Truth is I always worship the shortest signal path ideology. Longer path stands for higher loss of signal. DAC with volume control came to mind. I received a DAC loan, connecting it direct to the power amp. Holy, holy, holy transparency! What's a revelation! DAC has come a long way, the level of performance has exceeded my wildest imagination. The gap between analogue playback and digital playback is narrowed. Does it sound analog? Hell no! But I bet with you that it is hard to find a DAC sounding digitis these days and the day requiem for pre amp is near, in my humble opinion.
The DAC smoked my resident dac + pre. I realized that the sonic turbidity comes from the combo and room acoustics also come into the play. There's still unfinished business. Big portion of bass muddiness was wiped off on my initial catchment, even the booming at side seat was not overwhelming. I was caught surprise. It was boom like hell prior to this.
I was playing 10/10, first track from Paolo Nutini's Sunny Side Up. A layer of sonic haze not made known to me had been removed. Noise floor was notably lower and background was jet black. Micro detail retrieval was awesome. With the new DAC, my system, my system as if had received a jab of revitalization, snappier, rhythmic, more PRaT, spatial separation and more of everything. The air around the instrumental was breathtaking. My jaw was floored, absolutely. Given the newness of the loan unit, I have some reservations. The bass did not blossom and so, it somewhat less true to the bass reproduction though I applaud the tautness, jump factor and edge delineation.
Once tasted the goodness in your very system, it stirs up a hornet's nest. It is the most effective selling technique in audio. My audio head was tangled ever after the return of the dac due to stability.
Back to where I was, muddiness and me. In order to get down to the root of the problem, I took great pain to scrutiny each component in my system. More dirt under the carpet than I ever realized. Cable was not the issue but my LDR pre and DAC were the real culprit. Holy shit, the LDR pre amp sound quality deteriorated over time without me realizing. Just like tyres, the gradual air pressure loss is unfelt. Many things went wrong from midbass down.
Let's get to work, I swapped my resident LDR pre with Autoformer Volume Control and PS Audio GCP 200 pre to arrive to this. PS Audio GPC 200 pre amp is nevertheless a good pre largely beacuse it does not mess around with the tonal balance. Transparency is commendable, some muddiness from the midbass down were removed but still give enough trouble to the bass. Flaw was identified and more need to unfold. Everything was rounded off. Trouble duo have to go. I hate that! That mean I need to burn more cash and cash is something I don't have much!
My search for new dac is on.
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