Higher End DACs

@ufguy73 and @mikelavigne   Thank you for your detailed and thorough responses. Very helpful!

ufguy73:    Take a look at CH Precision as well. The C1 specifically. Their lineup will address your needs should you want to go for in-house synergy as you build your system (SACD/CD Transport, Clock, etc.).

@ufguy73   It's good to see you considering the T+A SDV 3100 HV.  As you already know, you can add a Transport ahead of it, should discs be important.

As a standalone unit, it offers you streaming (and more), the digital to analog conversion, and analog preamplification and volume. In other words, it covers nearly all of your stated needs and goals.

I second @rgmd11 's recommendation for the SDV. It is a phenomenal component. I've had the opportunity to evaluate it in my own system for three weeks.

I have also auditioned the dCS range at a dealer and listened to the Rossini in a couple of audio friend's systems. There is a similarity in house sound / signature and as others have already pointed out...the gains are apparent as you go up the line. The Rossini would be my personal target (standalone) since the Vivaldi deserves the full stack treatment, which of course means significant separation on budget. 

@david_ten 

yes, the T+A SDV 3100 really looks a great unit...cutting edge capable.

to be clear, you find some similarities between DCA and T+A house sound?  How would you generalize?

@mikelavigne 

mike, thanks so much for the detailed breakdown.  As I understand it, if one does not need to stream home-based/NAS files, one can forego something like the Extreme? Further, if digital is really going to be streaming, there is a network module that can be used in the MSB lineup to forego a separate streamer?

If you 'had to do it all over again from scratch' would you pursue CD/SACD at all or simply stream digitally?

I am also a lover of classic rock (being a guitar player, myself) and so the IDEA of vinyl is immensely attractive to me...however, I suspect its a huge rabbit hole in and of itself...and maybe the better thing to do is prioritize the digital setup and address the vinyl when and if I still feel as needed.

Any thoughts on the synergy (I suspect its not ideal but is it still imminently feasible and still capable of squeezing the added benefit out of something like MSB) to build off my existing Mcintosh/B&W system?

@ufguy73

if i was starting over i would not mess around with silver discs (CD’s or SACD’s) at all; if i had some i would rip them to files. it would be files and streaming only. think about it this way; silver discs are now 30 years old as a format. it’s a mature format and optimized. playing files is now about 10 years old and it’s now just getting mature and it’s surpassing the best transport performance and it will keep getting better as discs stay the same. there is no economic pressure to make disc playing better. it’s all on file and streaming performance. follow the money and you will find truth.

i’m not a techie, so i hesitate to try and explain what you can’t do with digital. there are any number of one box solutions (dac/server+ file storage/streaming) at various price points. but those are not options at the higher level of digital. how high do you want to go in performance?

files can reside inside the server, or in a NAS, or in a laptop, or your phone, or not at all and just stream.

as far as the other questions about high level source investment (digital and/or vinyl) and whether your current system can fully optimize them that is a wide open question beyond this thread. i’d maybe need to get educated on your gear exactly. email me and we can exchange phone numbers and we can talk about it. B&W and McIntosh are certainly high end brands and that is not likely a limitation on the face of it. the questions become about where the biggest bang for your buck is in overall performance, and how far do you intend to go in the foreseeable future. these type situations get very complicated. i would not want to shoot from the hip.

mplav@comcast.net