DIYEDEN Great March 2, Lite Audio DAC 60 [Archive] - Audio & Video Forums

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surfstu
05-19-2007, 03:10 PM
hi all,

first post here, been pulling hair out with a weighty decision of whch DAC to buy.....
i have a lite audio dac 72, is ok but not meeting the needs of my ears in terms of warmth, anyone had any experience with the new diyeden great march 2? lite audio dac 60?

Feanor
05-20-2007, 06:51 AM
hi all,

first post here, been pulling hair out with a weighty decision of whch DAC to buy.....
i have a lite audio dac 72, is ok but not meeting the needs of my ears in terms of warmth, anyone had any experience with the new diyeden great march 2? lite audio dac 60?

Hi, surfstu, and welcome to AR forums.

I too would like to know about people's experience with the Great March 2, and also with Pacific Value, the vendor. Pacific Valve consider it among their better sounding offerings, and it looks like great value at $425.

My current DAC is an Assemblage DAC 1.5. It was recently modified by Parts Connexion with new op amps for a somewhat improved sound, however though it has good detail and transparency but is a still rather bright sounding. Also, it doesn't have balanced out puts as does the Great March 2, and since my Sonic Frontiers LINE preamp is fully balanced, I'd like to try it with balanced inputs.

Great March 2
...
http://www.pacificvalve.us/images/Great_March_2_Back.jpg

surfstu
05-20-2007, 02:14 PM
yeah, maybe its a little to new on the scene (diyeden) and a lesser known make... but there is little on the web about it... the lite audio dac 72 i use is too bright for me, i emailed pacific valve and they said the great march 2 outperforms the unmodified dac 60 which in itself is far better than the dac 72 i have.... the dac 60 has a better chipset (pcm1704)than the dac 72 which has the older pcm 1702. Great march 2 uses an even newer chipset... but one thing i have learnt is that the chipset doesn't matter so much as the electronics around it... this can be seen in 16,000 dollar dacs that have lesser chips in them.... soooo...the question still stands... has anyone heard a great march 2 in action?
oh and i know a place that is serving the gm 2 up for $370 airshipped to your door from china... which is good for me because i live in the UK and pacific valve will add shipping for me..

toriko
03-16-2009, 10:49 PM
I purchased the unit on Ebay from Shenzhen Audio Store $300USD. Unfortunately that unit was defective where only one channel was operational. I ended up having a business trip to China and returned the DAC in person, they were puzzled to have met their first white foreign devil at their Futian store. Received a new unit and it has been working great since 2007.

I'm running the Great March II through unbalanced RCA into a Woo Audio 3+ with all USA NOS tubes to my beloved AKG701 and Sennheiser SD600. Sound source is toslink optical to an usb soundblaster. I cannot detect any jitter or dropouts.

I honestly have not been able to compare this DAC with others great units such as the Benchmark, however I can attest to very detailed and accurate sound stage. This DAC does not have the highest SN ratio as some of the other Chinese DACs, however the dynamic range is sufficient for Classical and Jazz recordings, noise is non-discernible. Military spec components and XLR output shows that it was designed for professional audio in mind.

I listen to mainly Dr. Ebbert FLAC recordings of the Beatles :7: Stones, Ella Fitz, Brand X. The presentation is stunning with the AKG701s. Sometimes the sound stage is so real that one forgets that their listening to a 40 year old analog recording. Percussion, Strings, and Brass sections are highly complex and layered. Very musical, I suspect that the Woo Audio improves the DACs order harmonics by using no negative feedback and introducing the right amount of thd.

In Short: The Great March II is a wonderful DAC for $300. For budget minded audiophiles you simply cannot go wrong with the Great March II, it's very musical and the soundstage is breathtaking. If anyone wants to swap-demo my DAC with theirs pls reply to this thread. I would be interested in hearing other great DACs :13: