Digital Audio Denmark convertors

Vincent: With all due respect, where did you hear or have a chance to compare the Playback Designs? I know of no one in Las Vegas that has one. Nor do I know of anyone who has lent you one.

You make a bold statement when you say "without hesitation that it is by far the best converter on the market" and I have to say I think your credibility is in question on this one.

Jonathan Tinn
Playback Designs

Vincent,
Jonathan Tinn makes a good point. There c-o-u-l-d be a player or converter which is better than the AX24 and also better than all the other players and converters you mentioned. Of course, if you had listened to all those which are popularly thought to be contenders for top of the heap, (those you mentioned and others), and had also listened to many others, and you had come to the same conclusion, and done so with an objective ear and evaluation, then your conclusion would appear to be based on a "rational" process of evaluation, and it could be a credible and defensible opinion. In which case, those who would seek to impugn your credibility simply because you did not share their opinion, and who would do so without also mentioning their similar process of evaluation and the results and t-h-e-i-r opinion, might in turn see their credibility questioned.

don't be so quick to anoint a new champion.

i am reviewing an 8 channel ess tech sabre 32 bit dac.

you may be surprised. the jury is still out on this one.

i have had both the Digital Audio Denmark in my system and the Berkeley too.

the Denmark was in my system last spring when Crna39 (the poster 4 posts above this post) was in my room doing a recording for FIM off my Rockport tt. there was also a Pacific Microsonics Model 2 hi-rez dac being used. we did multiple tests and playback comparing my tt to these sources over a 12 hour period.

the very next week i took delivery of my Playback Designs MPS-5.

neither of these professional DAC's came close to the MPS-5 in performance using the performance of my Rockport as the common reference. the Playback Designs comes closer to sounding completely natural and life-like than the Denmark. not to say that the Digital Audio Denmark is not a fine sounding DAC in it's own right.

obviously; Crna39 owns these products and listens to them daily in his work and you can read his opinion.

a few weeks later i was given a Berkeley to compare to the MPS-5; same result. Again, the Berkeley is certainly a fine sounding DAC but not at the Playback Designs level. i did only compare redbook when i had the Berkeley.

these are just my opinions based on my listening in my system to these products.

And NO ONE talks about the playback software used, nor what types (or resolution) of files played back. Sonic differences in playback software are vast. It's not all about "the gear", although all of us have been conditioned to that paradigm over many years. If iTunes was being used as the playback software during these comparisons noted above, I would be highly suspect about the results....iTunes sounds like cardboard in comparison to better pro software suites.

Gentlemen?