Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD

Guido - The Overdrive can select between 3 digital filters and preemphasis. There is no upsampling. This allows one to feed a really low jitter digital signal and get the full benefits.

I have heard the effects of non-apodizing filters and other custom filters. I didn't care for any of them. The only good filter is a single-order analog filter IMO. The same trend is happning is speaker crossovers, low-order and minimized filters.

If you look at the impulse response of my Overdrive, the pre and post ringing is minimal. Pretty ideal. The plots are downloaded from the webpage.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

Mccondon - the source is all about the jitter level. If the interfaces are poorly designed, then even the best source may be compromised. Comparing USB input to S/PDIF is apples-to-oranges too.

Besides jitter, common-mode noise can come into the equation, if you are using AES/EBU or USB as your transport cable.

These are systems, so everything matters. I don't call it synergy. Its more a matter of both the transmitting and receiving interface being designed well and the cable being designed well.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

"His claim that with 192 option selected there is no oversampling is not exactly correct, at least to my knowledge."

I never made such a claim. Show me the post.

My Overdrive does no upsampling and the filters are selectable so that you can select the 192 filter when playing 44.1 tracks, resulting in minimal damage and approximating NOS DAC behavior.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

The problem with attenuator volume controls is that they add resistance to the signal path, which adds thermal noise. In the case of passive attenuators, these change the impedance of the signal path, which can cause low-pass filtering and/or loss of dynamics.

The Overdrive DAC has less than 50 ohms in the signal path. The volume technology on it is superior to any other technology available. I can say this with confidence because it adds nothing and changes nothing in the signal path. It only adjusts the D/A reference voltage, which scales the height of the stair-steps created by the D/A conversion. This is the perfect way to adjust volume. No loss in resolution, no added distortion or noise. The behavior actually reduces THD as the volume is decreased. All other volume technologies increase THD as the volume is decreased.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

Congrats are in full order Melbguy1 on your Vitus singnature series SCD-025 you will be getting, I would like for you to do a review of the player on the Tara Labs Thread when you get your final impressions of the player after burn-in, cheers Melbguy1.