Post date: 16-May-2012 21:22:16
Bass, is as the reviews already indicated, very nice instead - fast, tight, very detailed, basically all the things I was hoping it would improve on compared to the DACMagic I was using before. And I got that in spades. Bass has always been important to me, not that it needed to be extremely deep or overbearing, but it's apparently very difficult to find a DAC, or transport and amp for that matter, that accurately presents the recorded bass material. The JKDAC32 does do a wonderful job do, very pleased with that side of the DAC.
Mid range is wonderful, voices always intelligible, centered when it's recorded that way and good, stable placement when not. Tom's have punch and the initial striking "tock" of the drums presents a good presentation of the force the drum was struck and accurately represents the specific sound the material drum head is made of. Bass guitar slaps, piano notes, drums, percussion, vocal body, all have a substantial quality to it which is how I like my mid range to sound. In most cases I am not impressed with orchestral strings, but with your DAC they have that warm quality and at the same time the initial strike of the bow on the instrument as well as the string and body noises you can expect of such an instrument.
The higher regions of the frequency spectrum are well presented. Cymbals, bells, shakers have a nice ring to them (pun intended). The sound is airy and is very impressive in how it reproduces these sounds - not hard or harsh, but ethereal, rounded and easy to listen to. I think other DACs might provide more insights into what material the cymbal is made of, but this is eminently listenable and not fatiguing at all.
It's very interesting how on some recordings the vocals are centered, or should I say anchored, in the middle and the rest of the instruments or additional vocals are all around it and to the back of it. Very interesting "effect" (I know, it's not an effect) and not something I have heard in my system to this degree yet when testing other DACs.