Macca
28-06-2020, 10:20
I was looking for a DAC to improve the sound quality from my Oppo BDT1 universal player. The Oppo is a pretty neutral performer but my issues with it are two-fold - it seems a little weak in the bass and at higher playback levels it can get a little 'shouty'
This Sancoz DAC has excellent measurements, up in the top 3 of all DACs on the SINAD board https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/soncoz-sgd1-audio-dac-review.10295/ (note the 'ESS distortion hump' has since been eliminated on production units).
Whilst it is not cheap at £470 delivered, it's not unrealistically priced. So I ordered it off Amazon with the full intention of returning it if I could detect no improvement between it and the DAC built in to the Oppo. A number of people advised me that I certainly would hear an improvement but I was sceptical. But not too sceptical to try it.
Pictures:
https://i.ibb.co/H2ZByW7/soncoz2.jpg (https://ibb.co/fSJqWhM)
The orange display is pretty cool. I like orange displays, look good in the dark:
https://i.ibb.co/gmz3mjY/Soncoz1.jpg (https://ibb.co/4KP7Kmk)
high quality photo upload (https://imgbb.com/)
Now I'm not going to spend that kind of money if all it does is look cool. So with the Soncoz hooked into the system I have spent some considerable time on 'critical listening' over the past few days. The rest of the system comprises:
Oppo BDT1 universal player - a budget Oppo designed for home theatre installs
Nelson Pass DCB1 - a zero gain pre-amp built DIY from circuit published by Mr Pass
Krell KSA100 Mk2 - a dual mono class A amplifier with 100 watts per channel
JM Labs Electra 926 - 3 way four driver medium sized floorstanding loudspeakers.
All cables including the digital coax are Spotfire cables from Bigbottle Audio.
I set the unit up using digital coax cable from the Oppo to the Soncoz. Filter used was fast roll off. All source material was 16/44.1 'CD quality'.
I listened to a pretty wide variety of music over the last three days but have limited my comments here to performance with albums that many people should be fairly familiar with. With these albums I also listened to them without the DAC in circuit just to confirm what I thought. All of these recordings have points in them where a flawed replay system can fall down and reveal itself so I was particularly listening to these specific passages of music to see if there was an improvement and to see if I could catch any flaws in the sound of the Soncoz.
I kicked off with old demo staple Dire Strait's 'Brothers In Arms' which also happens to be the first record I have heard on a 'proper' hi-fi system so tradition dictates that it tends to get wheeled out at some point whenever I make a change. First impressions on swapping from the Oppo's DAC were that this was indeed a 'different sound.' Cleaner but 'flatter'. I'll come back to that later.
The opening of 'Walk Of Life' is always a bit of a test as those keyboard chords can get a little strident especially listening at high levels. But they were rendered here without any glare. The backing vocals were well separated and with their own acoustic preserved. This was pretty obvious, I didn't have to concentrate to hear it, a good sign.
'The Man's Too Strong' has those powerful acoustic guitar chords that can be a bit much if there is distortion in the signal, these were also presented without any hash or glare, the sound of the guitar was excellent in fact, the character of the specific instrument was obvious. It sounded sweet and sonorous.
Next up Eagles - 'Hotel California.' I wasn't that happy with how this album sounded with the Oppo. There was clarity but it was also a bit ragged-sounding, and this isn't a ragged-sounding recording. The Soncoz gave a quite different rendition. Separation of instruments and vocals on the title track was quite something. The overall sound was smooth with no edges to it. The guitar sounded 'real.'
Bass on 'New Kid In Town' was very good, reverb tails were obvious, quite impressed by that, as they are not really 'there' with the Oppo. 'Life In The Fast Lane' had the propulsive bass that drives (ho ho) the song along and there was no distortion, glare or 'messiness' on the climax where all the many tracks in the mix were presented clearly and cleanly. This was also true of 'Victim Of Love' which can easily get strident on the climax. The reverb and decay on the piano notes on the slow number, 'Pretty Maids', was impressive, actually a 'wow' moment there.
Finally I put on The Rolling Stones 'Sticky Fingers.' This was the original CD not the re-mix/re-master they did for SACD. I love this record but it's not a polished recording like the previous two so I thought it would be a good test.
At least I've always considered it as a fairly 'rough' recording until I heard it played back through the Soncoz. Opening tune 'Brown Sugar' sounded much cleaner than on the Oppo. My eyes widened. By the time I got to 'Can You hear Me Knocking? I'd completely re-evaluated my opinion of this recording. Oh and the guitar work on 'Wild Horses' was just presented superbly, beautifully detailed and 'real' sounding. I didn't make so many notes on this album as I just got sucked in to the music completely.
Conclusion?
Well I'm not sending it back. The sound quality is clearly better with this DAC replacing the one in the Oppo. It isn't night and day but it is obviously better and not just different.
Regarding the 'flat' sound I mentioned as my first impression at the start of the review - it quickly became apparent that this was down to a total lack of glare, grain or distortion. Unlike with the Oppo where I would have to get up and drop the levels by a little bit sometimes, with the Sancoz I was turning them up instead. Once I acclimatised to this difference I started to appreciate it.
If you're looking for a DAC that will add fireworks to the sound of your system this is not it. But if you are looking for a DAC that will not add character to the sound but will just let it pass through without mangling it in any way then I can recommend this product.
This Sancoz DAC has excellent measurements, up in the top 3 of all DACs on the SINAD board https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/soncoz-sgd1-audio-dac-review.10295/ (note the 'ESS distortion hump' has since been eliminated on production units).
Whilst it is not cheap at £470 delivered, it's not unrealistically priced. So I ordered it off Amazon with the full intention of returning it if I could detect no improvement between it and the DAC built in to the Oppo. A number of people advised me that I certainly would hear an improvement but I was sceptical. But not too sceptical to try it.
Pictures:
https://i.ibb.co/H2ZByW7/soncoz2.jpg (https://ibb.co/fSJqWhM)
The orange display is pretty cool. I like orange displays, look good in the dark:
https://i.ibb.co/gmz3mjY/Soncoz1.jpg (https://ibb.co/4KP7Kmk)
high quality photo upload (https://imgbb.com/)
Now I'm not going to spend that kind of money if all it does is look cool. So with the Soncoz hooked into the system I have spent some considerable time on 'critical listening' over the past few days. The rest of the system comprises:
Oppo BDT1 universal player - a budget Oppo designed for home theatre installs
Nelson Pass DCB1 - a zero gain pre-amp built DIY from circuit published by Mr Pass
Krell KSA100 Mk2 - a dual mono class A amplifier with 100 watts per channel
JM Labs Electra 926 - 3 way four driver medium sized floorstanding loudspeakers.
All cables including the digital coax are Spotfire cables from Bigbottle Audio.
I set the unit up using digital coax cable from the Oppo to the Soncoz. Filter used was fast roll off. All source material was 16/44.1 'CD quality'.
I listened to a pretty wide variety of music over the last three days but have limited my comments here to performance with albums that many people should be fairly familiar with. With these albums I also listened to them without the DAC in circuit just to confirm what I thought. All of these recordings have points in them where a flawed replay system can fall down and reveal itself so I was particularly listening to these specific passages of music to see if there was an improvement and to see if I could catch any flaws in the sound of the Soncoz.
I kicked off with old demo staple Dire Strait's 'Brothers In Arms' which also happens to be the first record I have heard on a 'proper' hi-fi system so tradition dictates that it tends to get wheeled out at some point whenever I make a change. First impressions on swapping from the Oppo's DAC were that this was indeed a 'different sound.' Cleaner but 'flatter'. I'll come back to that later.
The opening of 'Walk Of Life' is always a bit of a test as those keyboard chords can get a little strident especially listening at high levels. But they were rendered here without any glare. The backing vocals were well separated and with their own acoustic preserved. This was pretty obvious, I didn't have to concentrate to hear it, a good sign.
'The Man's Too Strong' has those powerful acoustic guitar chords that can be a bit much if there is distortion in the signal, these were also presented without any hash or glare, the sound of the guitar was excellent in fact, the character of the specific instrument was obvious. It sounded sweet and sonorous.
Next up Eagles - 'Hotel California.' I wasn't that happy with how this album sounded with the Oppo. There was clarity but it was also a bit ragged-sounding, and this isn't a ragged-sounding recording. The Soncoz gave a quite different rendition. Separation of instruments and vocals on the title track was quite something. The overall sound was smooth with no edges to it. The guitar sounded 'real.'
Bass on 'New Kid In Town' was very good, reverb tails were obvious, quite impressed by that, as they are not really 'there' with the Oppo. 'Life In The Fast Lane' had the propulsive bass that drives (ho ho) the song along and there was no distortion, glare or 'messiness' on the climax where all the many tracks in the mix were presented clearly and cleanly. This was also true of 'Victim Of Love' which can easily get strident on the climax. The reverb and decay on the piano notes on the slow number, 'Pretty Maids', was impressive, actually a 'wow' moment there.
Finally I put on The Rolling Stones 'Sticky Fingers.' This was the original CD not the re-mix/re-master they did for SACD. I love this record but it's not a polished recording like the previous two so I thought it would be a good test.
At least I've always considered it as a fairly 'rough' recording until I heard it played back through the Soncoz. Opening tune 'Brown Sugar' sounded much cleaner than on the Oppo. My eyes widened. By the time I got to 'Can You hear Me Knocking? I'd completely re-evaluated my opinion of this recording. Oh and the guitar work on 'Wild Horses' was just presented superbly, beautifully detailed and 'real' sounding. I didn't make so many notes on this album as I just got sucked in to the music completely.
Conclusion?
Well I'm not sending it back. The sound quality is clearly better with this DAC replacing the one in the Oppo. It isn't night and day but it is obviously better and not just different.
Regarding the 'flat' sound I mentioned as my first impression at the start of the review - it quickly became apparent that this was down to a total lack of glare, grain or distortion. Unlike with the Oppo where I would have to get up and drop the levels by a little bit sometimes, with the Sancoz I was turning them up instead. Once I acclimatised to this difference I started to appreciate it.
If you're looking for a DAC that will add fireworks to the sound of your system this is not it. But if you are looking for a DAC that will not add character to the sound but will just let it pass through without mangling it in any way then I can recommend this product.