So I’ve had the iso dac on demo for a few days, passed it onto Robby now.
For ref the system is zenith/exogal comet/Vitus RI-101/Avalon ideas, with hfc cabling
It’s a pretty competent and transparent system, tends to show up any changes quite well
The comet is a very highly rated dac that I was comparing against the iso dac. At £3k so 5 times the price of the iso
First impressions, massively low noise floor, expected this from what I’d heard and having read a bit on the batteries.
What I’m using is pretty low noise already, so adding to this really made backgrounds black, gave good space between instruments. Having made a few changes over the last year all aimed at decreasing noise and increasing levels of transparency I’m pretty used to what these steps do. The bottom end on tracks that sometimes have problems, booming, loosing control with room modes etc, this all gets better, and did so with the iso.
The bass goes very very low with the iso, tbh it’s probably just as low anyway, it’s just more apparent and clear when some of the noise disappears, and you can really hear it better
Vocals I love on the avalons, they’re brilliant with them, one of the strongest points of these speakers. Close mike’d recordings are really holographic when the backgrounds are so clear, still do with the comet back in too, but in a slightly different way, maybe a touch more forward on the comet
Overall, I could have swapped the comet for the iso, and lived with it being battery powered, and having to turn it off and on, instead of being able to be lazy and currently don’t need to move to change anything! But I just find the comet a tad more engaging or dynamic in some way, hard to put my finger on why, but I had 2 other people listen to both while I had them in and both had a similar impression.
If I didn’t have a seriously good dac already though this would def be on a short list of ones to try/buy, regardless of price - and for me beating a fair few more expensive dacs I’ve heard. Others like the Hugo 1 have a very good rep and with reason, for me the iso beats it, haven’t heard better for anywhere close to the price