Best wire to replace stock wiring in preamp?

The transient speed from Burr-Brown dac's is so
fast, that it throws the music so far out from
the speaker, that its like being slapped in the
face, and this can be a real problem in small
living quarters. I still have my old 38 lb Denon
player, which has four Burr-Brown dacs, but it
is no match against my Marantz PMD 325 player
which uses a Cirrus Logic 4396 dac. I always
test players with my older recordings, Mozart
pieces on the Deutsch Grammophon label of the
Berlin Philharmonic Symphony from the late 60's
thru the early seventies. Mozart loved to compose
in a high pitch. An audiophile friend brought
over last winter a Denon pro model which has Burr-
Brown dacs, and put it up against the Marantz.
Thru the Denon the upper frequencies were bright,
shrill and on the cold side. Thru the Marantz,
the highs were much sweeter and smoother. Crystal
Semiconducter and Wolfson take a different approach,
they slow down the transient time focusing on
more body and weight to each instrument, producing
a fuller, smoother, more analog sound. This is wht I
used the term screaming witch, and that daltonlanny
should consider using a player with slower transient
time, which will solve the problem of a bright preamp.

I don't buy any of that. If they sound horrible, then it is because of a poor design. ANY DAC will sound horrible is used the wrong way.

There is not one designer that I know of that would prefer to use a delta-sigma DAC (of any model) over a R-2R ladder DAC.

I don't see how you can say just because you have one player that screeches, that ALL players with them will. I know for a fact that is not true. Besides, you have no more idea what his source is than I do. Silver-plated copper wire does have a reputation for sounding bright. One that I am sure many more designers will concur with than will your feelings on B-B DACs.

The bottom line is in the listening.
The Marantz, Arcam, and Integra pieces,
based on reviews over the past five years,
have drawn concluded opinions that they
produce the warmest, smoothest, most analog
sounding players available. Its not just the
Burr-Browns, its any converter device thats
out of control with transient speed will
produce the same result. The Cirrus Logic
dacs are more rolled off at the top end
and more relaxed in their presentation which
results in a much tamer, more relaxed
soundstage, which will be much more forgiving
to silver plated copper.

One more note Ar_t, I just checked
daltonlanny's digital source. He's
using the Sony SCD-XA777ES player.
Surprise! Surprise! The XA777ES uses
Burr-Brown PCM-1738 DAC's. Too fast.
Too cool. Have a nice day!!

How can you determine by reading some review that the output transients are too high? Delta-sigma and R-2R ladder DACs are nowhere near alike in their topology or implementation. One outputs a differential voltage, which needs to be summed and low-pass filtered. The other outputs a current, which must undergo a current-voltage conversion before being LPF'ed.

Any competent designer can take any of those DACs, regardless of topology, and make them sound as bright or as soft as you may wish. Simple as that. Just because some do not is no reason to trash talk any product made that uses them.

Because now you are making accusations about stuff that I build. Accusations that are without merit or foundation.

BTW.......you may well be right that his digital source does sound bright. But I can think of many reasons why. None of which are because of the DAC chip that it has.