Digital Front End: Critical Listening

No opinion yet just my experience in the last month.

I figured it was time to let the B&W CDM9NT's sing. Speaker Cable upgrade. Huge difference especially in the bottom end. With B&K Pre and Amp. Interconnect upgrade difference ???. Then there goes the allowance Upgrade to Musical Fidelity A308 integrated. Nice sound out of my Denon DVD 2800 II which I had just purchased to replace my Denon DVD 2800. At this point I am a goner. Added Musical fidelity Tri-Vista tube DAC. After about a week of burn in with the Denon as the transport beautiful difference, more open and warm sound. Had trouble with the transport in the 2800II and returned it (Fedup with Denon). Purchased the Sony DVPNS999ES DVD SACD player. Beautiful fixed base transport. The music became brighter and not as warm as the Denon but very pleasing. At this point I blew a crossover and then a cone in the CDM9NT. My dealer loaned me a pair of DunAudio speakers so I could break in the system and still have music. Over the next week I A-B the Sony and the Tri-Vista many many times there was no audible difference to my ear. Reaching the frustation point a 2400.00 DAC aginst a 900.00 DVD and no audible difference. I took the Sony to my favorite audio store for a different ear and a listen. We used 308 Integrated to keep things the same. The only differnece was the Speaker Cable and the Speakers. Still no audible difference to my ear. There was to the salesman whom by the way I trust. A-B'd the Sony and the Tri-Vista for about an hour. Then we switched to the Musical Fidelity A308 CD Player using it as a transport nice difference over the Sony in all respects. A-B the 308CD and the Tri-vista DAC shall we say to my ear the DAC was warmer and more refined is it worth going separates over a CD player, I don't know yet I am looking for a good transport as I spent my allowance it will have to be used and mid-grade.
It will probably take another month to get the system together I will post again at that time. Remember to take the system as a whole.

Hmm, my $1500 DVD/SACD player SONY DVP-S9000ES vs old $300-400 Arcam ALPHA6 player just lost. I have already placed full review on Audiogon and Audioreview. I was so dissapointed with SONY.
(SONY was playing SACD layer of hybrid SACD disk, Arcam CD layer). I was using MF A300 amp and Thiel 3.6 speakers.

Artisen65,

You make some good points, looks like transport synergy might be the issue. My local stereo guy always refers to a CEC transport he once owned as his reference. I read somewhere that Parasound sold a similar design under their banner that was made by CEC. Both are belt driven. With my Sony I was trying to have digital separates and a good SACD player in one. Now I'm starting to think about mod's to the Sony, Richard Kern's in particular. Thanks for the good feedback.

Two things:
1) your Transport is the weakest link - get it modded

2) THe ML360S is very good, but also can be better once modded

What do you mean, or what are you looking for, when you say 'difference?' Maybe the music wasn't demanding enough, (no quality judgement here), to reveal differences. I've recently gone from a Rega Planet 2000 to the Musical Fidelity a308cr, and there was a huge difference in transparency *but* this was only noticeable when listening to large-scale classical music. The Rega and the MF players sounded just about the same with small-group ensembles, whether chamber group or jazz, but the MF would expand, (bloom), when orchestra and chorus get going full-tilt . I too tried the Tri-Vista DAC, both with my $2 DVD player and A308cr as transports. The sound was (surprise) gritty with the DVD player. When comparing the A308 alone and the A308 as a transport with the Tri-Vista DAC, the sound was only *slightly* more fleshed out with the later combo. Though not enough for me to go on a transport and cable hunt.

Sytem:

Musical Fidelity A308 Integrated
MF A308 CD player
Cardas Neutral Reference interconnects and bi-wired cable
Vandersteen 3A Signatures
(Two Vandersteen subs on way!)