DAC-Off For The Nest Desk ~ Black Ice vs Schiit vs Denafrips 27Sep24

I ran a listening and light measuring bakeoff for the DAC spot in the Nest Desk system. I recently revamped all the electronics on the Nest Desk; I sold the NAD D3045 amp/receiver and Woo Audio WA7/7TP headphone DAC/Amp. The new amp is the keen Black Ice FX10H rolled up with a matched quad of Tung-Sol 7189s, but I've yet to finalize on the DAC. The speakers are my Blanda108NSs, and the headphones are primarily the Audeze LCD-2s.

The DACs... compared here are "entry level audiophile" models from some of my favored vendors. There is a real cost to making this comparison as there are restocking charges I have to pay, as well as return shipping, for "the losers." Those costs won't factor into my decision however.

Vendor	Black Ice	Schiit	Denafrips
Model	Glass FX Tube DAC_DSD WiFi	Bifrost 2/64	Enyo 15th
Price	$900	$800	$700
DAC	Delta-Sigma	"True Multibit"	R2R Discrete Ladder Multibit
DSD	Yes (DSD64)	No	Yes (DSD 1024)
PCM Rez	32bit/192KHz	24bit/192KHz	24bit/192KHz
BT/WiFi	Yes	No	No
Balanced Out	No	Yes	Yes
Headphone Amp	Yes (12AX7)	No	No

Features & Formats... Comparing features is a bit odd as the Black Ice includes a nice 12AX7 tube amp for driving headphones and the others do not. Alone that "DAC" is like my Fireflies headphone set. Frankly though I don't need this as the Black Ice FX10H amp itself includes good unbalanced headphone out. It'll require just a little more juice to drive. The Black Ice DAC is an exact fit on the stack, which is nice, but also not a determinant for the Nest Desk DAC choice.

Further on features, while both the Black Ice and Denafrips support DSD decoding, I rarely use that, but I do have some files ripped from SACD. Only the Black Ice has WiFi/AirPlay support, which is high rez and cool, but I don't expect I'll use that much either. The overwhelming  factor driving the comparison for me here is critical listening. I have favored multibit DAC designs previously when comparing, but let's see how it unfolds at this price point.

Listening Comparison Setup... The most effective listening comparison scheme I've discovered is to use favored or challenging music pieces and to quickly switch among the devices under test and replay the pieces or key parts of them... I  keep delays between comparative replays very brief. I use headphones to compare DACs. Sometimes this setup is a challenge to achieve and while I recognize using different digital inputs (USB, fiber, COAX) might not allow a pure A-B comparison, the differences in analogue sound produced by a DAC will be completely dominated by their DAC design, not their input circuit differences. Here we are listening to the differences between a classic delta-sigma decoder in the Black Ice, a classic discrete resistor ladder decoder in the Denafrips, and an unusual design called "True Multibit" in the Schiit; it uses 4 medical grade DAC chips to render high rez and high timing accuracy D>A conversions. So, to me, the only real R2R multibit DAC in the field is the Enyo.

The Schiit & Denafrips Arrived... so let the games begin. I am first pitting the two new "multibit" designs against each other in COS using the reference headphone stack there... Mr Speakers EtherC Flow planar magnetics driven by the Schiit Mjolnir 2... balanced all the way to my ears, sometimes. I lashed both DACs into the mac with USB (and did the A-B switching there). I turned off Sonarworks for testing.

The units are about the same size but the Enyo is deeper (fine as the Black Ice amp is deeper than the Bifrost 2) and much heavier. Build quality is excellent on both. Both units also have balanced and single-ended outputs ~ I'm going to use both for listening and swap occasionally, to be even handed.

I quickly verified that the Denefrips played DSD stuff; yep. I did need to recall how to turn on DSD bitstreaming in JRiver MC32 as initially the .dsf file was being transcoded. Sounded fantastic either way but I have precious little DSD source material.

On with the stuff that really counts.... listening. Wow, it is very close. I played a bunch of stuff over 2 hours and was never fatigued. Tunes included these, and what I listened to most closely in each, for the comparisons:

• Wheatus "London Sun" ~ Rock glory
  
• Molly Tuttle "Getaway Girl" ~ Bluegrass instrument solos, esp Molly's flatpicking, and her voicing
  
• Sammy Rae "David" ~ Wide range lady voice dynamics
  
• Reina del Cid "The Cooling" ~ Midrange voice and orchestra strings
• Norah Jones "Come Away With Me" ~ Piano and lady voice
• Flim & The BBs "Funhouse" ~ Overall dynamics and a 22Hz note
• Vampire Weekend "Oxford Comma" ~ Male voicing and rock mix; pick out the instruments
  
• The Beths "Expert In A Dying Field" ~ Electric guitar speed
• AJ Lee & Blue Summit "City Of Glass" ~ Mandolin & AJ's voice and breathing
  

Sound Says It All... Everything on both MB units sounded completely great. There were no USB glitches on either box from my Mac. Both units delivered better when fully hooked up XLR/balanced to the amp... for a great headphone setup, I believe balanced from source material to your ear has the best shot at the finest sound. Unfortunately the scheme I'll roll with in the Nest Desk system, driven from the FX10H,  is single ended. In the final analysis I did hear some subtle differences between these entry level audiophile "multibit" DACs.

• Enyo delivered more definition, especially at the low end; I heard it on acoustic bass plucked and played with a bow and I heard it on bass drum thumps. In fact all drum strikes seemed a bit more defined as to their decay dynamics.
  
• Bifrost 2/64 rang a smidge on some high stringed instruments like fiddle and mandolin. Not a damming ring, just not as round and musical as the Enyo. The Enyo was more fun to hear, to my ear.
• Enyo & Bifrost both did fine at the very high end with cymbal crashes and high notes from piano & organ; I could not really discern differences.
  

Both of these "multibit" DACs are completely great, and killer values for their prices. It is a tough call but I will be returning the Schiit Bifrost 2/64 today. Then, it's off to Summit for the final bakeoff... The Black Ice DAC is gonna have to really outperform to keep its "Desk" job vs the Enyo I sense.

Final Compare & Decision... Well, the dedicated single ended headphone output on the Black Ice DAC itself is very nice. I tried my iems as well as bigger cans there and it's a very good, very quiet sound. It is single ended too and it's not enough to carry the day IMO... I am ready to use the 1/4" single ended jack on the FX10H and it's "bigger" tube amplification. There are more remarkable differences comparing the Black Ice and the Denafrips in this round than during the multibit bakeoff in COS...

• Black Ice introduces a low freq hum audible as it switches on to decoding, or when pausing the source. It also is noisier. It does fine decoding but the sound is a shade muddled compared to the Denafrips.
  
• Denafrips displays dead quiet and punches every note and instrument to potential. The extra "definition" in the music from the Enyo that barely edged out the Schiit Bifrost is prevalent again, but crushes the Black Ice in comparison. The Denafrips is just clearly better.
  
• Both DACs did fine driving the Blanda108NSs. Measuring with REW didn't provide great insights... the SPL curves were different but not distinctively and the spectral analyses showed some modest distortion with each, but at different frequencies.
  
  
  

In the end, the Denafrips (D-ynamic, E-xquisite , N-atural, A-ttractive, F-idelity, R-efined , I-ntoxicating, P-ure, S-ophisticated) Enyo 15th is just audibly better than the other DACs I had in this bakeoff. And, it is the least expensive option. The Black Ice is going back tomorrow. Here's the final Nest Desk kit install...

Movin' Sis' To ColoRADo ~ Woohoo, 3 Big Days 23Sep24-25Sep24

Excitingly, LPC is moving to CO! As part of a plan well laid, I helped execute the plan and loaded her up in a UHaul full of final goods and moved her to Colorado Springs. She's now a local. Here's the tale of the tape on that...

I chose to head down through 4 Corners.

There was snow on the Sangres & Wets; and 1 lane traffic on I25S.

The Spanish Pks and more were colorful.

LaVeta and here, Wolf Ck pass, were ablaze with color.

I got past the Durango string town in traffic and on to the high desert of 4 Corners.

I was long in CO and quickly into cool AZ near Kayenta.

Ahh, the haunts around Mt Humphreys... then arrived in PHX ~11 hrs.

Signing day! She sold for list... her buyer got a cherry.

Dang, I forgot; we loaded the last bits in serious heat. Nothing stopped Swish from a run past the efforts.

I found a keen PHX craft brewer with a cute name, Front POURch.

Party @ The Pourch.

I convinced some PHX buddies to come out (Karen & Jimmy), even Marinick joined.

Final load is way full.

We drove back via Payson on Beeline; another ahh, local haunt, 4 Peaks & Saguaro Lk.

Lunch break with the travel rigs... still in the heat.

Weird stuff on the way.

We arrived at midnight and rested; the unload is done the next day; she's in!

September Music Appreciation ~ Just Alt-Country 20Sep24

A lot of these were compiled earlier in the month but they still play somewhat recent and mostly solidly in the alt-country genre... some are rockier. Humbird is somewhat new MN band to my mix, and NoelineH is new too, while the rest are mainstays. The opening link from Lindsay Lou with Kyle Tuttle is unusual and cool and AJ Lee playing the Opry is long deserved. Enjoy.

• Lindsay Lou with Kyle Tuttle on Blue Plate Special 16Mar24
• Sierra Ferrell on NPR 14Aug24
• Adrianne Lenker - Sadness As A Gift on Jools Holland 08Jun24
• Noeline Hofmann | "Purple Gas" | Western AF 16Jul24
• Humbird Blueberry Bog On The Current 19May24
• Sarah Jarroz Take The High Road on eTown 29Jun24
• Bella White Concrete & Barbed Wire OV 06Jun24
• Katie Pruitt Various @ OurVinyl Live EP 15Aug24
• AJ Lee & Blue Summit City Of Glass @ Grand Ole Opry 16Jul24
• Grace Potter @ Brooklyn Bowl for Remix 30Aug24
• Waxahatchee 365 on Kimmel Live 15Aug24

Fixing Stuff ~ PEX, Specs, & Golf Game 20Sep24-22Sep24

Learning PEX Plumbing To Repair BC20X ~ While fire suppression @ Blodgett was my prime concern recently I did learn PEX plumbing on the repair of a leaky valve in the camper. I replaced the value to the loo in the BC20X... but 1st I needed the right tool to remove and install crimp hose bands (kind of an improved version of worm gear hose clamps). I chose the iCrimp tool which can be configured to cut out or crimp down and can be used 3/8" - 3/4" tubing. My toilet has 1/2" PEX plumbing and the new style hose clamps/bands were use to secure tubing to fixtures; it came with a PEX pipe cutter. My 1st step was to cut out the leaking section (one has to cut out the PEX piping from fixtures, not much reuse).  I then built a new section with a new brass valve and new PEX pipes sized righ. Finally I installed the section in the water closet of the BC20X. New stuff works like a charm but the toilet still fills up so there's another issue earlier in the line. Work to do, but I own the tools now and have some experience.

Chasing New Sunglasses... after a bushwhack on the Gunny with Tim took a toll on my gear I need to get some new fishing and driving specs (polarized brown). I have a narrow head and only small glasses fit; unfortunately the Costa Mantas I lost are now out of production. I went to the Costa del Mar site and "virtually" tried on the three narrowest pairs currently made. Brine seemed the best fit there but I still ordered Brine, Harpoon, and Fathom from AMZ's "Try Before You Buy" system. I returned them all today but the Brine are the best for me for now. Once verifying physically I went to eBay and bought a couple pairs of the frames, one tortoise, one matte black, each new open box kind of condition for one third the price of AMZ. I will reload cool prescription lenses in the new frames once I have them. It was a decent scheme for resolving the loss, but still a bonehead move to lose them in the first place.

Fixing My Golf Game... OK, that's impossible obviously but I did get to play Yoho's keen Flying Horse course with the kid, Wilks, and Yoho. It's a thing. We played in the PM on an increasingly cooling day, and made it back to the clubhouse before the skies unleashed at 6:30pm. It was cool watching Jim and Matt rip 350yd drives while I tried to stay out of the waste areas. Wilks was pretty steady as always. We enjoyed Torchy's afterward as well as the keen game of Buffs over Baylor.

Lithium Poly Fire In The House ~ Yikes 20Sep24

The good news is that my custom Fire & Carbon Monoxide alarm system properly alerted both Kala & me to a fire inside Blodgett, and that I was home and awake! BTW, a live actual fire is not the way to test a system, but it is confidence inspiring after I had replaced all the sensors about a year ago and then designed & installed a custom alerting scheme through SmartThings. The bad news is that a fairly destructive fire started in my Arlo battery recharger which took me 3 minutes to find, despite the alert. It was a total mess... and a bit jarring as to confidence in LiP recharging.

A battery, or both, exploded all over the place, and the charger and wall hardwood was on fire when I found it and swept all the stuff into the sink to douse it. Had I not been in COS, I would've known the problem but my response time would've been slower and results might've been much worse. As is, repairs will be challenging to fully complete... the formica counter & splashguard, the cabinetry, the scorched hardwood floors. I've cleaned up from the disaster but not fixed things. Sheesh.

I guess the real issue is whether to count on ANY Li-Poly recharging scheme, Arlo, or Home Pod, or mac, or whatever. Hmmm... for the Arlo stuff I have just replaced it directly; it's too much work and expense to do an entirely new security system. I imagine the battery that exploded was not Arlo OEM but I can't really tell; I got a well-rated lithium ion replacement.

Literally everything in the utility room where this happened was covered in soot. Even my dirt and dust was covered in soot. Such a great 4 hour clean up to a still disastrous look. Overall this is a warning to anyone with similar recharging scheme, and also an urging to have a good fire alarming system with remote alerts as well as a solid plan in mind how to attack an alarm received when not present in the house. Sheesh... in the end analysis, I was prepared, and was also very lucky.

Update 27Sep24 ~ Fireproof Box Scheme... In addition to new Li-Ion batteries and charger for the Arlo security cameras, I also bought a firesafe box in which to place the charging station. Using the box to hold the charging station should contain any fire if it were to ever happen again... yeah, I do close the lid.

Ken & The Kiwis Visit Summit County ~ A Blast Packed In 14Sep24-17Sep24

Cousin Ken wrangled his host fam sister, Gill, and his & her Kiwi friends to visit Colorado recently. Kala & I hosted at the Nest and we had a blast all across Summit county with Ken, Gill, Alan, Jane & Iain.

Saturday evening arrival was enjoyed at the Nest; getting to know each other, enjoying chopped salad dinner with SW ranch & and grilled peaches, raising toasts with visitor-provided beer, and doing a bit of listening to Dave's Nest Desk & Nest Music Theater were the orders of the eve.

We slept well and arose for tasty bagels on Sunday. Soon enough we laid a plan to hike above treeline, see some aspen color and get to ORB. Ken chose to show his fitness (from his regular "hill workout") despite the elevation hiking out of Loveland Pass over the Snake River valley with Arapaho Basin, Keystone, and Breck ski resorts in the bg. Weather was iffy and overcast on the Continental Divide but we headed out undaunted. Kiwis were excited to do the last 100 ft of vert; "let's get above Mt Cook."

We trundled back down Rt 6 and headed to Frisco to start the imbibing at my favorite brewery, Outer Range. We moved quickly from the view deck to inside as some weather arrived. We tasted and enjoyed a number of beers and ciders, including some French ones, and the stellar wet fresh hopped Strata Gems. The later was acquired on the Summit Can Club for further debauchery.

Kala became DD for the Crusher and we moved on from ORB to the #2 brewer in Summit Co, Broken Compass. I neglected to clarify to cuz' Ken that there are two locations and he & Gill arrived "late" to the original taproom & brewery. BC was celebrating Hoptoberfest and we had a beer while listening to a keen country duo (I guess they were not dad & son, but howdy they seemed it).

Nobody was party weary so we held our reservation at the tasty Aurum (gold room) restaurant in Breck and had everything they made on the happy hour menu. I'd fixed a glitch in the NestMT where a fiber cable had disconnected, and upon returning to Silverthorne we split up and listened all night and had more Strata Gems, or watched the pilot to Patriot (hysterical dark comedy) and enjoyed G&Ts.

I had a squishy melon in the AM but rallied to prepared Dave's Eggs, a signature dish co-opted by cousin Ken as Ken's Eggs, 'cause he added corn kernels ~ maybe. It was to be a sailing day after breakfast but there was nearly no wind on the lake. No matter, we headed out to do other stuff and hiked above the lake looking for "mammals." See, Kiwis go gaga over mammals 'cause they have so few on the islands. We saw a few chipmunks and squirrels, to Gill's & Jane's delight, prompting their feeding behavior. We also stopped at the marina for grins and a quick peek at Mon Ami. We tried to hit brewer #3 in Summit, Angry James, but the Mountain Melt kitchen was closed and we needed nosh. A smidge of rain came and we moved on for nachos & a beer at Dillon Dam Brewing... we didn't do much as we had buratta & heirloom salad and roasted Olathe corn awaiting at the Nest.

 

After that late lunch we put on warmer concert clothes and headed back out (sans Kala & Ken) to the free Monday concert at the Dillon Amp. We heard MTHDS (music that heightens different senses), a Denver DIY hip-rock group that rarely performs now, but they have 4 studio albums ~ they were good; like HERE or HERE.

It was a full moon and there were $12 cans of beer too... so uh, we listened to a keen Sublime tribute band Badfish. They too were very good. The Kiwis loved the bands, the sound at the Dillon Amp, and the overall venue vibe.

To finish the day, Ken's signature ham & cheese sammies were prepared, which I co-opted by adding salami, hot cherry peppers, lettuce, and mustard. Yummm... Again we slept well and arose to "departure day" on Tue AM. Fresh berries & yogurt with coffee and tea was the fare of morning, with the news of the week on the tube. We trundled into the White River NF for some final pics and vibe with the fast changing aspens.

It was a GR8 several days with Ken and old and new friends. Thanks for coming and sharing your warmth.