Proud Owner of this Objective DAC
This DAC arrived in the evening and was waiting for me. Packing was professionally done to securely deliver the product. I thought of something little more than twice of credit card size. It is merely around same size.
[Below pictures are in low light without flash]
Build: Wooden cabinet is made of some wood (not recalling) other than Teak. Its superb finishing made it matching to our teakwood furniture. Letter engraving on top and front is marvelous. Overall nice wood working. All gold plated MX RCA connectors on back. Screws are nicely hidden.This comes with quality mini USB cable with gold plated terminals. default black feet look nice, no need to change for anything else. It just separates this from bottom screws scratching below surface. See below pictures. :clapping:
But would like red LED to be little smaller - something like 1.5-2mm opening hole on front.
Cost: Rs 11k INR + Tax, shipping
Setup: HW: Lenevo X201 Laptop with 4GB RAM, SW: foobar 2000 with WASAPI plugin version 3.2.3, media: FLAC file stored on 1TB WD Passport Slim external HDD. Double buffer Pass B1 Preamp with LSA Volume Control and Pass Amp Camp Amp. LS XLS Encore Bookshelf speakers.
Impression: As I already stated this, I could not stop listening.
This is overall flat response for audio band and tends toward neutral sound - no addition and not deletion into its specs as stated on JDS Lab's site. That's called faithful reproduction. Overall silence in background is instantly felt.
Details:
Vocals: This is good for classical, POP and Bollywood. Bollywood songs had some extra sibilance but I attribute it to my original CD quality. Male and female vocals are near to natural. Chitra, Lata Mangeshkar, Mary Black and Diana Krall - all different sound signatures (from throat) are clean. Male vocals all clean but somehow sound toward clinical. I like the exact reproduction of sound.
Guitar and piano notes dissipate in air to the point.
HF: Cymbals, high hats are precise, little rounded, clean. Never felt fatigue during ~6hrs listening, it says all.
Bass: This was area I was skeptical due to its limited specs but it excelled overall. Bass strings, sustained bass, drum skin fluttering with hand or stick felt difference. details are noted. :clapping:
I compared it with my "Schiit Bifrost with Uber Analog and Gen-2 USB" DAC. Difference is very little but for that I paid 3.5X times more than price of this DAC.
Media contents played:
- A R Raheman: Dil Se, Hum Se hai Muqabala, Roja
- Pop, Jazz from Mumbai Audiophile meet 2013 CD from FM
- Country: John Denver
- Marathi Songs: Sandhiprakash - MP3 320 kbps
- Gazals: Jagjit Singh
- Western Dance Mix - with some electronics music.
And many more.
PS: I tried using ASIO4ALL too, but somehow WASAPI was simple cleaner and little more volume.
Summary: Overall good VFM and nice sounding DAC. Keeping in my kitty. Thanks Bibin and Bijin introducing it here. :yahoo:
