oki, yes, that's why I switched to Volumio for this board as it has a specific setting for the Piano2.1DAC...Originally Posted by mikeyb
Continuing some more listening...
I did an amp swap (from a class-D LJM L15D with two beefy transformers) to my trusted Dada Quad 306 and also found a way to simultaneously stream high res files from iTunes over Airplay to both DAC's in order to be able to switch from one DAC to the other without any delay ...
First off, the Quad has made the sound a little more cosy, which is hard to get used to after having tasted the precision and slam of the class-D amp combined with these DAC's.
But, even in this configuration, I hold on to my first impressions. The sound of the two DACs is very similar, both have clocks but the Kali+Piano2.1 still seems to have an edge in terms of imaging. YMMV. I must stress that I am comparing a first gen. (V1) audiophonics DAC with the clock option. I had falsely stated that it was a V2. From what I understand the big difference between V1 and V2 is the layout of the boards and a more precise clock (2x) in the newer version.
Also, maybe my system is not resolving enough to get every little drop out of the two PCM5142 chips on the Kali / Piano2.1 combo (LJM L15D, Quad Dada 306, SC LDR pre, KEF LS50, Q Acoustics 2020i, NVA and Klotz cables). Volumio seems to have the optimal settings for the Piano2.1. AFAIKS, Moode 3.0 still needs some tweaking at the time of writing to properly drive the Piano2.1. I have a feeling that much can be done on the tweaking / software side to get the most out of these devices but that possibility also opens a door to an large, almost infinite number of options which could influence the sound in some subtle way. I don't think I want to go through it. The sound is already great to my ears ;-) and I could easily settle for it. Maybe some larger speakers one day ?
On the build side, I prefer the Audiophonics DAC. It has RCA's which can be bolted to a chassis, thus relieving the board from any stress from un / plugging cables. The Piano's RCA's would probably break off after a while if used in a chassis. But it would be easy to de-solder them and route some wires to chassis mounted RCA plugs.
Back to some tunes ;-)
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