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G’day Daniel

Quick note to say how happy I am with everything I have bought off you and to let you other customers know what my experiences have been!
Just so everyone knows I bought a Trends 10.1, Lite AH Modded Dac and a pair of Mozart’s (plus interconnects, cabling etc) to partner with a Squeezebox.

I was abit dubious about the Trends 10.1 particularly partnered to the Mozarts, which on paper look a relatively inefficient speaker to be driving a “flea watt” amp. How wrong was I? The Trends 10.1 is an incredible amp for the money – it makes my music seem breathtakingly real with amazing sound staging and presence. And it certainly drives the Mozarts as loud as I (or the neighbours) would ever want them to go (although to be fair sometimes I have the sound maxed out). Incidentally the Aurum Cantus Ribbon tweeter in the Mozart’s is amazing – the mid and high range sound exquisite while the woofer does a great job of delivering clean effective bass (as effective as you can get out of 6 watts per channel into 8ohms).

Word of warning though – they are sensitive to placement – and if you want the best soundscapes and bass extension you can you need heavy speaker stands - the (now) sand filled E&T D40’s you supplied are prefect. After much misadventure (see below) I followed the well known ratios for setting up speakers in a rectangular room (http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/manufacture/0602/cardas.html) and my music transformed !

As you know I was abit dubious when I hooked up the modded Lite AH Dac and starting playing FLAC files through my Squeezebox. I was convinced the stock DAC in the Squeezebox sounded better with the FLAC files than the Lite AH did and promptly told you! Then I put the speakers in the right place and - oh my God - how wrong I was. The modded Lite AH Dac wasn’t just better than the stock Squeezebox DAC (a 24-bit over-sampling Burr-Brown PCM1748) - it was in a different sonic league entirely – not different, slightly better or the like but a quantum leap in quality. Everything became more alive, more focused with much greater detail and a raw organic sound like vinyl. I soon worked out that the problem when I was listening to FLAC files with the modded Lite AH was the amount of information trying to be conveyed by the speakers – they just couldn’t do it where they were placed – put them in the correct position on some heavy stands and the difference was incredible. As Bach wrote in his famous duet: “We hasten with eager but feeble steps…” – don’t we just!

Incidentally thank you so much for offering to refund the Lite DAC in full when I wasn’t completely happy – your relaxed and immediate offer of a full refund even though I was well outside the 30 day period was marvellous (and made me think I was missing something - which I was) - but there is no way you are getting it back now!!

The Trends was very good but it became truly audiophile when I hooked it up to a direct DC battery supply (12v 19 ohm SLA motorcycle battery from Jaycar plus a couple wires and some solder and a standard 3.5mm plug – make sure you get the polarity right!!). The soundstage transformed – it became completely quiet outside of the music (“black background” as the audiophile’s say). You could hear a level of detail that I thought was impossible in a $200 amp. In fact I have owned and heard amp’s 10 times that price that don’t have the musicality, sweetness and warmth that the little Trends does running on Battery. Amazing. As you know I was planning on replacing the Trends with a 40w tube beastie sometime next year (as funds and wife approval factor allowed) but frankly I’m very, very happy with what I have.

One of the greatest joys of the rise of quality Chinese gear is that it has made audiophile quality available to everyone without the silly prices (one of the reasons I left being a serious music head back in the late 90’s). To put it in perspective I have bought an entire system with very credible audiophile quality for less than the cost of a single component of audiophile gear ( I have a friend who spent more on speaker cabling than I did on my entire system and while his system sounds amazing it’s not that much better than mine). It’s also re ignited a passion for music reproduction that I thought had left me forever. My wife and I now listen to music together rather than have it on as background or when doing the cleaning. I thoroughly recommend replacing the telly with an evening of Corelli, Elton John or whatever it is that you enjoy. Does the marriage wonders!

But I digress. I recently came across Vic Trola’s Audio blog on up-sampling, over-sampling and non over-sampling (http://victrolax.blogspot.com/2006/06/whats-with-oversampling-upsampling-and.html). It explained what I was hearing exactly and also why the modded Lite Dac AH had a tendency to sound “squeezed” in the higher frequencies – there was no roll off, rather an unnatural sounding compression which on some of my recordings I could hear very clearly (particularly some of the string quartets and soprano solo’s – (Kiri Te Kanawa singing the 11-Intermezzo Atto 2, Parte seconda from 'Madama Butterfly' springs to mind). It was a feature of non over sampling dacs that was inherent in their design. Vic suggested that the Lite AH modded could be cured of this trait by adding an up-sampler.  I promptly asked for a trial of your new Musiland SRC 10 Up-sampler which I received a couple days ago. All I can say is – wow - you’re not getting it back! This one is sold!

The squeezy and sometimes harsh top end that I was hearing with the Modded Lite AH has vanished! In particular the strings really benefited greatly. I am listening to a Boccherini guitar & violin quintet as I type and the strings soar – particularly the violins. The dynamics are much improved as well – lots of difference between loud and quiet. Perhaps the only real criticism is a slight fall off in articulation: I can hear the sound of the fret board slap and the plucking of the guitar strings slightly better with the Lite AH alone. The Nos Dac alone sounds slightly more “raw”, less refined and gives a few sharp edges that I quite like (depending on the recording) but the difference in listening to particularly difficult orchestral pieces is tremendous. Gives the Lite AH its’ head so to speak.

So thanks Dano, your customer service and products are excellent and I couldn’t be happier. Now about that Tube amp…..he he

Keep up the good work
Kind Regards

Andy