Is stage dac coming back?

[BusinessEvolution]

I am looking at saving up for a good/great dac for my current setup that will improve the sound noticeably over my partially upgraded Asus Essence Xonar STX. Eg the Essence one would be an upgrade, but I am not sure if I would notice the difference other than a lower noise floor that you occasionally hear under certain circumstances with the STX (eg SVN). Also STX spdif output to the Essence One might cause a blackhole to form like typing google into google.

I was looking at STX spdif > Meier Stage Dac >Talisman T33-H > MS-PRO

If that makes sense. Though it looks like the stage dac is out of stock and possibly not in production whilst Meier is working in the next great thing since half way through last year.

I'd prefer to purchase from Headphonic as well

[Marcus]

We can still order the StageDAC in, if you'd like one

[ledge]

the stageDAC is super nice.... and at the current listed price, its a great deal ....

[BusinessEvolution]

Would I put an order in through the website or another method?

Hmmmm the stagedac's chips have 1 more WMs than the dacmagic, so hopefully that means something.
Hmmmm looking it up, the WM8741 is still their best stereo dac even if its 4 years old now :O, they just keep making new revisions


From what I can gather, the dacmagic's USB connection is better than the stagedac, but the stage dac's spdif connection is better, though USB connections can be sketchy with some laptops from what i have read, whilst Spdif can be sketchy too.

Hmmm, nice and technically confusing.

EDIT: it can up sample to o.O 384kHz too. I'm pretty much sold.

[Marcus]

Yep, if you place an order through the website we'll order one in for you

[Colin@RefoTone]

you can go for a second hand W4S dac2 if you give $100 more, that may also be a good choice

[BusinessEvolution]

you can go for a second hand W4S dac2 if you give $100 more, that may also be a good choice

Actually i'd say 100-200 more, they have been going for around $1k second hand, there was a second hand one 20 mins away that I had an eye on . I have been looking at that one as well, it has slightly better theoretical SNR 130 vs 128 db, and has a lower theoretical THD -120 vs -100 db. It also uses slightly better jitter correction and a better USB connection (with drivers). It also has better connectors I don't use. There are less options for the filters though. The stagedac can possibly decode DDL, which has additional jitter correction, the hardware it self can handle it but I am not sure if its been implemented, not sure if its even wanted. The stagedac hardware can handle 32bit too but hasn't been implemented (it doesn't actually do anything except when recording).

For some weird reason the optical connection on the Stagedac goes higher, 24/192mhz vs 24/96mhz on the W4S dac2. Their jitter protection, is less effective at the higher rate over toslink. o.O

Trying to compare measurements is fairly borked too, its interesting though that the gold caps have in the stagedac have a higher buffering than the supercaps in the Dac2, though the dac2 too may have less THD.

[Colin@RefoTone]

you can go for a second hand W4S dac2 if you give $100 more, that may also be a good choice

Actually i'd say 100-200 more, they have been going for around $1k second hand, there was a second hand one 20 mins away that I had an eye on . I have been looking at that one as well, it has slightly better theoretical SNR 130 vs 128 db, and has a lower theoretical THD -120 vs -100 db. It also uses slightly better jitter correction and a better USB connection (with drivers). It also has better connectors I don't use. There are less options for the filters though. The stagedac can possibly decode DDL, which has additional jitter correction, the hardware it self can handle it but I am not sure if its been implemented, not sure if its even wanted. The stagedac hardware can handle 32bit too but hasn't been implemented (it doesn't actually do anything except when recording).

For some weird reason the optical connection on the Stagedac goes higher, 24/192mhz vs 24/96mhz on the W4S dac2. Their jitter protection, is less effective at the higher rate over toslink. o.O

Trying to compare measurements is fairly borked too, its interesting though that the gold caps have in the stagedac have a higher buffering than the supercaps in the Dac2, though the dac2 too may have less THD.

IMO, the sound signature of these two dacs are very different, w4s dac2 is neutral and calm, stagedac is a bit coloured if you compare it to w4s dac2
Anyway, stagedac is also a very good choice, especially at this price

[grevillea]

Marcus, did you ever get your StageDAC back from Greg Borrowman ?

[Marcus]

Nope!

[BusinessEvolution]

It won't let me buy, i have to do the paypal fraud check , apparently they think spending lots of money on audio equipment is dodgy

[BusinessEvolution]

Well I managed to get paypal to work at home, apparently they paypal doesn't like working from my work. Must be too many people using paypal over the network or something. Its a bit disturbing that the authentication methods via mobile for paypal don't work properly >.>.

Not sure if you'll find the order before the end of Easter :X, happy Easter too .

[BusinessEvolution]

Nope!

Was he supposed to return it? Couldn't you just email him?
http://www.nextmedia.com.au/australian-hi-fi/australian-hi-fi-contact-us.html

Hopefully he gave a good plug for headphonic at least.

[grevillea]

I have to wonder if Marcus loaned drubbing a StageDAC 6 months ago and it hadnt been returned whether he would be so sanguine about it ......

[BusinessEvolution]

I have to wonder if Marcus loaned drubbing a StageDAC 6 months ago and it hadnt been returned whether he would be so sanguine about it ......

Its a bit different though, Marcus is 10 mins from Drubbing like how I am 10 mins from Borrowman