Savvy's System

It really ties the room together, man.

I'm classy seventies here. Exposed brick with white walls in between. 1970s coffee table with brown and orange ceramic tiles. used to have the 'wrap around' brown velour love seat and three matching chairs anorl but it was shagged so I had to get rid in the end. Shame because it did all look the business. The velour - forget about it.

Hey talk to the BBC mate. Script rejected. In fairness it was a joint effort so I was only half to blame.

Working title: How My Krakk-Ko-Kan Addiction Cost Me Everything!

I remember TonyL calling Heresies 'big Linn Kans', well something like that anyway. Because both have a similar way of pushing the music upfront and are fast etc. Plus, they need to be up close to walls etc.

S.

Is some ways they are like Kans. In other ways, nothing like Kans.

Both have curtailed bass but the Heresys have more a much more satisfying 'full fat' upper bass. The Heresys breathe and have an ease and swing that you only get from a large woofer. The Heresys time brilliantly, but they sound much, much bigger than the Kans (which, of course, they are). I've never been able to trip up the Heresys when it comes to timing. The Heresys also sound big and alive at low volumes - important if, like me, you live in a row of pauper's cottages and don't want to fall out with the neighbours 

The Kans need power and current - a 250 or 135s (a bolt down 160 also works). The Heresys will play loud with a 1 watt amp, but they are very, very revealing of sources and amps. There is a lower treble peak, but I'm told it's less pronounced on the 3s compared to previous versions. Valves - I reckon a 300b / single ended triode would be a sweet match, el84 amps are also reputed to do well and cost a lot less. S/S - my NVA passive pre and bi-amped monoblocks have the purity needed. They are my favoured combo with the Heresys for vinyl. Wonderful clarity without losing the inherent warmth of vinyl. I'm finding that I like a bit of flavouring to help some digital files and the baby Marantz receiver is just the ticket for that...but it is nowhere near the wide open window of the NVAs. To that end I'm going to try a RME dac that has an EQ facility (and a remote volume control - which I do sometimes miss with the NVA).  

Regarding positioning - floor reinforcement seems a good deal more important than proximity to a rear wall. My room doesn't facilitate corner placement, so I can't comment on that.

Still have it, but I probably will move it on - it's decent enough in it's own right, but it's well behind the NVAs for clarity and not as sweet (or cute) as the Marantz. 

If I was buying a DAC that is the one I fancy. Measures well, loads of features and price is reasonable.

I paid £795 for the RME.

The £5 dac (plus £45 LPSU) is very decent, a no-brainer for beer money. When we had a dac bake-off at mine, I preferred it to a couple of £200-£300 units. 

My interest in the RME is for the feature set. I reckon the remote volume and eq facility will be well worth paying for. The latter being especially handing for when I change speakers and for taking the edge off poor recordings.

This could be a dac for objectivists and subjectivists, alike. If you want the studio sound then it does, as Martin says, measure very well. On the other hand, if you want to add a little salt or pepper, then there are several options for doing that.

I'll give it a proper listen and a play with all the features, and let you know what I think...

Are you using it directly into your power amps to use the remote volume, or are you still able to put it through your pre and still adjust the volume.

set the pots on the Nva pre to about halfway, then fine adjust volume from the Rme remote.

Had the RME for a week, now.

I'm starting to think of this as the DAC equivalent of the Technics SL1210. Aside from the same pro /domestic market crossover vibe, the RME is unflappable, even handed and transparent, a high level of clarity without false excitement. It seems to be very well thought through and immaculately implemented...and the approach taken is refreshingly free from bullshit!

There's nothing 'tricksy' to the sound, unless you want there to be. There is a built in EQ facility that holds 20 presets, so you can have different set ups for different speakers and headphones, or even for different quality of recordings / sources. The menus and myriad possibilities take a bit of getting used to, but are very useful. The digital volume control seems to be flawless. It comes with a thick and detailed instruction manual.

I can't really declare an £800 dac to be cheap, but this does seem like a lot of value compared to a lot of other (more expensive) dacs. I find it to be more enjoyable across more recordings than the Chord 2Qute that I had for a couple of years, and I find it has just as good SQ, if not even better, than the Metrum Amethyst that I also currently have.

All of the above is through speakers. I'm going to do some headphone listening over the weekend and compare it to my NVA AP10H with 2nd PSU.

Some interesting reading here:

redirect.viglink.com/?key=bbb516d91daee20498798694a42dd559&u=https%3A//www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php%3Fthreads/review-and-measurements-of-rme-adi-2-dac.2582/

Lol I'm not so sure, I'm not a fan of RTFM.


Why do think I stick with CD players? Put a disc in, press play. Cd player stops working? Just hook up another one and carry on listening to music. That suits me fine.