Similar projects to consider in the Simaudio 650D/750D price range

Cam -- Thu, 10/20/2011 - 10:16

What other products are directly competitive with Simauido Evolution DAC offerings?

I have a Marantz SA 11S1 SACD player now which I could sell and upgrade to a player/Dac like the Sim stuff or I could keep my Marantz and add a stand alone Dac. Either way, I want to get into computer audio (Mac based) and I don't want to compramize too much on sound from what I get now from my Marantz.

Thanks!

pwfletcher -- Mon, 02/11/2013 - 19:14

Those Sims are nice ... has anyone actually heard one yet though?

Love this one:
http://www.humanovation.com/2011/11/24/simaudio-moon-650d-dac-cd-transpo...

Mac Mini Sever -> Bel Canto DAC3.5 - > SimAudio i7 -> Dynaudio C1

Cam -- Thu, 12/15/2011 - 07:52

I ended up getting the 650D. It is very good. The review in the November issue of Stereophile is very accurate. The only part of the review I would clarify is bass performance. The review makes it sound like the 650D boosts bass output. While the bass is extremely deep and detailed without being at all thin, it is not artificially full or exaggerated. The 650D is very neutral across the frequency spectrum, which makes music sound very "real" and engaging.

pwfletcher -- Sat, 12/17/2011 - 20:02

Cam ... are you using it as a CD source, or are you going from a music server through the DAC?

Mac Mini Sever -> Bel Canto DAC3.5 - > SimAudio i7 -> Dynaudio C1

Cam -- Sat, 12/17/2011 - 22:10

Cd right now. I've tried the USB input ( non-upgraded) with my Mac Air laptop and it provides similar sound with a tad more warmth. Sim recommends the optical input as it is non-electrical and doesn't pass on any electrical noise from your computer.

Im going to be bringing home a Meridian Sooloos MC 200 server this week, which uses an SPDIF RCA digital output. I'll post any differences in sound I hear but I'm hoping it's going to be similar.

Cam -- Sat, 12/31/2011 - 10:36

I'm now getting The best sound I've ever experienced in my system with Exact Audio Copy ripped wave files played through my Sooloos MC200 through S/PDIF digital coax into the Moon 650D. It's Even a little better than cd directly played through the 650D - a little more detail and more 3- D soundstage.

Caveat is that both the ripping software and the audio file type make a difference here. DBpoweramp ripped wave files were not quite as good sounding as Exact Audio Copy wave files (although I invested significant time configuring EAC for my computer and little time configuring dBpoweramp plus EAC cd rips take 20+ minutes and dBpoweramp rips take a few minutes). Aiff files sounded significantly worse than wave files in my setup - compressed flac files sounded closer to wave than aiff!