The first order of business was to replace my customary HSM power cord with the Harmonix Studio Master, to hear the Reimyo DAC as Jonathan Halpern had intended. The software for this bit of aural sleuthing would be Viento del Este [Nuevos Medios 15675], a potent dose of youthful Cante Jondo sung by Miguel Poveda who, next to El Potito and Duquende, must be the most promising young Flamenco cantaor recording today.

Nutshell verdict? What I previously said about the Zanden applies to the Studio Master. Put differently, it nudged the Reimyo closer yet to the Model 5000 - more weight, more scale, a bit less leading edge acuteness, a mite more ambient retrieval, heftier though rounder bass, a bit more meat but also softness to what here were truly hair-raising vocals not yet ruined by the excessive emotional honesty that's a hallmark of the best Flamenco song. To be sure, this minor plumping up did not come at the expense of undermining energy which, with this kind of fare, would be utterly counter-productive.

Moving to the 9-volt actively biased blue Omega Mikro Planar with crinkly dielectric increased both focus and spatiality. It lengthened the very subdued echoes behind Miguel's opening solo as well as the rise of the echo's bloom. Like all Omega Mikro cables I've heard, the emphasis was on speed, transient attack, micro detail and a very open top-end which, if not properly accounted for elsewhere, could lead to a loss of body, warmth and emotional accessibility. While bass weight came in after the Harmonix cord which should be nicknamed Bass Master, the metallic higher harmonics in Poveda's voice -- a timbre highly prized by gitanos -- were more readily apparent. The overall sharpening of focus seemed a function of both lowered noise floor and faster rise times. While I'm not at all sure about outfitting an entire system with these Planar cords for fear of eventually too much zip & zing, my single loaner snake with silver posts on the male plug was a very welcome tuning option; especially with this type of high-energy material.


To reiterate, the Studio Master added warmth and mass, the Omega Mikro speed and leanness. The liability inherent in the latter orientation became apparent by goosing the volume. Things got just a touch bright - very fast, precise and crisp but a smidgen relentless with Poveda's let-it-rip vocal fireworks.


Adding to Pierre Sprey's and Ron Bauman's power cord their exceedingly fragile double-ribbon Ebony digital interconnect with its DC charge on the sheer gossamer sleeve moved yet farther in this direction. The increase of overall (not just treble) brightness was akin to high-noon sun: Zero shadows of muted details; concomitant hardness of somewhat merciless exposure. It's what I hear in a lot of Mapleshade recordings, too. Call it exceptional clarity wedded to sometimes unpleasant steeliness. That's particularly annoying on a piano recording like Alan Gampel's Chopin & Liszt Sonatas [07382] which I find completely unlistenable. However, this particular sonic ideal is neither good nor bad. It's just got nothing at all to do with Mapleshade. One can benefit from doses of its Aspirin thinning/declogging action without underwriting the whole concept. Simply insert enough Omega Mikro to tip overall balance in the desired direction, then stop this adrenaline injection short of your patient's blood thinning out so much as to render him unbearably hyper, caffeine-haggard and angular in his movements. We'll revisit this very unique and unconventional cable in more detail in the forthcoming review of the Furutech Digi Reference. We'll learn how its employ on my Zanden DAC affected the overall system presentation, and whether or not it made my Ortho Spectrum buffer/filter superfluous or not.


Besides now having confused the issue about the DAP-777's sound, did we learn anything else from this brief detour into system synergy grafting? I'd say. It should be clear as Mapleday that the overall package of this converter is so finely tuned as to respond to ancillary changes like a tweaked chameleon. As I've just stated in my BPT BP-3.5 Signature review, this degree of responsiveness is a hallmark moment of the very best components. To paraphrase Spidey, with great resolving power comes great response-ability. For good or bad, changes that wouldn't budge a denser component could push a more finely calibrated example over the edge. The margin for indecision shrinks. I once had to remind a manufacturer who was wavering on submitting a component for review. If you can't take the heat, don't play. What I didn't add? The obvious - if you don't play, you can't win either. But playing any game never guarantees winning. It's simply a chance you have to take.


On that winning front, the Combak Reimyo DAP-777 is a sure bet. You can't lose. However, don't assume that the stock converter is a cast-in-stone finality. There are different degrees of winning. To truly release its max potential in your system context requires tweaking and experimenting with ancillaries. It's called chasing the dragon's trail of perfect system integration. Naturally, that's true for every audio component. It's simply that prospective gains -- or misses over what would have been possible -- are more pronounced and require greater care when you're dealing with this caliber of component. Think volume control with finer click stops than you're used to: 0.1dB steps. This expanded scope of variability gives more options. While you may doubt your ability to hear a one-tenth dB difference, you will hear how readily the Reimyo DAC responds to cable changes.


Spending a whole afternoon analizing over just some of the possibilities my inventory promised, I eventually settled on the Studio Master cord with the Omega Mikro S/PDIF interconnect, over the Planar cord with the i2digital X-60 as my favorite combination. Exhaustedly, I relegated Pierre's HeavyHat brass cones to another day when his 4-inch maple platform sized to precisely fit my GPA Monaco arrives. I'll then test his footers together with his shelf perched atop the carbon fiber struts of my support, to compare directly against the stock acrylic shelf, the optional Formula carbon/Kevlar shelf and a triplet of Apex footers. Pierre claims his maple/brass attack on micro resonances outperforms Alvin Lloyd's carbon-fiber, self-damping freedom-of-motion recipe. Needless to say, on that count, I'm highly skeptical. But there's only one way to learn, right? In the meantime, I had a life. Endless tweaking, futzing and obsessing simply ain't part of it. That includes parking an expensive D/A converter on a floor-mounted maple shelf. Pierre had included one of his standard-size platforms which doesn't fit the Monaco stand's triple-point Sorbothane layout. Relegating it to the floor, Reimyo atop, simply wasn't part of the picture, sorry. However, said platform works just dandy underneath the BP-3.5 Sig which is a report for another day.


One feature's significance on the DAC has gone unmentioned thus far: The optical input. While usually considered the ugly duckling of digital connectivity, its implied inferiority vis-à-vis RCA-carried S/PDIF is a myth in dire need of correction. Depending on the system, a truly superior glass-fiber Toslink like Wireworld's green Super Nova 5 might actually give superior results over standard RCA cables, for pennies on the dollar.


My Zanden DAC is too high-brow to bother with optical. That could leave certain customers out in the cold. Granted, chances that a $10,000 converter will be mated to a transport lacking either RCA, BNC or AES/EBU outputs are slim to none. But I could envision instances where a music lover might want to upgrade his front-end in stages. The availability of Toslink on the Reimyo means DVD players or entry-level CDPs-turned-transports can apply. And that simply equates to more choices.


Popular wisdom holds that 16/44 Redbook is on its way out. Poppycock. It remains the dominant software carrier for some time to come. Period. Music lovers with large investments in CDs and the kind of musical tastes not served by the current SACD/DVD-A catalogues will continue to rely on Redbook to deliver their most loved tunes. As the old G.I.G.O. monster reminds us, it's garbage-in, garbage-out. Your system can only be as good as the information you're putting in. Hence a market for a truly accomplished Redbook converter still exists, for those audiophiles really serious about their music. That's the customer for whom today's review subject was designed. It's neither cheap nor frivolous. It doesn't play to the digital number's war mind set. It's from a smaller Japanese company with limited distribution, albeit backed in the US by May Audio, an old-time firm with an impeccable track record. On the Zen axis of effortless analogue-type ease, it plays music as well as my reference. Do I need any further justifications for being impressed? Not. Seeing that it accomplishes its mission for half the dollar amount I'm used to -- though I do slightly prefer the Zanden when hitched to the Ortho Spectrum -- the Reimyo moniker of miracle is, in fact, rather appropriate. Douzoyoroshiku, Reimyo-San - very pleased to make your acquaintance!


Manufacturer's website
US distributor's website