Crane Song Avocet - A little "muddy" ?

[holger]

Hey to all ..

First of all, I have a lot of Crane Song stuff, the Trakkers, HEDD, Avocet, etc. I never tested the Avocet against other gear, just believed Bob Katz and the others can´t be wrong .. So well..

A few days ago I got an ATTY, this little small volume controller here in the studio for forwarding ..

I thought, why not try it ... So i switched the Avocet off and connected the ATTY between my monitoring and my DAC (Lynx), giving "Avril Lavine - Tomorrow" a try ..

What should I say, the signal was damn punchy and exact down to the lowest frequencies. I back-connected the avocet, same DAC and same song. It comes over a little bit more washy down from 250hz and the punch was a little bit gone. Also the highend was not as clear as with just the ATTY .. I tried it thorugh the internal DAC of the Avocet, same here..

I then switched to the HEDD as DAC, same here.

Don´t understand me wrong.. The Sound through the Hedd and the Avocet is luxury , but it´s losing a little bit of the tightness all around here .. It sounds "rounder" ..

Did anybody out there has the same feel ?

Do I need to send the units to repair or is the Crane Song Sound this way ?

[GYang]

Originally Posted by holger

Don´t understand me wrong.. The Sound through the Hedd and the Avocet is luxury , but it´s losing a little bit of the tightness all around here .. It sounds "rounder" ..

Did anybody out there has the same feel ?

Do I need to send the units to repair or is the Crane Song Sound this way ?

Sounds like too much analogue warmth and roundness well tutt
I didn't get such impression from using Avocet.

[holger]

Originally Posted by GYang

Sounds like too much analogue warmth and roundness well tutt
I didn't get such impression from using Avocet.

Me too .. Always was "impressed" .. thought the songs were that way mixed and mastered ...

Did you ever A/B the direct chain (DAC directly into monitors) against the Avocet ?

[mark714]

That's an interesting observation. One person's "a little muddy" or the "high end not as clear" is another guy's "more analog" or "smoother." I haven't performed the test you describe, but it is interesting and slightly surprising. I wouldn't classify Crane Song gear as having undefined lows but I would classify it as "analog sounding."

I'm stepping out on a limb here, but do you think it is possible the Avocet/HEDD D/A's had greater detail that revealed issues in the listening environment?

[holger]

Thanks ..

Take Avril Lavines "Tomorrow", beginning at approx 1:53 when the bridge starts, there are two deep basstones that come out real clear and together with the bassdrum real tight ..

Avocet .. Wuuumm Wuuummm . .

Direct Chain / ATTY ... Wukk Wukk ..

Mysterios .. But it´s a very luxury sound indeed !

Anybody can A/B that ?
Would be helpfull !

[matucha]

These were my observations too, when I compared a few other DAs. Avocet took some edge off. Didn't hear so much difference in bass though. All the DAs sounded rounder through avocet. I quite like it, because it makes my S3A a bit mellower (compensating for the bright sound of the monitors).

It was quite a surprise, because I thought I'm getting a very very transparent piece of technology. But as I jumped from apogee minidac, it was quite nice and I like the way it works.

[holger]

Great , then I am not alone hearing this !

May I ask if you stayed with the Avocet or took another unit ?

[scorpiwoman]

I have a Avocet, try using the pads provided with the unit, I kept blowing fuses, when I would plug in headphones. I noticed the pads help a lot with overall overloading of the speakers which may be occuring.

[holger]

Thanks , but I don´t want to have too much in my signal path ..

The pads wont make the signals faster.. Think I´ll better sell the avocet and look for something "cleaner" / "tighter" .. will try some other brands ..

[matucha]

I stayed with avocet, though I have to send it to CS for some service (I got some noise time to time, that's pretty annoying... but I'm in the middle of too many projects, so I can't afford sending it just now) and DA upgrade. I'll ask them about this "roundness". It doesn't bother me because it works well with adams.

[holger]

Originally Posted by matucha

I stayed with avocet, though I have to send it to CS for some service (I got some noise time to time, that's pretty annoying... but I'm in the middle of too many projects, so I can't afford sending it just now) and DA upgrade. I'll ask them about this "roundness". It doesn't bother me because it works well with adams.

DA Upgrade .. ? What do you mean ?

an easy way to get it cleaner and faster would be great..
But it seems to be the analogue path, and I think it´s hard to get this going..

[matucha]

yes... it is the analog path... I just have version with older DA (not current) and so once it is there, there is no question about upgrading it.

[holger]

must be ..

I just contacted cranesong techsupport .. will see if there´s a way to get it transparent .. otherwise : avocet for sale here !!!!

[matucha]

I'm suspecting the buffer amps... avocet is not a passive unit.

Please report back what you've found, I'd be interested in hearing their statement too.

BTW how hot gets your avocet? Mine is very very hot around the PSU.

[holger]

Thanks ..

I am now in contact with tech support .. maybe that the unit really has a fault .. Let´s see !

My complete CS gear is getting really hot, think that´s normal .. never experienced problems with that beside the fact that you won´t need a heater in winter ;-)

[pieter]

Actually, I found upgrading from a decent passive volume control (like teh AATY) to the Avocet quite a step forward. I do use the digital in though (for being able to compare CDs over the same conversion).

In the analog path, my Avocet at one point needed some servicing as well (broken summing amp in the mono circuit) but now all is well. Also remeber these babies have life long warranty.

If you don't need all the Avocet features, have you tried the Benchmark DAC1 yet (pretty cool as well I think).

[holger]

In terms of functionality it is indeed an update...
Also don´t know from which converters you came to the avocet ..
this could also be an update.


After half our techsupport emailing, the following:

I have an older revision and meanwhile they use some other parts if I understood correctly.

Quote: "...
The reason I asked the serial number is that we ran into a problem
with some op-amps failing and causing some DC offset inside the unit.
..."

I get a cost free update to the latest revision.. Will tell if the problem is solved then, but this will need some days ..

Will update thie thread here for the audience !

Thanks meanwhile for the great feedback, helped a lot !

[matucha]

Cranesong were always very nice when I asked them about things. I can't wait for having it fixed...

[holger]

Yeah, as I love the functions on the unit, I am also lucky to see and hear my unit son with the new op amps .. still a lot of hope