Justin & Jerry's Hifi Blog

[montesquieu]

Just to pick up on a few strands in this thread ...

Went round to Justin's this afternoon for a bit of a play. I probably shouldn't have been surprised (given what I know about Chris's musical preferences) but I was actually quite taken aback at the commonalities between his Apogees and big Tannoys dual concentrics in terms of room-energising scale, and fleshy, bold presentation. (Also love his monster 211s which I'm sure would drive any Tannoys beautifully). Quite different in weight and colour palate to any Quads I've owned, or indeed any panel speaker I've heard previously, perhaps with the exception of some 60,000 Euro Silbertones one at the Munich show. (Which interestingly were also driven by push-pull 211s ... hmmm).

However on the Xiang Sheng DAC ... this was definitely throwing out some distortion which was especially apparent on classical vocals. Whether this is a characteristic of the DAC or whether it's a fault in Justin's own one I'm not clear on but there's definitely something up with what we were hearing. The distortion went away when we put in my Schiit Modi Multibit, though from cold, it sounded very grey in comparison to the Chinese DAC ... thankfully the colour came back after about 30 mins, the Schiit does run quite hot after a period so do I wonder if there's some class A circuitry in the output stage that needs bringing up to temperature before proper listening. Anyone else having issues with the Xiang Sheng?

[struth]

Seems to depend on having the vc in circuit or not, distortion wise. I don't get any at my levels but Ive not used the pre in it except for headphones

[brian2957]

I use the XS strictly as a DAC . I also listen to my music at fairly low levels and can't say that I've heard distortion .

I've also had Gary ( gazjam ) and Tony ( wee tee cee ) over recently while the XS has been in my system and neither have mentioned hearing any distortion .

As I say I've only ever used the XS as a DAC . However , I found that the addition of Jerry's Reflektor valve and a decent mains cable improved things no end .

[jandl100]

Distortion from the XS DAC?
No, none.
I don't listen to a lot of vocals but I do some. (Kathleen Battle the other day in Brahms' German Requiem - ahhhh, gorgeous!)
I do listen to a lot of chamber music, and violins etc are just wonderfully "right".
Strange, very strange.

Still - if ya dinnae like it, dinnae use it!

[Macca]

With the volume pot over half way you can hear it. It is pretty obvious. I'd recommend bypassing the pre-amp section altogether and just using it as a DAC with a proper pre-amp since it is probably adding distortion at all volume levels. Although there was no option to do that on the one Jerry lent me without getting into the internals. Of course at lower levels it just makes the sound more 'interesting' rather than obviously flawed, but I could still hear it on more demanding programme.

The Schitt probably runs hot due to poor build quality.

[User211]

Those speakers were Silberstatic Nr 8, Tom. When I was in there I didn't hear any sign of any real low bass coming from them (can't see any specs on their website), though they were huge and filled the room. Note all I heard was rock music on them, though with Fatty Freddy on the listen. Pretty sure they were 833s, not 211s. See video wot I shot. With that material I didn't like 'em much. But with something decent who knows.



Next time you swap valves, post a picture of your boards on this thread, or at least post the revision number. We won't really be able to deduce much unless that is done.

Note again I am NOT in preamp mode. Nor was I when Tom was here.

Why to you say that about the Shitt build quality? What aspect would you think causes it?

DAC fight, DAC fight, DAC fight.

[Macca]

.

Note again I am NOT in preamp mode. Nor was I when Tom was here.

Why to you say that about the Shitt build quality? What aspect would you think causes it?

DAC fight, DAC fight, DAC fight.

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/f...ibit-dac.2319/

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/f...mplifier.2451/

The second link has a tear-down which reveals some poor engineering practice. Okay it isn't a DAC but it is indicative of what you are getting for your money. Or not getting, as the case may be.

How are you bypassing the volume control on the Xiang? There was no easy way to do that on the version Jerry lent to me.

[brian2957]

No DAC fight here I've been around this game long enough to know what I like and the XS suits me just fine . Maybe my old ears are playing tricks on me , who cares , I like what I'm hearing from both outputs .

I use this DAC with a big old Sony integrated so no preamp section or volume control needed .

I have tried several good mains cables with this DAC and they all provided me with an improvement . Is everyone here using the supplied mains cable . Mines went in the bin

[jandl100]

To satisfy Justin's curiosity, here's a pic of my XS's innards (with the newly installed WE valve)

[Bigman80]

No DAC fight here I've been around this game long enough to know what I like and the XS suits me just fine . Maybe my old ears are playing tricks on me , who cares , I like what I'm hearing from both outputs .

I use this DAC with a big old Sony integrated so no preamp section or volume control needed .

I have tried several good mains cables with this DAC and they all provided me with an improvement . Is everyone here using the supplied mains cable . Mines went in the bin

What mains cable you using Brian?