GIESELER AUDIO Kompakt II TDA1541A owners thread

[Gieseler Audio]

These are starting to ship now so I thought I better start an owners thread.

It will be really interesting to see what everyone thinks of the mighty TDA1541A in a modern implementation

Edited June 28, 2023 by Gieseler Audio

[twwen2]

S/N #101 arrived today. Good lord, the bass that this thing produces 

[DrMikeOz]

furiously refreshing email for tracking number

[Kolnik]

Have just received the new Gieseler TDA 1541A 11 Kompact 11 DAC, and am running it it in. Mids are lovely, already, bass is remarkable and it seems to be able to combine sweetness with what I think is best described as accuracy. More than impressed by it. Gieseler service seems second to none.

[muon*]

OK, I better come out

 

Clay lent me a development stage DAC for my feedback on the TDA design/sound.

 

So this is not the final but this is what I found.

I have a TDA1540D DAC of modern implementation, and also have a Marantz CD-60 that I modified quite a lot and used a single crown chip in. Have also heard a modified Muji and of course Matt's Abbas 2.2SE all be it without a lot of burn in and a different transport (Marantz CD-50).

 

Clays DAC I found has of course the TDA1541A sound, not only that, it is a very nice representation of it IMO, but what it does better than I have heard myself with implementations of this chip is a level of clarity and that clarity carrying to the level of detail his DAC reproduces.

 

It's very clear and detailed while retaining warmth and naturalness. Everything is there in a good balance and all with a faultless level of clarity.

I'm sure owners will have more to say, so I now leave it to those lucky fellows

[DrMikeOz]

12 hours ago, muon* said:

Have also heard a modified Muji and of course Matt's Abbas 2.2SE all be it without a lot of burn in a

Having owned that modified Muji and an Abbas 2.2SE this is very high praise indeed and potentially addressing one of the shortcomings of the Abbas dac which is a bit of lack of detail. Much exciting. 

[muon*]

3 hours ago, DrMikeOz said:

Having owned that modified Muji and an Abbas 2.2SE this is very high praise indeed and potentially addressing one of the shortcomings of the Abbas dac which is a bit of lack of detail. Much exciting. 

Only my view, but yes..... often the criticism of the TDA1541 is lacking detail.

 

Very interested in your comparisons.

[bjs]

First off, I want to again praise Clay for his wonderful customer service and support. Not only did he answer my numerous questions with good humour and suggestions, he was proactive in updating me on the production and shipping of the dac. It arrived earlier than expected and gave me the weekend to have a listen.

 

For background, my previous dac was a Gieseler Klein 3 with upgraded Kraftwerk power supply. It had a wonderful sound and I did a review which compared it to a Musical Fidelity dac and a Chord dac, which I think @Snoopy8 has listed somewhere. I stream from an Ifi zen streamer and a Chromecast. This means I used the coaxial and toslink connections and so have not utilised a usb connection. The new dac is likewise connected by coaxial to the Ifi.

 

The amps are a Primaluna Evo 300 preamp (with upgraded tubes thanks to @Silver Audiophile and @xlr8or) and a Musical Fidelity M8-500s power amp. These feed Audio Physic Classic 30s and a Definitive Technology Supercube 3 sub.

 

My first impression is that the Kompakt 2 needs at least a day to settle in. However, once it did, it was clear that it is a significant upgrade. It is hard to single out any one thing, so I would say the overall coherence and presence have jumped up a level. For instance, it has the wonderful Gieseler bass: it goes just as low, but it is now tighter. Rage Against the Machine's covers of Renegades of Funk and The Ghost of Tom Joad hit hard, but not out of context. Likewise, Hans Zimmer's Blade Runner track Mesa hit the resonant frequency of the room like it should, as did Clark's Serbian Daffodil. It also tracked electronic music very well.  The magic of each of James Holden and Jon Hopkins in particular came through beautifully.

 

Speaking of presence, Silencio Blanco by Bandas de Cornetas y Clarines was incredibly haunting as was Leonard Cohen's You want it darker. Madeleine Peyroux's cover of Tango till they're sore was like a private concert.

 

The wonderful soundstage is also there, but the front-to-back separation is noticeably better. The stereo image is also improved: more than once, I opened my eyes to check where my speakers were or to see if someone had punched a hole in the bookshelf to make the room larger. The soundstage thanks to the amps and NOS tubes was already remarkable, so this is no small feat.

 

It also did a very good job with complex pieces of music. The instruments and choirs in the last movement of Mahler's Resurrection Symphony and the difficult Tibi Omnes of Berlioz's Te Deum showed good separation. Also, the final section of Guillemots's Sao Paulo where they throw everything including church bells at the listener did not overwhelm, except as it is meant to do so.

 

To finish off, I did some serious listening on Saturday and before I knew it, it was late in the night. I kept wanting to test other pieces of music, and it kept impressing. I have already invited some people over because I want to share the sound. To me, that is as good as it gets. @Snoopy8 says this sound will improve even more with Gieseler's reclocker. I find that hard to believe given how good this sounds, however, since everything @Gieseler Audio makes is top-shelf, I think I might have to start saving again.

 

This is a wonderful dac, and I could not be happier. Thank you Clay for making such great products in Australia for us.

[Snoopy8]

1 hour ago, bjs said:

To me, that is as good as it gets. @Snoopy8 says this sound will improve even more with Gieseler's reclocker. I find that hard to believe given how good this sounds, however, since everything.

Good to hear you are enjoying the new DAC.  And YES, the Reinigen will further improve things !  

 

You should also get 2 of these (prefer them over AQ Diamond) :

https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/usb-cables-hubs/viablue-kr-2-silver-usb-a-cable-male-usb-b-male-plated-gold-15-m-p-6547.html

 

To me, the Kompakt II TDA1541A with the USB Reinigen with 2 ViaBlue KR-2 USB cables would make an ideal package..

[muon*]

Any other owners ready to post their thoughts?

[twwen2]

7 minutes ago, muon* said:

Any other owners ready to post their thoughts?

 

It's easily the best DAC I've owned to-date. I've had a preference for R2R NOS designs for a while now - they're just so much more listenable across a wide range of music tastes and source quality. However, this is the first time I've heard an R2R DAC with detail retrieval and imaging/separation equivalent to (better than?) more modern DAC designs, but still remaining non-fatiguing to listen to. 

 

Well done @Gieseler Audio!

Edited July 14, 2023 by twwen2

[JMN1999]

2 minutes ago, twwen2 said:

 

It's easily the best DAC I've owned to-date. I've had a preference for R2R NOS designs for a while now - they're just so much more listenable across a wide range of music tastes and source quality. However, this is the first time I've heard an R2R DAC with detail retrieval and imaging/separation equivalent to (better than?) more modern DAC designs, but still remaining non-fatiguing to listen to. 

 

Well done @Gieseler Audio!

Out of interest what R2R NOS dacs are you comparing it too? 
Cheers,

[twwen2]

Just now, JMN1999 said:

Out of interest what R2R NOS dacs are you comparing it too? 
Cheers,

• Gieseler R2R NOS Kompakt
• Red Wine Audio Bellina Renaissance
• Augio-GD DAC-19

[JMN1999]

Just now, twwen2 said:

• Gieseler R2R NOS Kompakt
• Red Wine Audio Bellina Renaissance
• Augio-GD DAC-19

 Thanks, I own a holo spring level 3 dac. Was hoping you might be referring to these R2R NOS dacs. 
cheers.

[DrMikeOz]

Well I’ve had mine for about 10 days now and I’ve got some good news and bad news. The good news is, it’s the best DAC I’ve ever heard, the bad news is that if you listen to one you’ll need to find $2k to buy one. 
 

[DrMikeOz]

So to add a bit more - I am no good as a reviewer because I really follow the Bernard Black school - I either like it more than something else or I don’t.  I went thought a phase of dac madness during covid and owned a musical paradise dac with about a grands worth of mods, a topping d90, a Schitt Bifrost 2, a holospring level 2, an LKS dac, a Musician DAC and finally two Abbas dacs - a DAC U SE and a DAC 2.3SE. This is my favourite dac by far. It combines clarity and musicality perfectly for me - I can listen for hours where before digital was only ever a song or two and then I’d go back to vinyl. This plus a raspberry pi based streamer can often equal my analogue front end which costs about 5 times as much which is impressive.  Clay has hit it out of the park on this one for me. 

[Kirby66]

Just over a week ago I received my new Kompakt II TDA1541A DAC (S#00103). After connecting to power only for a couple of days to settle it in, yesterday afternoon I had some time and the house to myself so with a bit of rearrangement I was able to A/B my Gieseler M19D - Fein DAC II, which has been my DAC for nearly three years and the new Kompakt II.

 

I was very very happy with the FEIN II and have had a couple of other much more expensive and highly recommended DAC's in my system on demo / trial but found that either the considerable additional cost didn't deliver a proportionate improvement  - diminishing returns I understand but short of a lotto win I still need to balance cost and benefit - or the system synergy didn't work as I'm a USB guy being in the Innuos camp.

 

So I started with some female vocal tracks ... Nnenna Freelon "The Tears Of A Clown" and A.A. Williams "Where is my mind?" ... I heard noticeable improvements in detail and instrument placement in the soundstage. The increased detail was not clinical or harsh but musical ... there was just more of the instruments there.

 

Then I swapped to male vocal ... first the Johnny Cash version of Sounds of Silence which I'm not only familiar with but have also heard on several very good set ups ... I had to A/B a couple of times to check that I was hearing what I thought I was ... my goodness the timbre, presence and voluminous bass in his voice was astounding. It instantly reminded me of presentations I've heard on those other very good systems. Colter Wall "John Beyers (Camaro Song)" proved that it was not just that track.

 

I am really impressed with my new Kompakt II TDA1541A DAC. I find it to be well ahead of my Fein DAC II in my system and in IMHO Clay has done it yet again delivering a DAC that punches WAY above it's weight.

[Kirby66]

Update ... BONUS !!!

 

I was using, albeit not often, an original Kompakt DAC between my Sony DVD player and my preamp as my M19D - Fein DAC II was USB only.

 

The other night I thought I should fire up the DVD player and have a listen to that via the coax in the Kompakt II

 

Joy joy joy  my DVD player has never sounded this good - I will be happily rediscovering my music DVD collection and have one less component in the rack. Thanks Clay !!!

[Grizaudio]

On 3/7/2023 at 2:42 PM, muon* said:

Only my view, but yes..... often the criticism of the TDA1541 is lacking detail.

 

Very interested in your comparisons.

It was dynamics and detail for me.. 

Edited August 18, 2023 by Grizaudio

[muon*]

14 minutes ago, Grizaudio said:

It was dynamics and detail for me.. 

Yes, and seems in the past It was a failure of implementation rather than the chip Itself, for nearly every piece of gear it was used in.

 

Although some of the gear in the past had the dynamics, but would often still lack the detail.

 

Granted I haven't heard anything like the Marantz CD12/DA12, so in the very high end they could have had both. I'd love to see a comparison of Clay's against the DA12.

Edited August 18, 2023 by muon*

[Grizaudio]

36 minutes ago, muon* said:

Yes, and seems in the past It was a failure of implementation rather than the chip Itself, for nearly every piece of gear it was used in.

 

Although some of the gear in the past had the dynamics, but would often still lack the detail.

 

Granted I haven't heard anything like the Marantz CD12/DA12, so in the very high end they could have had both. I'd love to see a comparison of Clay's against the DA12.

Reading the reviews here, it sounds like Clays implementation does a fantastic job…..  congrats Clay… please make me a multi channel version.. would be an amazing unique product. 

Edited August 18, 2023 by Grizaudio

[Herbs]

**** me, don't sleep. This thing sounds ******* amazing. If you're  considering it buy it! Even if you're not buy it!

I have the original AKM Kompakt and this is a serious upgrade.

I'm not going to use BS words like timbre and all that jazz. But now I understand when people say sounds like vinyl. I play vinyl and this has that nice thick warm sound straight out the box.

Do yourself a favour and get one.

[chaddy]

Just joined the club 

[Kirby66]

5 hours ago, chaddy said:

Just joined the club 

Welcome Andrew ... Enjoy 

[Snoopy8]

8 hours ago, chaddy said:

Just joined the club 

Well, don't keep us hanging!   

 

What do you think of it and what other DACs have you tried?