From: owner-sound@lists.io.com [mailto:owner-sound@lists.io.com] On
Behalf Of Norman Tracy
Sent: Saturday, December 04, 1999 4:22 AM
To: Allen Wright; JoeNet A
Subject: ACG 24/96 DAC update - was RE: [JN] Positioning of drivers in horn loudspeaker systems
Allen Wright asked:
> PS Norm - are you ever going to answer my price request about a 24 bit DAC kit?
Oh yes, here it is along with the other 62 (!) messages flagged for response in my in basket. My goal of catching up on the e-mail queued up during my accident recovery is proving elusive!
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Allen Wright [mailto:AllenVSE@compuserve.com]
> Sent: Friday, August 27, 1999 6:46 AM
> To: Norman Tracy
> Subject: 24/96 D-A
> Hi,
> How many $$ and what delivery time for one of your recently developed
> 24/96 D to A's, as a kit, for my own personal use?
>
> Regards, Allen (VSE)
>
> PS Did you look at my new preamp kits on our site?
>
> www.vacuumstate.com
To answer the last question first I have looked at your new preamp kits. Way kool! I LOVE hardwiring, putting each and every wire just so. The CAD renderings are also excellent, take it from someone who spends WAY too much time perfecting Corel Draw and Adobe Illustrator drawings. I anxiously await pricing and photographs on the site.
I am unable to quote you cost and delivery for a 24 bit 96k sampling DAC because the product does not yet exist. I do have 24/96 prototypes running in the lab and listening room. Just this week I was reflecting on the buzz the MSB 24/96 DAC has created wishing ACG had a cut of those revenues. But I quickly got over it, rushing to production with first generation chip sets just is not my style. I am in this gig for the passion of the music and its reproduction in my living room. The reason I have 24/96 running as prototypes and not in production is I have yet to hear one that equals X-DAC 3.0 Signature. I believe we will get there soon, but not quite yet. The abbreviated history of post-CD digital audio at ACG goes something like this:
Looking back on this I see that the time spent fretting on which standard would win basically drove my muse away. The digital audio design well dried up. In the long run I believe this will be for the good. No time wasted designing with parts belonging in a Walkman. During this time I was working with John Cammille as X-Pwr became the Super Symmetric Power Supply. A strong foundation, after all how can one claim 20 or more bit resolution if your power supply is not state of the art? Of course as I write this people are, but that is not the ACG style. Also I was trying quality transformers in R&D DAC signal paths and being amazed by the results. This is important as many attractive 2nd and 3rd generation 24/96 and 24/192 DAC chips have differential outputs and one of the Big Questions is how to deal with these without taking big steps back from the
Too Much Circuitry disease. Yes, we will have a diff-amp option. The entry level DAC cannot use $120 worth of trannies to condition the output of a $10 chip! What the transformers have done is set a standard for the diff-amps and will offer those who want the ultimate a sweet option.As you may have gathered from this word explosion and the time stamp on this post, THE MUSE IS BACK! :-) Oh happy day. In the first quarter of 2000 members of the Audio Crafters Guild will be rewarded. The wait will have been worth it. Now I must get to my bench.
happy listening
Norman Tracy
Audio Crafters Guild
ntracy@galstar.com
www.galstar.com/~ntracy/acg
918-627-5878