even better learn to understand measurements.
Keith

 

Some induced harmonics and also intermodulation distortion can result in altered soudstage perceprion. It could be "easy" that one piece of equipment had IMD emphasizing some frequencies present in one album rather than another; this could justify the soundstage wider with - say - the CD-player playing the physical CD rather than the A6 playing the rip.
Mine is just speculation based on some discussions talking about altering the signal to widen the soundstage (as one of Schiit devices - cannot remember the name - sorry - does). It looks (and sounds...) perfectly possible IMO.

HTH

 

No, it was a general observation. I apologise if you interpreted it as aimed specifically at you which it wasn't.

Unfortunately in the real world with differing personalities and wildly differing opinions there's bound to be a possibility of a clash of wills, and to be perfectly frank I've locked horns with quite a few over the decades. The funny thing is that some people's online persona doesn't actually reflect who they are in person. I'm quite sure many of us seasoned fora visitors are well versed with how expressing one's opinion can easily be misinterpreted then quickly degenerate into a shouting match with bruised egos and hurt butts. Some people can be pretty blunt in what they say and how they articulate their point of view. When a spade isn't just a spade it's gawd damn front-end loader. I often wonder if we would behave the same if we were having a face to face conversation? I doubt it.

BTW, thank you for the accolade. It didn't go unappreciated.

 

I once tested the SMSL DP5 and that had an audibly, impressively wider soundstage, even on my speaker setup. In the ASR forum I read that this was because of "Crossplay" which was activated in the SMSL. (Probably phase inverted, I guess)
A member of ASR had posted a firmware hack which switches that mode off. I did not install that firmware.
Actually I liked the sound of the DP5. But I sent it back because of limitations in its software. It sounded really nice, though.

With my experiment today I noted the "soundstage" to be "wider" with the CD player.
I assume this is because that CD Player has a linear power supply

Onkyo C-755: High Precision CD player with DAC and VLSC filtering (stereocheck.com)
"Secondly, a custom massive EI transformer and large audio grade capacitors for voltage stabilization. It also significantly improves the soundstage. Third, it has high quality DAC, clock precision and VLSC filtering. "

It uses a AKM AK4490 DAC chip

 

No, 50 years of critical listening does not count for nothing. I'd estimate we've clocked up about the same mileage and even though my hearing isn't as acute as it once was it isn't shot either. Too many Pink Floyd concerts which I will conveniently blame. But seriously I do enjoy reading and hearing other people's opinions even if I don't agree with them. I guess the trick is not to let someone get under your skin. Probably easier said than done and some things are difficult to dismiss as poorly expressed opinion.

 

I didn’t say critical, most of my listening has been for pleasure. What’s the point otherwise? I don’t mind others opinions as long as it’s not a constant assault of derision.

 

May i bring to mind what happened. A member modifies his A6 with an LPS and is happy with the result of his effort and just wants to share his pleasant experience without ulterior motives of spreading false information or intending to provide advance that a member get's ripped of:

http://forum.zidoo.tv/index.php?thr...upgrade-for-dmp-a-6.96689/page-15#post-220100

And that is what he get's for an answer:

http://forum.zidoo.tv/index.php?thr...upgrade-for-dmp-a-6.96689/page-16#post-220108

Independant of what your opinion on the matter in question is, you don't treat people like this. This is just a lack of decency and respect. And this is not the first time this kind of bullying took place. It happens over and over and over.

 

I see bullying on other forums too if someone says or tries anything “out there”! Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it I say.

 

‘his pleasant experience’ is propagating a lie Richard.
Keith