Sounds awesome, buts what a killer dac? Sorry is this the name?
Its the name of the DAC.
It came about from a guy here in Australia who posts under the name Stevenvalve, and, as his moniker would suggest, is a real valve aficionado.
Anyway, for his system, which many think could be the best system in Australia, he actually, with a few technical guys, decided to develop his own DAC, being basically dissatisfied with commercial stuff. He tweaked it over many years, even to the point of exactly what wire to use where. The story I heard was he found some pre-world-war 1 copper wire that he thought sounded fantastic and used that in certain parts.
This guy is a real obsessive compulsive nut - in the nicest way of course - blowed if I would go to that trouble.
Well one thing led to another, and guys that heard it liked it, so started duplicating it. He would supply a kit of parts and they would build it, or get it built, or he would even built it for them.
It sort of grew from there, and people into it actually set up their own audio forum discussing it:
http://killerdac.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=62l5309rgrfeumfq0ft7od7bu6&I first came across the DAC at a shootout that was organised over three years ago now that it won - I will post the details of that at the end of the post - its quite long.
I finally decided to get one myself about 2 years ago now and contacted Steve. He said building was getting a bit much for him so he had asked someone else to take it over from him.
It turned out to be Rawl99 who actually is quite close to me. But for one reason or another it was delayed and it hasn't been finished until now.
As you can imagine its a bit of a cult DAC out here in Australia and there was quite a bit of interest in hearing mine once it was competed. This sort of grew into a DAC shootout with the four best DAC's I have heard in my constant mucking around with DAC's and people have been really hanging out for it.
The DAC's are:
1. The Killer
2. The Phasure
3. A PDX
4. Playback Designs vis DSD.
Of all the DAC's there the Killer is probably the most interesting sound wise. It has this full rich euphonic type sound you may think is simply valve euphonics. But it isn't - because it was reduced quite a bit with the Off-Ramp. The thought then is it could be euphonic jitter from the transport. But its not that either because when we used the Off-Ramp, which is state of the art jitter wise, the correct position of the earthing switch in the power supply for the Off-Ramp cleaned the sound up quite a bit, and it was closer to the transport - that's not what you would expect if it was jitter induced euphonics. Exactly whats going on with this DAC is a huge mystery to me.
I am pretty sure this is the DAC for analogue lovers - to me it has the same sort of sound I hear in analogue systems.
Anyway here is the shootout results from all those years ago:
1. A tremendous time was had by all. A great diversity of equipment, an even greater diversity of opinion, and a very humbling view of the characters and personalities that we grow into over time. For me , listening to people was just as important as listening to equipment. Not that I agreed with everyone, mind you ! But I took it in.
2. This was NOT a controlled comparison, A/B , blind or whatever. It was an opportunity to listen to a variety of dacs in one system to gain some listening impressions. We at least tried to control SOME variables, the room , the system, the time. At the end of the day, there were some claims of incompatibility etc. which, of course , may be all valid. I assume that we all know that some components work well in some systems and not in others. But remember that all we did here is try to provide a fixed system and environment . And give the manufacturers an opportunity to display their stuff, of course.
Also note that 4 of the dacs were driven by a modified Marantz CD94 mk 11 transport (Phillips CDM1 mechanism). Except Joe Rasmussens Oppo, which was used as an integrated player
3. Volume levels were different for each listening group. I set the average level and then asked " Up or down" ? In no way was this a level matched comparison. I at least tried to play rock tracks at higher level than acoustic tracks, my estimate is 90 db average for acoustic and 95 db for rock. However some listeners informed that they routinely listen a lot lower or a lot higher than on the day.
4. We did not swap equipment quickly. My estimate is an hour each dac played continuously and they received thorough warm-up prior ( if the manufacturer requested it)
5. Ok, my opinions. ** Note that I always sat at the back and WAY off centre. However, my opinions seemed to gel with some whose ears I trust who did have the sweet spot. Also , I am a confirmed analog man ( Garrard 401/SME 3012.Grace F9E Ruby) so you can see my priorities.
There were 5 dacs , 3 with tube output stages ( Monarchy NM24 - Craig Connor mods , Lenehan PDX , Steve Garlands Killer Dac) Vs two solid state/op amp output (Oppo - Joe Rasmussen mods) and Wyred for Sound.
The 3 tube out put dacs were in a different league to the other two, they were at least all "alive" and the music flowed with a transient flexibility that the two solid state dacs could not manage. The ebbs and flows of music in real time was obvious ( at least to me).
Killer Dac - all the glories of the double crown TDA 1541A shone through. Superbly consistent top to bottom, dimensional and textually vibrant. Not quite as gutsy and dynamic as the Monarchy and better suited to acoustic than rock. My favorite on the day.
Lenehan PDX ( Clay Geisler designer) Unbelievable flow that sounded real. Again superb texture and dimension. Not quite as driving in the bass with exceptional mid bass detailing, but soft in the lower bass. Not quite as top to bottom consistent as the Killer Dac.
Monarchy NM 24. Unmatched realism , but slightly less "delicate and refined" than the other two tube dacs. Easily the most powerful sounding and best on rock, with quite staggering bass dynamics.
Wyred for Sound. An amazing amount of detail, excellent tonal consistency and powerful bass. But it sounded like you were playing a CD and there were electronic artifacts in the form of a mid treble glare that intruded. Grey background. Microdynamically restricted. However its combination of consistent tonality and detail was impressive in a hifi sense and I can actually believe that some listeners might place this as their favourite. Not me, not by a long shot.
Oppo by Joe Rasmussen Just did not work in this system. Grey, dynamically restricted ( both macro and micro) and we kept turning it up trying to get some life happening. No detail. Joe suggested a fundamental incompatibility between the very fast and wide-band output stage with the Monarchy tube preamp. Nevertheless it did not work in this system and sounded terrible. ** There will be some F/Us on this using Joes own preamp/poweramp.
Here is another view:
1 st . Garland KillerDAC best on the day overall
I found that when the KillerDAC was playing purely acoustic un-amplified program, I mean by that naturally recorded vocals and acoustic only instruments like guitar, violin,cello,and percussion of all types the Kdac was unassailable !! When listening to the ConnorNM24 on nylon string guitar I thought to myself this is so dang good ! the instrument is there ,nothing will touch this. Ahh Haa, I was wrong the Kdac actually showed me what a nylon string guitar really sounds like.
Back to the Connor NM24 and although it was still very very good the nylon string guitar sounded just ever so slightly like someone had tightened the strings a semitone and smeared the strings with warm honey. There was a just perceptible piquedness.
Vocal and harmony presentations for the Kdac were nothing short of real ! ones mouth could sometimes become unhinged ! as Steve Garland explains it , The Beauty ! The music has heart !
Some very moderate caveat’s
1.on fast paced wide-band rock material like Joe Cocker Sheffield Steel or Joan Armatrading Square the Circle the Kdac I thought trailed slightly behind the ConnorNM24 in bass control and pace resolution. It was still a virtual Katana on this material but the 24 was just a tad better.
2.Perhaps the noise floor is marginally elevated in the Kdac ! the Connor NM24 may have had a blacker deader canvas to work with.
2nd ConnorNM24 10% behind the Kdac overall
I won’t over extrapolate as it’s mainly covered above. But let me say the things a beast ! I’ve spent time with a full DCS stack and I can tell you the Connor24 smacks it down simple as that. The 24 is a DCS stack with a velvet glove.
If the Kdac is Frank Sinatra the NM24 is Tom Jones !! It’s bass has articulation and snap that is SOTA , pace rhythm and timing were no 1 on the day. Although in the end run sounded just a poofteenth caricatured in presentation compared to the Kdac.
LenehanAudio PDX 10% behind Connor NM24
Ok I’ve gotta be brain dead to put my product 3rd ! The PDX came in at 11.30am with the solder still wet , Clay had blown up a DAC chip 3days before and we were gutted . We thought we’d have to pull it. They’ll never believe us Clay ! everyone will say we nutted out the other DAC’s were better and went back to the drawing board .
Anyway Clay gets the thing running and walks in at 11.30am on the day (30mins before the shootout starts )and says ok it’s going ! we heard one track, which was Joe Cocker Ruby Lee ! and it sounded great , smooth punchy and communicative. So in the mix it ended up !
Basically the PDX sounds very organic detailed and fast . At the start I felt it may topple the ConnorNM24 but the PDX doesn't have the togetherness of the NM24 or the drop dead harmonic texturing of the Kdac.
We are however very happy with the outcome as the shootout PDX was built from junk parts with a pair of incorrect value Duelund VSF capacitors lobbed into it from the other side of the workshop. The IV resistors for instance were 5c metal films.
JLTI Oppo 25% behind LenehanAudio PDX
We just couldn't get this player to work at the level of the other three. It didn't have a tube back end and I know some thought this could have something to do with it.
Joe did explain that the player does require significant warm up . Later on after the shootout when the player had been on for a few hours we listened again and it had improved significantly , producing significantly improved fluidity and pace but still to my mind retaining a mild patina of grain in the mids and lack of vocal sibilant control.
Joe was sure that this was accurate reproduction and that the player was exposing the true characters of microphone signatures.
Wyred4 Sound DAC2 50% behind JLTI Oppo
This device is a $2000 retail product and sounded it ! Sorry call me biased or whatever but it did’nt belong in this comparison.
Nowhere near the JLTI Oppo in performance , always just on the edge of the resolution verse analytical thing. Bass seemed slightly synthetic and boosted ! mids were lacking real resolution and in it’s place the DigiGods were trying to serve us up sibilance. The top end was clean ! ohh so clean, like listening to music in the fridge ! the brassy sound was absent from the high hats for instance leaving us with only an endless shimmer !! Hmmmm. We’ve heard the Sabre Dac is hard to control.
Here are the voting results for the 5 DAC’s on the day
KillerDAC 4 firsts 1 second
ConnorNM24 2seconds 3 thirds
LenehanAudioPDX 1 first 2seconds 1 third 1 fourth
JLTI Oppo 1 second 1 fourth 3 fifths
Wyred4Sound DAC2 1 first 2 fourths 2 fifths
Anyway I hope those that made it through this long post enjoyed it. Like I say - a very very intriguing DAC
Thanks
Bill
