Waiting for my SEG 50

[Theadmans]

OK I have listened to about 10 albums now with the SEG50 chip...

Around 10 years ago I had a Little Dot III valve headphone amp. This was nice and had a nice liquid sound and superb sound-stage with my HD650s...

...but there were strange buzzes which spoiled the experience.

I ditched the Little Dot and started using Stan DACs...

...various upgrades, Anker battery upgrades were applied to the Bushmaster etc. This sounded a lot cleaner than the Little Dot but lacked the magic.

The modified Caiman SEG with SEG30 and Dorado with Chinese 16v linear PSU delivered big time - this had the liquid sound and sound-stage and was clean also. I was really enjoying my HD650s again (for the first time really since the Little Dot Valve days).

SEG50 seems to make everything a tad tighter - I am really enjoying this so far (and for just £9.99!)

[Hypnotist]

Good description of the Seg50 upgrade - tighter I found a bit more bass on my choice of music

[mbic]

I had fitted the SEG 50 firmware a while a go into the SEG DAC whitest using the Dorado II, for the cost of the Dorado III it’s certainly worth spending the money on the III.
I can confirm the comments made by other members re sonic improvements, ECM recorded piano sounds superb.
I haven’t listened to any vocals yet so watch this space!

[mbic]

I wondered if anyone upgrading their Caiman SEG DAC with the SEG50 firmware and Dorado III changed the Signal Processing Mode they were using, of is there still very little difference between the modes still?

[Hypnotist]

I've had a play with the sound signatures, difficult to say really its very close as you said, I went back to default and thats where its stayed and sounds good to me.

[mbic]

Which is the one you use as default please?

[Hypnotist]

Sorry been so long answering, no led blinks or power down and power up to come back to the defaut signature, all in the manual that came with the DAC, under Best Sound Signature Mode

[palace]

3 flashes for DVD and TV no flashes for CDP though very close paid Stan for clock and super-cap upgrades came back with SEG fitted nice guy.

[palace]

3 flashes for DVD and TV no flashes for CDP though very close paid Stan for clock and super-cap upgrades came back with SEG fitted nice guy.

Just read again what I wrote, to clarify, the caiman SEG came back from Stan's with SEG 50 fitted as part of the modifications. I was using the default settings in the standard setup, I could discern very little if any difference, after the clock, super-caps & my phono socket upgrade i.e. individual sockets connected with 7n OHNO wire + the addition of an MCRU Long Dog designed linear 15v 2 piece PSU. Now in my room and my system I use 3 flashes for DVD and TV no flashes for CDP. This offered a big improvement over the standard unmodified SEG settings.

[palace]

I spoke to Stan on the phone this morning apparently because of the worldwide chip shortage if any one wants a SEG 50 you will have to send him your chip for re-programming.

As I have said in my opinion the SEG50 is a very worthwhile/essential addition to the Caiman SEG.