Oddly enough, as of late I’ve been playing mostly vinyls on my vintage Linn LP12. Sometimes, Roon Radio / Tidal doesn’t nearly satisfy my grave for sometime new. Thumbing through my record collection is a way of rediscovering the music that I love.
Why nad c658 is not good enuf?
Hi Sylvain,
First I would like to understand why you want to sell your NAD C658. This is one of the best feature rich steamer/pre-amps in the under C$ 3,000.- to 4,000.- price class. The steamer supports pretty much all mainstream platforms. It has a pretty complete list of inputs for the pre-amp function. It has Dirac room correction!!! And its expansion slots make it pretty future proof.
Maybe watch this YouTube review to get a full appreciation of what you have:
So, maybe (hopefully?) your reason for selling it is the DAC in the C658.
If this is the case, I recommend keep the C658 and buy a new dedicated DAC, which you then connect to an analogue line-in on the C658.
There is still a lot of development going on in the field of D/A conversion. By having a separate dedicated DAC you will have more flexibility to upgrade in the future without changing too much in your system. And this also makes it much easier to hear if the changes you are considering are an improvement or not.
I am also looking for a dedicated DAC. In a couple of weeks I will receive DENAFRIPS PONTUS 2.
I will post my findings…
Best regards.
1 Like
I’m not 100% sure but I think the C658 will still use the D/A converter from Analog input even if your are using an external DAC. So if I am right you are using a external DAC then send it to the NAD Analog input and the NAD will again AD/DA process of the signal.
From what I read in a few forums the C658 is a fully digital device, everything happens in the digital domain.
So putting a Denafrips DAC before the NAD is useless because the NAD will still do AD/DA before sending the signal to the power amp. The C658 don’t have digital outputs to bypass the DAC inside and use another external DAC. You have to use the buit-in DAC and AD/DA processing of the C658.
I found the sound harsh and fatiguing over time. Also bugs with Roon still there when using Dirac Live and FLAC at 24/88.2
NAD have their own software so they are very slow to fix bugs with Roon and they also not very helpful for customer support and always blaming Roon for the problem.
Also Dirac Live I loose soundstage and the voice seem to come out from a box. Specially female voice very narrow.
Nice unit with some nice features but that’s it.
I would recommend the brand “Audio-Gd” they have very good ES9038 DAC’s and also R2R DAC’s for reasonable prices
if you want a PCM 24/192 kHz only DAC I would recommend the brand “Tentlabs” they have a very natural sounding dac called “b-DAC+”
you can connect a hifiberry DAC+ case with Raspberry Pi to those DACs with Ropieee XL to them so you can stream to these dac with Roon
Hi Sylvain,
Consider saving a few more bucks and get the PS Audio DirectStream DAC. Wow what a great DAC! All incoming formats are upconverted to a high rate DSD for a precise 1-bit conversion stream to analog. I have logged about 300 hours on my unit, and it’s still improving in sound quality. So it does take some burn in time. Plus they will take a trade in of your existing DAC at full retail to save you the hassle of selling it. I think there is a limit of a 30% reduction of the PS price. There are lots of reviews online. I considered a wide range of of players up to $10K and settled on the PS unit. I’m happier than a pig in slop!
Good luck with your quest.
Dudeymon
Richard, I’m a little worried by what you’re saying here. If I bought a device that changed its sound, as I used it, I’d return it immediately. It’s not 1955 any more, and stereo equipment isn’t being tinkered together from army-surplus parts any more. There’s no good reason a box of solid-state electronics should change its sound with use, and there are a number of bad reasons. Speakers, headphones – maybe – but even there you have to wonder if the moving parts will break down altogether, and if so, when?
Of course, it could be that you’re just getting used to how it sounds, and you think that means the sound is changing, whereas in fact it is your brain that’s changing. Then it’s probably not broken.
1 Like
Hi Bill,
I don’t want to get in to the issue of burn-in value being real or imagined. My old ears attached to my feeble brain convinces my stubborn mind that there was an improvement over time.
3 Likes
Hi Sylvain
i can highly recommend the Krell Vanguard Universal DAC, but also the Moon 390.
The Krell sounds more crispy, more structurated; if you have a brighter sounding room, try the Moon.
But definitely try it in your system and room. Both of the DAC’s worked well with roon.
It’s allways a question of your personal taste and set up.
My budget is around $3000 to $3500 Canadian not US. PS Audio is overprice for me.
I really like the Moon but it’s over $6000 CAN. Over my budget.
For that budget you could get a Lumin D2.
Lumin has no digital input and lack of other input for futur.
Out of the list
On the last point why not just get a pie with ropiee before it? Then get what ever dac you want.
Way under your budget but look at smsl m400 it’s getting really good reviews.
2 Likes
Doge 7 Clarity – Tube DAC has inputs and outputs as per your wishlist and within budget. Drawback might be buying directly from China.
Well I want to have a DAC with variable volume control. I have 2 choices of connection.
A DAC connect directly to my power amp (XLR prefered)
or
A DAC connected directly to my preamp (RCA or Balanced) but with volume control because my preamp only have a manual volume knob.
Since I use Roon I would like to have volume control remotely
Look into RME ADI-2 DAC. $1650 cdn I did upgrade to a BDA-3 but the RME was very good for half the price. As long as you only use PCM and not DSD you have volume control there.
Use a Pi-4 with vitos or ropieee installed. Look at Allo inexpensive SMPS supply for now. from “buy a pi”
otherwise
Use an available mac or PC as transport for now connected USB. You might need a iFi iDefender device to break ground hum from a PC or Mac. The BDA-3 no longer needed it.
The iDefender I now use to power a portable Dac so it doesn’t draw power from Pi-4 in a Gamesroom setup. Handy device.
A Microrendu device grab iFi 7v ps if you can find. Upgrade to better LPS later.
1 Like
Well, i’m back in this topic. I think my NAD will be sold soon.
In my living room I have a NUC (8gen) running as a Roon Core with Windows 10.
I was thinking of this setup
The NUC output USB to a Topping D90 with XLR to power amp be a good setup ? I mean better sound than the NAD C658 ? Looking at reviews I think the Topping D90 is a better DAC than the NAD C658.
What is better to use
NUC USB to a DAC or a Rasberry pi 4 to the DAC ?
Thanks
The Topping D90 is a decent DAC at an excellent price. It’s popularity is warranted but with your use case you need to be a little careful. Based on my experience with the D70, I have no device volume in Roon. So while you can control volume it has to be done with the controls on the box or remote. You may want to poll other Roon and D90 users to see how their box is getting on.