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At last... (Audiolab) - part II

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So hang on:
MDAC:


8200CDQ:
AL8200CDQ.jpg


8200DQ:
images


The MDAC has the best screen? It appears to be about the same width, but twice the height. Will the QDAC have the same screen? And knob...?
 
All the Dacs are still months away, the MDAC, QDAC six months?
Don't know about the full width DQ time scale wise. The thread has well over a 100,000 views, maybe Audiolab should have realised a Dac too? ;)
 
Good point Chris, but the screen is the same innit? I think that John W was bemoaning the Audiolab marketing droids' choice, and I'm inclined to agree with him...
 
Calvin&Hobbes said:
Hi Wouter,
Very useful review. Certainly raises my enthousiasm. We need more reviews (Nikos, others) to find the common denominators. Airiness e.g. is certainly not only dependent on the source imho. Personally, I value coherence even more. Also, the relative contributions of CD, DAC and pre-amp are not yet sorted, as stated by you.

How to read your sentence: "I still have a very slight but noticeable amelioration in SQ when using CD over Flac/Sonos/optical and I would like some insight on possible causes. "
Are you reinstating that using CD renders a more stable sound than feeding via your sonos? Or the other way round?
Thanks again!
Click to expand...

Hello from Athens...

I second the findings from Wouter. He is somehow spot on ....
However the overall sound is very system dependent. Having listened to the CDQ with my all classic headphone ( Beyer DT990 and MB Qust X95 ) the pre-amp section is very fine indeed. It is what you should expect form a classA design - warmth, detail that is not in your face and "delicate" sound. I have been using for some time now the Bent Audio TAP passive tvc with audionote silverwound trannies and have forgotten the "golden glow" of a classA pre amplifier. Having listened to the CDQ's pre-amp section through the headphones, the Bent Audio pre amp sounds to me too detailed but "skinny" with no "flesh on the bones" to the individual instruments...I hope you understand what i mean.:rolleyes:

I did test the dac/pre amp section with my long time reference (North Star Design Transport) via coax cable and the sound was "similar" to the CDQ as a player. I did find that the rwsolution with the external transport was a bit better but it was losing in coherency. If you want a more "high-end" sound, then you could possibly start checking various transports and pre-amps, but i do not believe that you could get a better "package".

I will be doing some more listening and post my findings again soon. In the meantime i am enjoying some nice music...I only wise that the CDQ could play also the SACDs that i have....

Nikos
 
nikos said:
Hello from Athens...

I second the findings from Wouter. He is somehow spot on ....
However the overall sound is very system dependent. Having listened to the CDQ with my all classic headphone ( Beyer DT990 and MB Qust X95 ) the pre-amp section is very fine indeed. It is what you should expect form a classA design - warmth, detail that is not in your face and "delicate" sound. I have been using for some time now the Bent Audio TAP passive tvc with audionote silverwound trannies and have forgotten the "golden glow" of a classA pre amplifier. Having listened to the CDQ's pre-amp section through the headphones, the Bent Audio pre amp sounds to me too detailed but "skinny" with no "flesh on the bones" to the individual instruments...I hope you understand what i mean.:rolleyes:

I did test the dac/pre amp section with my long time reference (North Star Design Transport) via coax cable and the sound was "similar" to the CDQ as a player. I did find that the rwsolution with the external transport was a bit better but it was losing in coherency. If you want a more "high-end" sound, then you could possibly start checking various transports and pre-amps, but i do not believe that you could get a better "package".

I will be doing some more listening and post my findings again soon. In the meantime i am enjoying some nice music...I only wise that the CDQ could play also the SACDs that i have....

Nikos
Click to expand...
Thanks Nikos,
hope hearing more from you and maybe comparisons between you NS Extreme and the CDQ.
best regards
André
 
Hello Wouter and Nikos,

I would like to know if you use the preamplification in the analogue or digital domain, and which outputs do you use XLR or RCA ?

Thanks.
 
pasgod said:
Hello Wouter and Nikos,

I would like to know if you use the preamplification in the analogue or digital domain, and which outputs do you use XLR or RCA ?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Digital and XLR. I have not tried the analog option since JohnW recommends the digital approach

Nikos
 
domho7 said:
Hope John would do a SACD :D

So far alot of positive comments on CDQ and just cant wait till next batch to come.
Click to expand...

Hi domho, the next batch coming may not have the 12V trigger out. As they should be from the same production batch, but ship at different timing.
 
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