Any Digital Impressions of the Caiman yet?

I'd actually just saved up for a 7520, and then I read about the Caiman. I didn't have to think too hard about which to buy ;)

My Caiman turned up this morning - speedy dispatch too! Thanks Stan :)

I don't have a 7510 or 7520 to compare it to I'm afraid. Obviously it needs to be run in, but for what it's worth I plumbed it in and had a listen on my Denon AHD-5000s, and I already know that I won't be sending it back. I'm very impressed so far and I'm intrigued to hear what it will be like once it has run in.

It's now being fed a loop of reasonably diverse (well for me at least) music to run in properly;

Joanna Newsom - Sprout and the Bean
Max Richter - The Blue Notebooks
James Brown - The Payback
Gil Scott Heron - Pieces of a Man
Miles Davis - A Kind of Blue
Dave Brubeck - Time Further Out
The Headhunters - God Made Me Funky
Funkadelic - Maggot Brain
Jimi Hendrix - Crosstown Traffic
Carl Craig - More Songs About Food and Revolutionary Art
Basic Channel - E2E4 Basic Reshape
Kraftwerk - Autobahn
TVO - The Dark is Rising
Ulrich Schnauss - A Strangely Isolated Place
Arovane - Tides
Isan - Recently in the Sahara
Wendy Carlos - A Clockwork Orange
Erik Satie - Gnossienes (6) for piano; 1. Lent
Boards of Canada - In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country

If I play the music on fast forward - will the DAC burn in quicker? :eyebrows:

Simon

It seems that the fine folks at US Customs are taking the Caiman for a spin. Frustrating to know it is here in Chicago but in customs' hands not mine.

Anxiously awaiting the Caiman, and looking forward to comparing it to my non-oversampling Moodlab Concept DAC.

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Originally Posted by roscoeiii

It seems that the fine folks at US Customs are taking the Caiman for a spin. Frustrating to know it is here in Chicago but in customs' hands not mine.

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That's a massive downer. I arranged a special pick up by FEDEX to get it to you over the weekend.

Stan

How many Caimans are in the hands of buyers or reviewers?

Well I went down to one of the Naim Summer Roadshow events this afternoon at Robert Ritchies. Top bloke he is.
Anyway, I had a listen to the new Naim Ovator speakers (circa £6k) fired up with a NAP300 and a NAC252 (£more filthy lucre). The front ends were the new CD2XS with the SPDIF out, an HDX and the soon to be released Naim DAC (£no idea of the filthy lucre involved).
On both the CD2XS and the HDX the DAC improved things no end. It really did sound very good indeed. The spiel mentioned that it has the same DAC chip that both the CDS3 and the CD555 have plus some fancy re-clocking/up-sampling/DSP'ing. I can't remember the exact chips/software involved. It also has the Apple identifier chip included so it will play the digital out from the bottom of your iPhone/iTouch/iPod much like the Wadia iPod dock does. All in all a good day out with some good tunes being played too.
To cut a long story short I was expecting to be disappointed when I got home and fired up my more modest set up. However, I wasn't. Streaming into the Wolfsoned 7520 wasn't a let down. I'm going to take it down to Roberts in September when he gets a demo DAC in for a comparison.

i was saying to stan in pm im going to compare mine (when i get it) to the linn ds kit with the guys who sold me all my kit (norman and ian of uhes - one of the other summer sounds hosts in painswick, glos) in the tests i have done the 7520 with 4562's that i have comes closer than antisipated to my majik ds so im really intrigued (also slightly scared) to know how good the caiman is!

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Originally Posted by trailer

I'm going to take it down to Roberts in September when he gets a demo DAC in for a comparison.

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If he gets a DAC for demo, maybe you should take a production version of the Caiman instead.

Stan

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Originally Posted by Sensimilia

If he gets a DAC for demo, maybe you should take a production version of the Caiman instead.

Stan

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If anyone is interested in a MOD21'd, LM'd 7510 then I'm up for a Caiman ;)

PS: Maplin PSU included.

Hi Hamish

How far are you from Painswick then, I bought a rather nice cheap tuner from them and live just down the road in Nailsworth. Good guys and a great place to listen to music.

I also have one of Stan's Caimans but have not had a chance too listen yet!!!!!!!

I'm in Worcester, I used to buy hifi from Norman when he was the assistant in audio excelence in town. In fact I got my very first hifi from him 12ish years ago! It's been interesting watching him and ian turn the dream of thier own shop into reality! Did you know them when they were up at the castle in rodborough, it's a great shame that place didn't work out for them, it was stunning!! Not that the new place is at all shoddy to be fair!!! It's always a joy going to visit them! they had a pair of adam tensor betas last time I was there, I understand they are not to everyones taste, but I loved em!
Anyway I have high jacked this thread a bit here sorry all!

Get that caiman out and running! Maybe if your closer you could take it to uhes too! You know how Normans into his linn ds stuff? I'm so intrigued to know what he would make of the caiman, especially at it's price point!
I might take my mini laptop down actually, I'd love to hear the difference between £450 worth of laptop and caiman compared to £10kish worth of linn klimax ds going straight into some massive active Adams! Almost complete oposite ends of the computer based audio Market in terms of price, and although this is based on expectation due to experience of the 7520 - not actually having heard the caiman yet, I would guess not such oposite ends in terms of performance!!!