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Audiophile Changer: Cool or Hopeless Compromise?

Hello again everyone. It is great to be back to this site. Having owned and sold a Levinson 31 (sounded fine but didn't REALLY do it for me) I am finally going back to analogue and perhaps, a SONY SCD-1.

For general every day listening of my 2-300 CDs, however, it would be wonderfully convenient to have them in a changer. Is anyone taking a digital output from one of these things and running it through an external D/A, for example an ARC DAC-1 or DAC2 with decent results? Which changer transport is the best? CD or DVD/multi? And can someone please explain "upsampling"? In my experience, I have never really been transported by anything digital. I am waiting to be converted but in the mean time, would just love to conveniently enjoy a few hundred CDs without getting a migraine or thinking that reading a magazine or watching cable would be more satisfying. Thanks for you ideas and advice. Happy holidays to everyone.
cwlondon
ehider
286 posts
 
Sugarbrie is dead on with his Awia recomendation. I own one, and it is absolutely world class as long as it is used with a 24 bit dac with the optical connection. Obviously Awia DID NOT design this cheapo changer with the high end in mind, it is just a serious engineering anomoly. I have compared the Awia with quite a few $3k+ transports, and it holds its own with all of them.

The best part about owning the Awia is taking it to high end salons and asking: "Hi, I would like to see if you have a transport that is better than my Awai here". After we do some A/B tests, the sales guy tries to figure out why his transport does not sonically crush the Awia. If they start by choosing a "budget transport" in the $1000 range, the Awia always is the clear choice. I've always left the audio salons with these guys scratching their heads (and me smiling ear to ear).
thsalmon
348 posts
 
I'll second Kira's recommendation of the Dan Wright modified SCD 333 ES for use as a transport.
superkrell
17 posts
 
I'm using an old Marantz CC-65SE changer. I use the digital out thru a JPS Labs SC+ digital cable and on to my Proceed AVP and it sounds just fine.
sedond
1,387 posts
 
aiwa seems like it may be a good mate to my "serious engineering anomaly" art di/o. :>) anyone know if it offers coax digital output, or can be modded by stan warren to do so?

thanks, doug s.

sugarbrie
3,854 posts
 
You would have to call Stan about the coax output. I would think he could do it, because part of his mod is to remove the optical output termination on the back of the player and hard wire a differenct digital cable. I see no reason he could not do the same thing but use a Coax output.
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