Arcam rDAC

[technobear]

Tonight it's time to venture into the realms of insanity.. I have a Kimber USB cable to try out

So how did it go?

Are you still loving the rDAC?

[lovejoy]

It's been a most interesting journey the past few weeks. I had prepared my findings twice into a new post and then things ended up changing again. I think everything has pretty much settled down now though. I guess it didn't help too much that I upgraded my amplifiers a couple of weeks ago in terms of gauging just how good this DAC was sounding, but yes, I'm still loving the rDAC.

The burn-in process was rather fraught to say the least. The first few nights of listening after purchase were utter bliss. Rarely have I enjoyed digital audio this much and it was thoroughly addictive. Then about a week in, something changed. All of a sudden there was a raggedness - an uneasy edge in the top end. It had lost it's amazing insight and massive amounts of microdetail. It still sounded *GOOD* but it was no longer breathtaking.

It took around another 2 weeks for this raggedness to die away and for the detail and the sweet treble to return. I still don't think it's as stunning as it sounded when I first bought it. Those tiny little bits of detail you never heard before on songs you've been familiar with for years that make you smile seem to have faded into the background somewhat, but apart from this, all of the other qualities I mentioned in my first post are there. It's a minor niggle and one I should really contact Arcam to ask about. I'm still enjoying digital audio hugely.

As to the USB cables. I'd love to say that it was all bunk and there's no difference, which is something I strongly believed before trying the Kimber USB cable out, but irritatingly there is a difference and the Kimber (over a certified but unbadged USB2.0 cable I was using) gave a sense of ease to the music where there was a slight edge with the standard cable. Very much a less 'digital' sound. The drawback however is that the Kimber cable gives a bit of bloom to the lower registers, so couple this with the fact that the Arcam is on the warm side of neutral too and an element of boom crept in, which became irritating after a short while. No matter though, as a trip to my local Tesco revealed some 'Technica high quality USB2.0 cables'. I thought these looked very suspiciously like the Belkin Pro cables I'd heard some good things about and thought that at £4.99 they had to be worth a punt.. Bingo! Ok, they're not quite as effortless sounding as the Kimber, but the bloom has gone making them overall much more enjoyable. I think there may be some more experimentation to be done with USB cables, or alternatively I may just go for the wireless option for the rDAC which should circumvent the problem altogether.

All in all, I'm very pleased with it. The only thing I'm lacking currently is the time to sit down and listen to it more.

[Welder]

Hi lovejoy.

Of course, its complete nonsense to believe USB cables can make the slightest bit of difference
I didn’t get on with the Kimber either. The wireworld ultraviolet is worth a try.
My favorite so far, 1.6 metre Belkin Gold

(Just don’t ask. I am a convicted objectivist after all)

[Clive]

I hope USB cables don't make a difference but now I'm concerned. My situation is a little more extreme as I'm using 2 USB cables so one is an active repeater cable. When I used my 7520 as standard I could not detect any difference between a 1m USB and the 2 cables with repeater. Now that I have done the passive mod on the 7520 the difference between the cables is [I]really[I] obvious.

[technobear]

Sounds good. I am so tempted to grab one of these until the Audiolab arrives - especially as we now know that the 8200DQ won't be readily available until some time in January and the MDAC will be April.

Who'd have thunk that USB cables could still make a difference even when it's asynchronous USB. Can't be 1's and 0's. Can't be jitter. Must be noise somehow.

[StanleyB]

Not forgetting the Caiman upgrade around summer 2011 as well...
Anyone with an rDAC close to me? Won't mind sounding it out to see how it stacks up.

[Ali Tait]

Can you give us any details Stan?

[roob]

Will it have aysnc usb Stanley?