I agree with whoever originally posted about lows/highs being off on the Solaris, the midrange is absolutely one of, if not the best true to source representations along with the HEDD Q in my opinion, but the tradeoff seems to be a phase shift in the ultra low and high frequencies which moves them away from true to source in those ranges. It comes out less flattering on very modern, tight bass heavy productions, but for me actually improves the sound of a lot of other types of productions and also music utilizing real, recorded instrumentation

On Solaris outputs, from Dave's own words he thought the fixed are a 'bit cleaner and don't add anything'

The fixed outputs sounded better to me in depth and dynamics, but the noise floor was also louder. I measured both outputs, and the profile of the noisefloor and its intensity is different between the two. Dave wasn't sure when I asked him about it, said he would have had to measure them in more detail. From my measurements, the fixed outputs have less hum/under 100hz noise, but a little more above 500/1k, which imo might be part of the reason it sounds 'better' on depth/dynamics

RE: Post # 91

There is no hum and there is no phase shift or aberant treble or bass.

Poster ULA--why don't you offer any detail about your claims?

Treble and bass are off?? What does that mean?

Comes off less flattering, how?

Less hum under 100Hz?--Total nonsense. There is no hum other than the hum in your own system.

Less hum above 500Hz? There is no hum.

I'm nonplussed by your amateur diagnosis.

I'm curious, do you own the Solaris? Phase shifting? Do you have examples of this or was this detected by your ears?

Respectfully, I don't think there is a "trade-off" with the Solaris when it comes to the DA conversion.

I've relied on the Solaris DAC for monitoring for years. If it has a "sound", it's the solidity due to its jitter rejection specs as well as attention to detail on the analogue side: its reconstruction filter being a combination of digital and an analogue filter, tuned – by ear – by the late Dave Hill himself.

If there's a slight difference in noise level between the variable and fixed outputs I'd be checking / measuring their gain first, lower the variable to match the fixed output's +18dBu, and any result is likely well within tolerance.

I owned the Solaris for a number of years as monitoring and mastering pitch DAC but couldn't justify having it around for the rather infrequent times I would use it after finding another unit that better fit the material I work predominately with. I do wish I still had one

Phase shift may not be the right word, but ultra low and high frequencies weren't AS true to source AS the midrange to my ears, which again midrange was impeccable, maybe the best. I desired something that felt more 'linear' across the range

Sure, to each his own! I'd agree for many types of program material!

The Solaris is an exceptional DA, no question. My comments probably make it seem like my observations are magnitude or two more audible than they are in reality.

I was surprised to find the two sets of outputs (ultra low) noise sounded slightly different when cranked way way way up. Maybe it was my setup, or my specific Solaris, but anyone can record the DA outputs, crank the gain up, and see if the noise from fixed vs variable has more or less high freq content than the other output. This is all I'm saying. I no longer have a Solaris here to do this again. The ultra-low noisefloor is at a level where you could (should?) argue its not audible anyway, but I still hold to my theory. I only mentioned all this as the previous poster was asking about differences between the two outputs, so I shared my experience and opinion.

Less flattering in that there is a slight change, particularly in the sub freqs, that is a deviation from the original source signal. This step away from the source was not preferable to my ears, really only when it came to modern, tight (mostly computer based) productions with a strong focus on low-end content in the music

Does anyone know how to bypass the mute on startup function on the Solaris? Every time I boot my studio up, I have to hit the mute button. Not the end of the world, but if there's a way to turn this off, please let me know.