Hi fellow Art of sound guys and girls
The “honeymoon” is now over, as I have spent a lot more time listening seriously to my “new baby” and a good assortment of other highly regarded cd spinners
And I have established it’s “signature sound”, my PS Audio transport & Benchmark dac2 combo
My “new” description of this combo is that it sounds a lot like giant earphones, if that makes any sense
I still love it’s overall sound, but not all is perfect, I know I’m nitpicking, but at that price you expect perfection(at least I do)
Here is what I love:
Giant soundstage, with & depth - instrumental placement - live/activ speaker sound - it’s involving - easy flowing
So what’s “off”, well it’s not much...but it lacks “nerve”, might not translate well(a Danish expression), but it’s micro detail’s like a slightly less warm woody sound of a cello ore a toned down “twak” on a cymbal (not quite enough attack)....
This might be down to my listening room, ore the fact that this transport reveals the entire soundstage sooo different than all other CD players/ transports
To my ears some of the other combos had that last attack & warmth, (buy combos I mean different “transports” & my Benchmark dac2) but they in return all lacked the enormous soundstage and overall effortless presentation, so we’re talking super small stuff, but not without some influence of the hifi nirvana
It might be that you only get all details if you buy PS Audio’s DAC’s, that coax is not as good as balanced digital out ore that the up amp in my benchmark dac2 is not good enough (I doubt that), as suggested buy a fellow gear head
Regardless! I’m still happy with my Transport and Benchmark combo
But like all other boys, I’ll continue playing with different cables, DAC’s, tweaks and other parts of this fun hobby of ours
Thanks for all your great inputs and ideas