Chippy_boy
23-08-2009, 17:09
I got my Caiman on Friday after very friendly emails and instant shipping from Stanley.
I plugged it in straight away and I have to say it sounded pretty damned fine straight out of the box. But I thought it only fair to leave it running for a couple of days before posting here about it. So I have done just that - it's been on since Friday morning, random playing from some 4,000 odd tracks in "shuffle mode". (Incidently some really good stuff came up that I wouldn't have dreamt of playing again!)
All I can say is I am totally delighted with the Caiman. I am no hifi expert nor connoisseur, but to my untrained ear, it sounds bloody marvellous :-)
I have it feeding a Tag 100x5R power-amp, with four monoblock channels bi-amped into a pair of Wilson Benesch Curve's. The fact that this little £200 unit more than holds its own is quite remarkable, I think. It is clearly superior to my Tag AV32R's dac (which itself is no slouch with Burr Brown 24/192 dacs and high quality op amps and sophisticated jitter reduction ciruitry.)
The bass is tighter and better defined and less "plumby". Yet it has more "slam" - my wife noticed the bass notes hit you in the chest much more with the Caiman. There's also is a much greater sense of space too.
No doubt it will get even better with more playing, so I am completely chuffed. I don't know how much money I would have to spend to better this wonderful dac, but short of buying a £2,000 Bel Canto Dac3 (and even then, who knows) is there a better dac around? I doubt it.
Oh, and by the way, I tried my Sennheiser HD580's through it as well. I don't really listen to music through cans much so it didn't matter to me whether the headphone amp was any good or not. But anyway, it's a belter! I don't think I have ever heard the Sennheisers sound so good.
Stan seems such a damned nice bloke too! Thanks again Stan
Cheers all
Mark
I plugged it in straight away and I have to say it sounded pretty damned fine straight out of the box. But I thought it only fair to leave it running for a couple of days before posting here about it. So I have done just that - it's been on since Friday morning, random playing from some 4,000 odd tracks in "shuffle mode". (Incidently some really good stuff came up that I wouldn't have dreamt of playing again!)
All I can say is I am totally delighted with the Caiman. I am no hifi expert nor connoisseur, but to my untrained ear, it sounds bloody marvellous :-)
I have it feeding a Tag 100x5R power-amp, with four monoblock channels bi-amped into a pair of Wilson Benesch Curve's. The fact that this little £200 unit more than holds its own is quite remarkable, I think. It is clearly superior to my Tag AV32R's dac (which itself is no slouch with Burr Brown 24/192 dacs and high quality op amps and sophisticated jitter reduction ciruitry.)
The bass is tighter and better defined and less "plumby". Yet it has more "slam" - my wife noticed the bass notes hit you in the chest much more with the Caiman. There's also is a much greater sense of space too.
No doubt it will get even better with more playing, so I am completely chuffed. I don't know how much money I would have to spend to better this wonderful dac, but short of buying a £2,000 Bel Canto Dac3 (and even then, who knows) is there a better dac around? I doubt it.
Oh, and by the way, I tried my Sennheiser HD580's through it as well. I don't really listen to music through cans much so it didn't matter to me whether the headphone amp was any good or not. But anyway, it's a belter! I don't think I have ever heard the Sennheisers sound so good.
Stan seems such a damned nice bloke too! Thanks again Stan
Cheers all
Mark