Chord DAC 64

A couple of things stopped me from buying the Chord. First of all, it only has RCA, Toslink, and BNC inputs. Toslink sucks, and very few transports have BNC. That leaves you with one usable input. The second reason was a consumer review of an X-Ray CD player on www.audioreview.com. The writer says his X-Ray sounded better than the Chord. Who knows, since we all have our own listening biases, and everything is system dependent. But that was enough for me to buy the Camelot Uther V2 Mk IV. I go directly in using the onboard volume. It's terrific, and sounds MUCH better than my X-Ray CD player.

Glreno

just a small correction , the Chord 64 also has 1 x AES Balanced XLR INPUT, and I am not sure it has RCA, only XLR 110ohm, BNC and Toslink.

Matt

I think 914s are cool. Especially the one with 914-6 conversions.

Just an update on the DAC64/CEC combo. I found that my Chord unit I had was defective.

I hadn't mentioned this before, but when I first bought the DAC64, I tried to use it with a Rotel RCD950 that I had kept after buying a Wadia coupla years ago. All I got was noise, like a deranged 8-track player, at least on the two buffered positions. On the non-buffered, it sounded better (the music was at least recognizable), but the music was accompanied by "static", like a poorly-tuned FM station. The Chord dealer advised me to try the DAC64 with another transport, which I did. It worked perfectly. So I assumed that the digital output of the Rotel was defective (the analog output was OK). That's when I bought the Sony DVD/CD player.

Then later I had the problem with the CEC. That unit is such a pleasure to use, and simply to look at, that I continued to try to determine if incompatibility was really the problem. I really wanted to be able to use a belt-drive transport. After talking to anyone who would listen, I started wondering if, as was suggested by several people, perhaps the DAC64 could be defective.

To find out, I did what I should have done in the first place: I took the Rotel to the same shop and tried it with one of their converters, whereupon it worked perfectly.
After telling the Chord dealer this, he graciously sent me his personal DAC64 to try, and it also worked perfectly with the Rotel. So---he told me to keep his unit and send the defective one back to him. I then bought another CEC TL-1X and it also works, and wonderfully well, with the DAC64. To me, the combination is magical, although this is my first experience with separate units. This is to say that there may be better stuff out there, but I'd have to be convinced.(I had the Wadia 830 before, and I feel the new combo is much better. Got rid of a lot of grain, and imaging/soundstage are far superior.) I think I can actually be happy enough with CDs now that I may be able to forget about analog for the most part. Never thought I'd be able to say that. One thing's for sure: it will be a long time before I concern myself with SACD/DVD-A!

The bottom line: Compatibility between transports and dacs may not be as big a problem as I indicated in my earlier post. Something to consider, however.

BTW---to "viggen": My 914 is a '73 that has been converted to a six, with a 911SC 3.0L. engine. Marathon blue, steel-flared fenders, Fuchs wheels, leather interior, bell/whistles.

Sorry, non-car-nuts, but I can't resist the chance to talk cars!

Hey 914,

911sc is a 160hp engine? Sorry, those cars are older than I am, so I am not too familiar with the specs. But I really appreciate the 914 for what it is. Especially the ones with the 914-6 body kit. SWEET!

Only vintage car I had was an '83 Audio Quattro Coupe. Would be nice to see you next to me at a stop light = D.