The Best Ears on Earth
We put the imersiv D-1 DAC to the ultimate test in the studios of over forty classical recording engineers, acoustic music producers, top mastering engineers, and film score composers.
The result?
I’ve been using Imersiv D/A for a few weeks now. It was a big adjustment! A little destabilizing. I immediately noticed an openness and separation between the voice and piano. The recording didn’t sound like a recording, if that makes sense … there was a clearer separation of the instruments, much more like in the real concert hall. It caused me to spend a few emergency hours tweaking the balance of every song. The changes were minor, a dB or two here or there, but also significant. Just last week, that recording won the Grammy for Best Vocal Performance. This is a remarkable D/A.
Alan Bise, multi-Grammy-winning, Oscar-nominated Recording Engineer/Producer, EMI, Decca, Universal, Aeon, Delos, Naxos, Telarc, Azica, Walden https://azica.com/history/alan-bise/
There’s a surprising sense of depth and image extension. The clarity of Imersiv got me to hear in a different way and helped me to rethink some of my sonic choices. Some might think that these things are subtle. However, they made a big difference to me. You have done something extraordinary!
Neal Merrick Blackwood, multi-Grammy-winning engineer/producer https://www.merrickmusic.com/
What the [imersiv] process claims, and what I heard, is greater low-level detail resulting in exceptional spatiality, what I noted as “fantastic” clarity, and heightened realism. The specs are impressive: true 28-bit resolution, greater than 170 dB dynamic range, and greater than 170 dB linearity.
Frank Doris, audiophile journalist, writing in Copper Magazine
In the rarefied world of ultra-high-end, five-figure DACs, sonic distinctions are minimal. Preference is more a matter of individual taste, system synergy, and aesthetics. Not so with the imersiv. The D-1 has more air, clearer transients w/o any harshness, and is simply more realistic and lifelike sounding. Above all, the D-1’s portrayal of timbre is singularly impressive. This initial impression remained constant over an extended evaluation period regardless of musical genre or the underlying quality of the recording. In direct comparison to the multi-path D-1, the high-end single-path DACs in my possession exhibit a slight scrim, which I did not notice when comparing one single-path DAC to another.
Bob Lardon, former VP and GM Harman Luxury Audio Group (Mark Levinson, Lexicon, Revel, JBL Synthesis)
We put the D-1 beta into the listening chain at the Aspen Music Festival. I’m used to being able to hear the instruments of the orchestra in their proper place in space, but this takes it to another level. The best way I can describe it is that I can hear the space between the instruments! I immediately got the feeling that being able to listen with this sort of detail will help me and my team to further sharpen our engineering skills.
Scott Burgess, multi-award-winning Director of Audio and Media Production, Aspen Music Festival
Bottom line: This is a great converter! It is punchy, smooth, with tons of size… it has
great space and ambience retrieval in that “tough” 800/1500hz range, mostly with
vocals and reverb tails. Great Work!
Brad Cobb, Los Angeles Opera / odark30studio
I was surprised by the level of detail and depth I first heard with the D-1.
My mastering console allows me to simultaneously feed 3 DACs for A/B/C real-time comparison. For the first week or two, I would compare the D-1 to my other DAC options. Nine out of ten times I would choose the D-1. Now, after a few months, I basically don’t even bother trying the other options. The D-1 delivers surprising new levels of vibrance, clarity, and detail. I think the HDR photography analogy on the Imersiv website is pretty accurate. This unit is the HDR photography of DACs.
Justin Perkins, Grammy-nominated mastering engineer, Mystery Room Mastering
With familiar material, I have to say that what strikes me the most is the spatial resolution. Listening to acoustic music recorded at Zipper Hall, you can hear into the depth and true size of the natural room sound, keeping laser sharp stereo image and realistic instrument timbre.
Francesco Perlangeli, Principal Engineer, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Pacific Jazz Orchestra. USC Colburn School Audio Director
Wow … the blackest background I’ve ever heard, the widest stereo, most precise imaging, most detail especially low-level. What an accomplishment! Bravo!
Wiley Ross, Director, Jeffrey Haskell Recording Complex, University of Arizona School of Music