Any Digital Impressions of the Caiman yet?

[steveinspain]

Happy especially as they both arrived before the credit card bill..!
Already, even 5 tracks in I am impressed !

[Stratmangler]

Happy especially as they both arrived before the credit card bill..!
Already, even 5 tracks in I am impressed !

In a few weeks you'll be gobsmacked ! By the music, I mean.

Chris

[Alex_UK]

In a few weeks you'll be gobsmacked ! By the music, I mean.

I was dubious at the first mention of 200 hours burn in time but I shouldn't have doubted Stan - it gets so much better the more you use it, and I would advocate leaving it running with music on loop, or TV or whatever to try and speed up the process - if it can be running 24/7 then it should sound much better a week tomorrow...

What are you running it connected to (i.e. sources, and cables) in the end?

Oh, and most importantly, enjoy!

[steveinspain]

I have left it connected to the laptop all day, and shall for the next few days, with it playing music on repeat.
I plan to connect it to the main pc soon via one of Stans digital cables but also have one of Mike Homers cables coming at some stage. I will also connect it up to my iRiver H140 at some stage, as it has a digital out. For now, I will just get used to listening via headphones - I currently have an abcess above a tooth, so am suffering slightly, and my hearing is affected, so no judgments will be made. The advantege of having used headphones is that they need no burn-in, so I can play it with volume turned down pretty much all night. So far all I have been listening to is new music from a cover-mounted magazine cd, so it is all new.
My biggest impressions so far is how small the Caiman is and how comfy and warm the phones are - no cold ears this winter !

[Alex_UK]

Each input needs running in separately, by the way, so only 790 hours to go!

[Covenant]

Just a suggestion to Stan for the next model. What about fitting a lightspeed attenuator rather than a volume pot? Cheap and easy to produce yet capable of outstanding performance. Seems to fit in with your design ethos Stan.

[StanleyB]

Just a suggestion to Stan for the next model. What about fitting a lightspeed attenuator rather than a volume pot? Cheap and easy to produce yet capable of outstanding performance.

I am looking at attenuating the audio signal in the digital domain.

[Themis]

I am looking at attenuating the audio signal in the digital domain.

It will be hard to keep a good S/N ratio with digital attenuation, no ?

[Jason P]

Well, I've had mine for a few weeks now, though I've been working away so not using it as much as I'd've liked. Impressions after a thorough burn in (left on repeat for a good while) are good, though it's not the smack around the chops I expected, its more subtle and profound than that. I'm aware of more space and detail surrounding every element, but this has the sometimes curious effect of making you re-appraise tracks you thought you knew well, almost as if theyve been re-mixed. It has a very analogue quality too, making the CD much more organic sounding in the way good vinyl is. Instrumental timbre is much more faithful too, there's some tracks that really stand out in terms of suddenly realising 'Hah, that's a digital piano' as opposed to a real one, or hearing the difference in guitar being played. Lots of subtle detail in voices too, much more of a sense of being 'in the room'

So overall first impressions are good, I think the Caiman has made a very positive addition to my system...



Jason

[StanleyB]

It will be hard to keep a good S/N ratio with digital attenuation, no ?

Dunno till I have tried and listened.