Beautiful sound....
Let me share my experiences
A big dilemma and a confusion 'why this is happening', I had in my experiences frequently and was always at the back of my mind. It is finally settled I can say.
a) Many years back I first had a normal two speaker system. I liked it ofcourse. Over the time I used to feel some songs sounded fantastic and some ok-ok. Could not understand why.
b) After few years I got a Bose system. I was fascinated ofcourse. Everything was better. All kind of music I liked on it. After going to a theater and coming back, I used to listen to the same song on it, but I used to feel something missing. Was it the punch missing which i could feel in the movie theater? This happened many times I went to theatre and I came to back home and listened to on Bose.
c) I used to listen to same songs in my car music system. Many songs i liked on Bose and somehow I used to rationalize that my Bose is better than it. One day I felt that one of my songs (the bunch I use to audition), sounded better in my car. That day i stopped rationalizing that my Bose is better for all songs.
d) Then one day I listened to one my songs in my friends car music system. I instantly liked it and that day I realized that my Bose is missing something.
e) I started searching and came to know about amps, floor standing speakers etc. After few months of auditioning I finally purchased the Yamaha amp, Tannoy speakers, schiit dac etc. During these 3 years of upgrading it it was a fantastic experience. Everything sound better than all previous experiences.
f) However I felt that I reduced my listening of the songs which I used to audition. These three years also whenever I went to a movie, came back to home, and listened to those same songs, I used to feel something is missing. Though the sound was hifi, some songs did not sound as they should.
g) Out of a list of hundred songs, I used to avoid 50% and used to listen to the remaining 50%. In short I started listening what was sounding good in my system.
h) Recently I also heard some songs on a sound bar, at my friends house. (The same friend whose car system I hear). Though it was not hifi, I felt it sounded good on few songs. I used to feel that my system is hi-fi and his system is just a sound bar, then why some songs are sounding more pleasant in his system.
i) Whenever I did some upgrades in my system, especially changing the DACs from fiio d03k, then schiit modi and then schiit modi multibit; I observed that my list of songs to which I eventually listen multiple times, that list used to get changed.
j) Then some songs sounded better by connecting my ipads headphone directly to amp instead of the DAC in between. It used to sound more natural than the sound of DAC but due to less details / bloated bass etc, I had to finally switch to my DAC only.
k) I also observed that during Ganpati, a local music system was hired and some people used to connect via laptop headphone out to that system, or would connect android phone out to that music system and it used to sound good. Though the sound was never hifi, but it had some charaterstics and elements which I always felt were missing in my hifi system.
l) After normal schiit Modi, the multibit had arrived. Experience went to another level. After many months I again experienced the same dilemmas which I have been going through. In some songs punch was missing, in some songs the singers was a bit sub-dued; in some songs the instruments were prominent. Please note that I could never concluded why this was happening and even to realize that some kind of this thing is happening / feeling, it takes many months because somewhere in our mind we always believe that our purchased is a hi-fi one and it should be better / best.
After getting this NOS dac, though you might call it a beginners NOS DAC, my above dilemmas have resolved, that is what I feel.I can now feel that the music is just right, AS IT SHOULD BE.
Today after watching a movie, and when I came back and listened to the same songs (via youtube), it sounded the same. This has never happened before.
The songs which I used to avoid listening, are now back in my list. Everything is sounding so natural and open that I simply don't feel the need to avoid any song.
Now I can conclude that upsampling and filters in many dacs might make the sound hi-fi, more detailed, more punchy etc...but we loose the naturalness. However to realized this is not easy.
After hearing to this DAC, and the music memory of what I have heard in the past in my car music system, in my friends car music system, in my friends sound bar, headphone out of apple ipad, headphone out of iPOD, my bose system, my initial small music system etc, I can say this has just the right sound.
This DAC came to me just 3 days back. To be honest, i did't even feel the urge to AB compare it to my schiit modi multibit. I am simply enjoying it. From my perspective, this is the biggest compliment to this NOS DAC i have. I don't even feel any urge to analyze the mids-highs-lows and neither the soundstage nor the imaging. Everything is sounding so natural and open that there is nothing to analyze or even be doubtful. This has never happened before.
Price wise (3900 rs) anybody would feel this is a beginners DAC, but for me it is the best till now.
Now music sounds, as it should!
Amit.