New Audiolab (John Westlake) Dac demo

[Spur07]

Just got back from Bartletts in North London this afternoon. spent a couple of hours listening to the new Audiolab CD/DAC/PRE with John and it sounded awesome. It was a world apart form the Arcam Rdac and the Musical Fidelity (not sure of the model - £400) we compared it to. Not a hint of digital harshness, controlled and sophisticated, wonderfully black and smooth but with stacks of detail. It was just very analogue and made the other dacs sound incredibly trashy.

[Ali Tait]

Sounds interesting!

[CanDAC]

Paul, as a Caiman owner I was curious on how it compared with this forum's favourite DAC. I've been following this with interest as John W. is about to release the MDAC with features analogue inputs and a remote, not to mention killer sound at a very reasobnable price. If you've listened to a Caiman long enough to make a valid judgement, your impressions would be welcome. Thanks!

[James G]

You just described the sound I've been looking for!

[James G]

Paul if you're talking about the model 8200CD/8200CDQ with the 32-bit ESS Sabre dac and async USB, then it sounds very interesting indeed! There's a lot value there for the price and sound you're describing.

http://www.andygilesassociates.co.uk.../press_280.pdf

Any chance there will be a US/Japan voltage version?

[Spur07]

Paul, as a Caiman owner I was curious on how it compared with this forum's favourite DAC. I've been following this with interest as John W. is about to release the MDAC with features analogue inputs and a remote, not to mention killer sound at a very reasobnable price. If you've listened to a Caiman long enough to make a valid judgement, your impressions would be welcome. Thanks!

Bill, I've never heard a Camain (I own a 7510), but Andrew who was also there yesterday runs a 7520 thats been modded up to the hilt (Tirnia spelling??) with Wolfson chip, etc. and he was just as enthusiastic/impressed as me. Bartletts thought it best to avoid people bringing personal gear unfortunately due to time constraints which is fair enough, although when i turned up after lunch it was actually very quiet (me, John and Andrew) and we spent at least 2 hours listening and chatting. We compared John's Dac to the Arcam Rdac (£300) and a music fidelity dac (not sure the model, cost £400). My understanding from previous comments on forums is that the Caiman holds up pretty well against the new Rdac until the async USB is used (think i'm right in assuming its got async usb?). The MF Dac was certainly much better than the Rdac but neither came close to John's. It was so undigital, no splash, no siblance, no scrapping fingernails down a blackboard - the other two just sounded rough, grainy and very digital. Having never really experienced a top notch vinyl presentation (i had a Rega planar 3 in the 90's but didn't use it much or pay any attention to how different it sounded to my cd player ) I've never really had much concept of what 'digital' really sounds like - but the demo yesterday opened my eyes somewhat

P

[Spur07]

Paul if you're talking about the model 8200CD/8200CDQ with the 32-bit ESS Sabre dac and async USB, then it sounds very interesting indeed! There's a lot value there for the price and sound you're describing.

http://www.andygilesassociates.co.uk.../press_280.pdf

Any chance there will be a US/Japan voltage version?

James, it was the 8200CDQ we listened to i think - CD player/Dac/Pre. John reckons the first batch to arrive will be even better than what we heard yesterday as he's ordered a few final tweaks since the model we had was bought over. He opened it up and we took a look inside and I reckon you're certainly getting a lot of bang for your buck. If you don't need a cd player the MDac - (Dac and digital Pre only, which is slightly better than analogue pre as john demonstrated yesterday) - will be shipping apparently in feb of next year and priced at £400-450. That's what I'll probably wait for. There's various filters to play around with, although one was clearly better than the others, and various other nice features - remote controlling the dac from itunes or vice versa, or something like that

I'm not sure about the US/Japan voltage version. You'll have to contact John or maybe speak to Bartletts as they'll be importing them.

[Spur07]

Andrews comments from yesterday, courtesy of PFM:


First of all, many thanks to Bartletts for being so gracious to host such an event and many thanks to John Westlake for offering his time and considerable effort.

It was a really fun event and we enjoyed meeting and chatting with John, his wife and his dog Bobby (yes I had a brief chat with a Chihuahua, he's very intelligent). Also I enjoyed meeting TimR and spur07.

The CDQ was connected via its onboard pre-amp into a Bryston power amp, but had some problems with the first set of loudspeakers. I asked for these to be replaced with a pair of Dynaudio DM 2/6 on heavy Partington stands. I reckon it's fair to say that there was more than a wee bit of initial scepticism in the room that these stand mounts would make any difference over the significantly more expensive floor standers - but right from the go they delivered the kind of performance we were all hoping for.

The CDQ is an awesome CD player. Really awesome and I am not saying this to be polite. One thing that Paul (spur07) said after the demo, and he was spot-on, is that the presentation is classy, really classy and subtle. At the same time it is fun, has a lot of bounce to the presentation and reveals a lot of the intonation and how musicians work with their instruments.

We all agreed that the Optimum Transient filter is the best setting and the digital pre-amp (a 64 bit controller) is better than the analogue pre-amp. Even through the analogue pre-amp the player is awesome, but the digital pre-amp adds more dimension and clarity to the notes and voices without any nasties.

Hold your nerve, the wait will be more than worth it. We compared it with two different DACs (both recent designs) and the CDQ totally vaporised one competing DAC and provided a more involving and grander presentation than the other.

I got to say, as someone who studied electronics at degree level, went into radio and been a long standing hi-fi anorak - John's explanations about his attention to design detail was very impressive. It was also good to hear how over the long term IAG have done the right thing in supporting John and Dominik in their work and produced a product that by-rights should reach equivalent modern day levels of popularity as, say, the A&R A60.

It is a game-changing source component, that defies price points and the industry is all the better for that. I am excited and so should you!

Andrew Randle

[James G]

James, it was the 8200CDQ we listened to i think - CD player/Dac/Pre. John reckons the first batch to arrive will be even better than what we heard yesterday as he's ordered a few final tweaks since the model we had was bought over. He opened it up and we took a look inside and I reckon you're certainly getting a lot of bang for your buck. If you don't need a cd player the MDac - (Dac and digital Pre only, which is slightly better than analogue pre as john demonstrated yesterday) - will be shipping apparently in feb of next year and priced at £400-450. That's what I'll probably wait for. There's various filters to play around with, although one was clearly better than the others, and various other nice features - remote controlling the dac from itunes or vice versa, or something like that

I'm not sure about the US/Japan voltage version. You'll have to contact John or maybe speak to Bartletts as they'll be importing them.

Thanks for your reply Paul.
Well, it certainly is an interesting unit! If I got one it would be with the CD player and I would sell my dac to simplify things. Maybe by sometime next year there will be a 110v version out there. Would be nice.

I guess in the next few months we'll be seeing more listening impressions as more people pick up this player.

[Peter Stockwell]

- remote controlling the dac from itunes or vice versa, or something like that

Oh shit, that'll do me in, if that's possible!