Real Sound

I realised a while back that I spend a lot more time fiddling with analogue stuff than digital and I wondered what other stuff was out there that might be interesting to play with on the digital front, so I started looking around for something new.

I have also been looking for another brand to import into NZ and had had good experiences in the past with Spec Corp products, having played with a couple of their amps a few years back, and also more recently trying out their AP-CS1-K cartridge on my Technics turntable.

Whilst I am not in any way dissatisfied with my Acoustic Plan dac, curiosity got the better of me and I ordered one of the new RMP-DAC 3EX from Yoshi Hontani, who handles the export of Spec products from Japan.

It arrived in pretty short time and so far I have been really impressed by it. Its a two box unit, with a substantial external power supply. It also features a very nice headphone stage with a few options for gain. Two headphone outs, for 3.5mm or 6.4mm plugs, source select and volume knobs and headphone or line out switch on the front. On the back you can select between fixed or variable output and lots of different input options.

One of the cool features of Spec products is the use of different combinations of timber for the base part of the chassis.

According to their page; “The wooden panel attached to the bottom is made of the same spruce material as the top plate of a violin. Spruce is a relatively soft material that vibrates with music signals to reproduce a rich tone and energy.

In addition, in DAC3EX, we have adopted a new shape and structure of a LEG. The structure in which HICKORY is embedded in the groove in the center of MAPLE optimally supports the main body chassis.

The ground surface is spherical, and by supporting the whole cabinet with points of hickory, we have created “the structure of the body that plays realistic music”. The DAC3 is also built as an instrument.”

Looks cool in any case.

Internally there is a smattering of fancy pants caps from Arizona Capacitors. Anyone who has read Jeff Day’s stuff will know of Shirokazu Yasaki’s (Spec’s overlord of design) penchant for blending different capacitors in his products for different sound signatures.

Sound wise it’s early days, but so far I have been rewarded with a deep expansive soundscape. Very natural sounding. Relaxed and valve-like, which I guess is a characteristic of the paper/oil caps from Arizona Capacitors. Definitely good. A different presentation to the Acoustic Plan.

One interesting thing is that I will be able to experiment with an AES/EBU connection from my dCS Network Bridge. I doubt I will hear much difference from a 75Ω coaxial digital connection, but it will be worth the experiment. I have some nice 110Ω digital interconnect cable and some good XLR plugs I will use to make a cable out of.

This dac is a cool product and Spec Corp. is an interesting company. If you are interested in one of these, get in touch. They’re not cheap, but not crazy expensive either. A definite complement to a Shindo or Leben based system, especially as Acoustic Plan are sadly no longer producing stuff.