Devilsound DAC

It's all about the equipment

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straycat
Posts: 264
Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2007 11:11 am
Location: Durham, UK

#16 Post by straycat » Sun Dec 05, 2010 6:33 am

Anyway - back to the Devilsound for a moment. I've had a play now with it hooked up to a pair of Mackie SRM350s, and set things up with a mixing desk, so I could switch quickly between computer different sound outputs.

So I was able to compare:
Internal soundcard (Macbook Pro)
Creative XMod (~£50 USB)
Focusrite Saffire LE (Firewire - I think they go for around £200 nowadays)
The Devilsound

To my ears, the Devilsound was still the clear winner. The sound was just a little richer, a little cleaner, and a little more detailed in feel. Some brass sections which could sound quite harsh on my older soundcards had lost a little of the harshness, and just sounded sweeter.

The cards pretty much reflected the price in terms of sound - the Focusrite wasn't too far behind the Devilsound, whereas the XMod was by comparison better than the internal, but not hugely so.

I'd be happier if the Devilsound had (under those conditions) completely blown away the Focusrite, but it's still an improvement - plus it hasn't had any real break-in time, and by all accounts they do improve significantly with use.

The only problem with it right now is that I can scarcely bear to tear myself away from listening to it on my desktop machine. Except I really need some better speakers for this machine to do it more justice... this could start getting expensive.

Surreal
Posts: 402
Joined: Fri Aug 25, 2006 3:31 pm
Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

#17 Post by Surreal » Sun Dec 05, 2010 12:29 pm

Next thing you know you'll be sinking money into tube amps and maggies and power conditioners and boutique cables...

straycat
Posts: 264
Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2007 11:11 am
Location: Durham, UK

#18 Post by straycat » Mon Dec 06, 2010 2:23 am

Surreal wrote:Next thing you know you'll be sinking money into tube amps and maggies and power conditioners and boutique cables...
Noooooooooooooo!!!!!!!

I shall remain strong.

Surreal
Posts: 402
Joined: Fri Aug 25, 2006 3:31 pm
Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

#19 Post by Surreal » Mon Dec 06, 2010 12:04 pm

I started to succumb to the dark side... but then the realities of grocery bills and mortgage payments brought me back to the light (though not before I did some damage to my savings :roll:) .

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