Aesthetix Pandora DAC
 

DAC hooked to NAIM Unitiserve 2TB server with Audioquest Eagle Eye BNC spdif to RCA.

Couple of hours playing ripped files from Redbook CD

initial thoughts vs. my now almost ten year old McIntosh CD player:

Greater drive, impact, detail and much wider stereo image. No loss of depth. Listening to Cowboy Junkies and Diana Krall so far. Piano sustain better but overall instrument is recessed vs. vocal...which is is awesome....lower registers of Kralls voice much better defined.

Will update when I get further into breakin which is as recommended substantial.

rest of system is AQ Eagle Eye , REF 5 SE, Ayre VX-R, Vandersteen 5 A with Model 7 HPass filters, AQ Type 6 in a shotgun bi-wire.

Other DACs I considered ARC, T plus A, Ayre, MSB, Ayon, CJ, .....etc.
Not saying this is better....just what it is.....so far, so good.

Tomictime...thanks for sharing your thoughts on the Aesthetix Pandora DAC :thumbsup: Looking forward to your listening impressions as you log more hours on the unit.

Nice!

I was pleasantly surprised when I auditioned the Aesthetix line. Warm and detailed without a lot of the bloat.

Keep us posted.

Glad to hear the Pandora is working out for you. It's a good looking unit too. Keep us updated as things progress.

Update at the 100 hour mark...
 

Sounding better all the time..but in general still highly variable, especially at low , mid low freq where frankly the REF5 SE shines !!!

Not so good source mtl shows..excellent source Mtl is a wonder. Krall live in Paris, Krauss Live, etc....Image depth is excellent..detailed but not fatiguing unless the source is that way....

Got some hi rez mtl from HD Tracks....Hotel Calif in 192 X 24 is sweeter than I remember.....The Garcia Grisman So What is spooky real...attack, sustain all good.

Next update at 200 hours or so....

The source material definitely makes a difference. Is mtl, material?

What is the rest of your system comprised of?

Yes sorry, mtl is material

System is in first post this subject..

Oops...:redface:

Hello guys.This is my first post here-sorry for my English!
Pandora with volume control going direct to Vitus SS-101 amp is making a wonderful job in my system.
Before that I had AMR CD-77 and Ayon CD5.Both fantastic units,but for me Pandora is much more enjoyable.
The rest of my system is SF Amati Anniversario,Wireworld Platinium speaker,XLR and USB cables and Macbook pro with Audirvana.The sound is so addictive!Pandora is very analog sounding without bloat or loosing dynamic impact.

Wow. Can we see some photos??!!

A big welcome to you.

Howie