Audio Research DAC 9
 

Has anyone purchased ARC's new DAC 9 yet? I know that they recently became available. It would be great to hear any owner's or auditioner's impressions of the sound quality.

Thanks,
Ken

+1

+2 :lurk:

Get in line....

:lurk:

:yes:

I have one on order. Hopefully it will be here next week.

Tarmac

Hi Tarmac,

We look forward to hearing your impressions.

Ken

The dac9 is a splendid dac. I used to use the dac in my Esoteric. The audio research brings the "tube" sound into the equation. The overall presentation is more liquid and smoother then the Esoteric, but the Esoteric has a better grip on the bottom end. I'm ok sacrificing that for the overall smoothness the dac9 offers. The Esoteric seems to have more of a digital edge, compared to the dac9. The dac9 has a variety of digital inputs that the Esoteric doesn't implement. Overall, the flexibility and smoothness of the dac9 is what I prefer, in my system. YMMVAttachment 48515

Thanks for your response. Congrats on your DAC 9 and glad to hear you are enjoying it!

What type of digital connection are you using to the DAC 9? Have you tried playing any DSD files from your N10 or N100H through its USB connection?

Thanks,
Ken

Audio Research DAC 9
 

I'm using a Transparent BNC from the Aurender N10 to the Dac9. I use a Transparent AES XLR from my Esoteric to the Dac9 for red book CD's. I use a Transparent AES XLR from the N10 to my Oppo HA-1 headphone amp. Aurender told me when you use USB along with other digital outs, there can be a clocking issue, so I'm using the clock inside the N10 with awesome results. When I first hooked up the USB from the N10 to Dac9, it wouldn't play. The Dac9 has an issue seeing the USB from both my Aurender. Not an issue for me, as the other digital outs work brilliantly. Plus I have no DSD files, so not an issue. Anyway, if I did, the N10 converts DSD to PCM.

Audio Research is aware of the Aurender/Dac9 compatibility issue and are working on a fix. Even when they do come up with a fix, I doubt I'll use USB!

Sounds like you've put a lot of thought into your digital connections and clocking, and have gotten everything optimized. Too bad no native DSD functionality (USB only) but it doesn't appear to be an issue for you. Hopefully, ARC will do a firmware update to enable their DACs' USB connection to work with Aurender music servers.

Enjoy,
Ken