Digital Drive: Re: Toshiba 3950 VS 3960 by John Swenson

I am completely stunned by how good the 3960 sounds, technically it doesn't make any sense how something with an output stage that costs less than a dollar can produce sound this good.

Its not as good as the DAC 3 but sounds very similar. The primary difference is the level of detail extracted, the DAC 3 has more "texture", subtle detail etc. The difference is not very much. The difference between the CEC TL51Z and the 3960 is much greater than between the 3960 and the DAC 3.

I think an interesting question here is how come you don't hear as good a sound out of it as I do? I'm wondering if there might be an issue of RF, either on the power cord or the audio signals. I'm using Highwire ICs which have a builtin RF suppression network and everything is plugged into a Chang Lightspeed 9600 which does a very good job of preventing RF from one component getting into another.
My preamp also might have an "easier" load which doesn't stress the cheap output stage as much.

There also seems to be significant QC issues with the transports, I wonder if that might be causing some of the differences?

I was listneing to the 3960 for hours last night and again was stunned by the sound. It kept the soul of the music alive like nothing else I've heard (except for the DAC 3). Its king of anoying, it CAN'T be this good, yet it is.

John S.