Stan's New Dac - any reviews yet?

[Photochromatic]

Hey stan, before the crash I think I read somewhere that someone said that he noticed an improvement in his mp3s when played back on the 7520.

I had a thought of "how can he tell that the 7520 is specifically making mp3s sound good because it could be making mp3s sound good because it makes anything sound good"?

I just thought that would be hard to distinguish which one it is?

That was one of my posts - I will attempt to recreate and update my review over the weekend.
The 7520 *does* make everything sound better.
However, the treatment it gives to low bitrate files seems different (to my ear) than the general goodness it imparts to high bitrate files. Most of my source material is ALAC (lossless), some is AAC (256-bit), and there is the usual smattering of odd and old .mp3 files which I haven't replaced yet. The .mp3 files are between 64 and 128 bit for the most part. The 7520 seems to obscure the compression artefacts on all but the very worst of these. They sound smoother, and when you come across one the difference between it and a high quality file is less jarring. It is not magic - you can still tell the lower quality files for the most part, but they are more enjoyable to listen to, and don't stick out like sore thumbs any more.
I'm generally listening on ATH-M50 cans. These are very revealing and unforgiving of poor rips and over-compression to the point where I would usually skip over a LQ .mp3 file because it was grating to listen to. I don't seem to do that any more.

[shuggz]

Well the 7520 turned up yesterday and is indeed quite a revelation in terms of dynamics vs costs.
I've put it up against a couple of higher end dacs and cdp's and the 7520 imparts more detail and depth.
Others who have heard it say more or less the same and all of this whilst using a bog standard coax cable.
Nice one Stan and I can see why a few manufacturers/dealers aren't going to be terribly enthralled by this device, begs the question as to why they can't produce more cost efficient kit of similar audible quality.

[Covenant]

Received mine today, the usual fast service from Stan. I wont comment on sound quality until it's burnt in a bit but I was suprised how more upmarket the 7520 appears. The combination of the large volume control, blue led's and
better graphics certainly add something.

[Photochromatic]

So here is another review - somebody please check the nightly backups are working, I'm not going to do this again!

I received my TC-7520 the week before last, two days after it shipped, and about a week before I was expecting it. Good start!

First Impressions
The unit looks good in spite of lacking some of the flashy accoutrements of some of its competition. It feels solid, the finish is clean, the detail on the front has a minimalist, quality feel, and I like blue LEDs! Around back, the connectors are clearly labelled and the screws underneath all sit nicely. You get the feeling that you could happily drop this down the stairs and it would still work. I won't
The volume knob moves smoothly, with perhaps a little less resistance than I would like, but it does have a quality feel to the motion.
I don't like the wall-wart PSU but I won't complain at this price! At least it is small.

Setup
I listen mainly with headphones, so the headphone amp stage is of as much interest to me as the DAC itself.
The TC-7520 is connected via TOSLINK to a Mac Pro, set to 44k1, 24-bit output. I play mainly ALAC (lossless) files from iTunes, although there are some mp3 and AAC in there too, as well as a few higher resolution 96k-24bit WAV files. All of the ALAC is ripped by yours truly using MAX to get bit-perfect transfers. I'm mainly listening on Audio-Technica ATH-M50 headphones, which are very revealing and detailed (sometimes to a fault). I have others I sometimes use to see if what I am hearing is cans-related, but I know the M-50s really well.

Burn-In
My TC-7520 has about 200 hours of use on the clock now, and I think it has settled down quite a lot.
The DAC burned in over about 50 hours. Initially there was a sibilant character to the high's and an almost hyper-detailed character to the sound in general, but it has settled down and opened out to become much more musical than my initial impression of it.
The head amp is *mostly* burned in now. It managed to be both tight up high and sloppy down low to start with. The tightness at the high end was quite quick to disappear (30-40 hours) and the bass has firmed up a lot, and is still improving. It is still challenged a little by some of my most difficult tracks that are very bassy and busy, especially if there is a lot of gain in the recording. However the improvement so far has been substantial *and* is continuing *and* I am nit-picking over some dozen particularly challenging tracks. Give it another 100 hours, and I am sure it will be fine.

Warmup
I find that the amp in particular needs about 30 minutes from cold to sound at its best. I rarely turn stuff off anyway.

Impressions
The first thing I notice when listening via the 7520 is actually the spaciousness of the sound stage, even when listening with closed headphones. I can place individual violins of the LSO when listening to Elgar. I could almost reach out and smack the guy with the cough in the bar where Miles Davis is playing. The imaging is very precise, and live music in particular just, well, comes to life.
The detail and clarity are also excellent. Fret movements, picks, snares, spit(!) - its all there. I like to hear detail in my music, even to a fault. I am loving the detail that the 7520 reveals, especially in live and/or largely acoustic music. Some of my stuff is originally ripped from vinyl and even in that I am hearing detail that I had forgotten (or never knew) was there.
Vocals are lovely - especially female vocals (although that may just be my preference anyway). I'm finding it hard to multi-task when listening via the TC-7520 because I keep having to stop and listen!
When playing "loud" music, I am impressed by the ability of the 7520 to clearly show detail in the midst of distortion (note comments about the amp and busy bass though).
Overall, the character of the DAC + Head Amp is slightly warm (but without adding colour), not at all clinical, and remarkably versatile. I can go from Punk to Jazz to Metal to Classical without noticing any real shortcomings.
I should also mention the noise floor of the amp - there isn't one! Turned up all the way, I can't hear any hiss at all through 38-ohm headphones. None at all. Nice.

USB
I have A/B'd the USB and the TOSLINK connectors and can't discern any difference at all. That's a good USB stage!

Low Bit-rate Files
As I have posted earlier, the TC-7520 seems to do something to enhance the sound (or at least mask the errors) in low bit-rate files. It is almost like some kind of up-sampling is at work (although I doubt it, given Stan's opinion of up-sampling). 64 and 128-bit .mp3 files don't sound like lossless by any means, but they don't offend as much as normal. Almost as though something has smoothed out the spiky bits of the waveform where the errors are, and left the rest alone. It is not that they sound better, as much as that they don't sound as bad! Given the detail that the 7520 otherwise imparts, I would expect it to emphasise the difference between the LQ and HQ files, and it does, just not offensively.

My Verdict
I paid USD200 for this device. I am very happy.
I think the DAC is excellent value for money. I'm not an expert on high-end DACs, but I have heard a few, and to my mind the TC-7520 is proof of the law of diminishing returns. I think you'd need to spend a pile of money on the rest of your rig before you needed something better then this.
If you are going to use headphones a lot, then the news is even better. This isn't the very best head amp I have heard, but it is at least 80% of amps which cost five times the money of the 7520, and then you'd still need a DAC.

[Spectral Morn]

Photochromatic


Nice write up.....I don't know about the other readers but I love to see photos of the review system and location. For me it just helps paint a fuller picture.




Regards D S D L---Neil

[JakeBlade]

Setup
I listen mainly with headphones, so the headphone amp stage is of as much interest to me as the DAC itself.
The TC-7520 is connected via TOSLINK to a Mac Pro, set to 44k1, 24-bit output. I play mainly ALAC (lossless) files from iTunes, although there are some mp3 and AAC in there too, as well as a few higher resolution 96k-24bit WAV files. All of the ALAC is ripped by yours truly using MAX to get bit-perfect transfers. I'm mainly listening on Audio-Technica ATH-M50 headphones, which are very revealing and detailed (sometimes to a fault). I have others I sometimes use to see if what I am hearing is cans-related, but I know the M-50s really well.

Hi Richard,

Have you listened without cans? Would be interested in how the 7520 performs through your regular amp and speakers, what they are, and how you have the rest of your system set-up.

200 hours... ??? That's serious investment!! Has anyone else out there been enjoying their new toy for that long yet?

Btw, looks like Stan has just set-up another thread looking for feedback on the new DAC - probably worth posting a link to your excellent review on there too.

James

[tizer2000uk]

I have finally tried the 7520 on my system in the lounge (Got these for the headphones) and have to say it sounds great, not a great leap up from the 7510+ which I have to say made a night and day difference to my 7 year old kit, my system is not high end by any means (Pioneer DV717 player, Cambridge A1 Mk3 amp and Tannoy Mercury F1 speakers) and any huge leaps in sound quality are likely to be masked by my other components. That said the sound through the headphone section is fantastic, very revealing and musical, not quite as good as the sound through a Slee Solo amp but so so close, in fact the difference is minimal at best and actually makes this bit of kit the bargain of the century for me. 2 weeks ago I sat here pricing up a new set of headphones (SR325i) and headphone amp (Slee Solo) after hearing them at a dealer and got a serious case of upgraditis, now the 325i remains on the list and the 7520 has saved me £295!

[Sheldon N]

Has anyone compared the 7520 with the Cambridge Audio DacMagic?

I currently have a DacMagic for my computer listening system (Audio Engine A2's or Grado SR125's) but the DacMagic is going to head for the downstairs main system to be paired with a Mac Mini as a source and I need a new DAC for the computer system.

I am curious what sort of "character differences" I'm going to hear between the DAC portion of the 7520 and the DacMagic. I know that the headphone amp of the 7520 is going to be much better than what I have right now, but I'm not sure what differences to expect with the DAC/speakers.

[tizer2000uk]

Sheldon, I listened to the Dacmagic just before I got myself the 7510 and the sound was a little better with the Dacmagic, the 7520 though has closed the gap. The Dacmagic is no longer a bargain at £200 when you hear what the 7520 through the Grados is capable of (I have the SR80's).

The one thing I did not like the idea of too much was the fact the Dacmagic upsamples to 192khz 24Bit, this essentially adds extra information to the mix that was not there to start with, granted it gives the mix a sense of more space but sometimes it can do things that spoil the mix, one example for me was Otis Redding's 'Sittin on the Dock', at the beginning there is the sound of waves rolling in, the 7520 plays it as it should, the Dacmagic made the waves sound a bit weird. (Bizarre I know).

Personally I like to hear the music warts and all, as it was intended.

The one feature from the Dacmagic I would like to see is the inclusion of a stand so I can have it standing vertically alongside my monitor.

Tyrone

[Photochromatic]

Hi Richard,

Btw, looks like Stan has just set-up another thread looking for feedback on the new DAC - probably worth posting a link to your excellent review on there too.

James

Sure - if someone can tell me how!