The great thing about DIY is that yesterday's discard could be today's keeper. I
have Cardas twin-ax (2x21) out of the system for quite a while since I put in
Jon Risch's twisted pair interconnnects. They are a great match with the
slightly over the top nature of the DI/O. Most of the mods (diodes, resistors,
bypassing) have tamed this to a large extent and the JR cable was just the icing
needed.

With the dAck DAC, I have note some interesting aspects to its sound.
Downstream absolute phase of speakers seems to be less critical but still
important. Similarly for wire polarity. With this sorted out, I moved onto the
interconnect. In the past, the Cardas cable was very good at taming "digital
glare" and allowing vocals to come through better in the mix. With the update to
the DI/O using copper leaded vishay/dale resistors, the added detail and
fullness at both ends of the spectrum was tamed by the JR cable (...and you
thought this was a dAck! post).

With the dAck inserted, I still hear the frequency extremes but they are just
not highlighted like they are in the DI/O. The DI/O seems to demand your
attention and you are rewarded for your efforts. The dACk (with the same JR
cable) plays very relaxed. You hear the same detail, but there is no sense of
fatigue. The leading edge of notes come and go quickly so that there seems to be
a loss of dynamics...but what is reveal is low level information. It sounds less
dynamic than the DI/O and yet is more satisfying (I'm still trying to sort this
one out...hence Update One).

With the Cardas cable swapped in, more of the dynamic that I'm accustomed to is
restored to dAck while keeping that glorious tone, blackness, and midrange. My
standardard set of benchmarking CDs keep their place along with my sanity.

Note: By the time this unit made it here, it cost be about 2x what I paid for
the DI/O...so it should be better. It is awesome looking sort of "museum piece"
that I figure could sell at the Antique's Road Show for 3x its price in a few
years and easily for what you paid for on eBay.

More later,
Ray







--- In DIOmods@yahoogroups.com, "PeAK" <rchau@a...> wrote:
>
>... It has a great midrage that just about nails the voice. The unit sounds
"groovy" in the literal sense in that it there is very little sense of fatigue
and the much commented "quietness/blackness" of the unit enables you to listen
to the start and stop of individual notes at lower volume levels with out the
urge to crank the volume.

> I'll have to alter my usual "shootdown" comparison method as I think the DI/O
has certain added slam that many find addicitve in a shootout. In direct
comparison, some might say that the dAck might sound a little flat. I'm enjoying
different CDs more with the dAck while old standbys that do well by the DI/O
could probably use some tweaking. I'm aware that the designer of the dAck uses
silver interconnect in some of his reference systems that he uses to tweak the
sound...I'm just using copper. In the next week, I can borrow some stuff to sort
out the dAck sound a bit more clearly...so far it looks very promising.
>
> Ray