Not wasting my time on new Digital

It occurs to me that the majority of sweeping conclusions expressed in these threads are drawn upon a very small sampling of in-home listening experiences. I understand your disappointment with two newer digital players, but how does that account for the other 100+ options available in today's marketplace?

This is no different than those who damn all expensive power cords after having tried one or two. Or slam speaker manufacturers for a model they heard ten years earlier. I too have heard a number of players--upsampled and not--that did not produce sound that IMO warranted their high price. On the other hand, I've heard others--older, newer, pricey and not--that sounded amazing. It all depends upon whether or not you're willing to find the right combination, one that works with your other components, your choice of music, your sonic preferences, and with your room...often with no rewarding payoff for 300 hours or more!

It's no small feat to replace one's reference, and neither a high price or a specified technology is any guarantee of successfully making that leap. But I assure you, even this empathetic lover of vinyl has heard some killer digital.

Rapogee, what AN DACs have you tried? Maybe it's my hyper real amps and preamps that compensate for the lack of detail you report. I found a lot more detail in changing out my power amps than I ever did any CDP.

I find tubed non oversampling to be more three dimensional. They excel on spaciousness, and black background. It's the roll off of the extremes that I don't care for.

I know this is off topic, but have any you guys tried bit streaming off the ol' PC?

I know this is off topic, but have any you guys tried bit streaming off the ol' PC?

We are doing that, Vince, using a Squeezebox that reads wirelessly from an external hard drive. The Squeezebox has its own DAC, but we run it to our CDP/DAC, because the sound quality is considerably better. Drubin does the same. I know, because he was my mentor at the Squeezebox Academy.

And now back to our regularly scheduled program. Sorry, Rapogee.

Hmmmmmmmmm

I have had the unit for 3 weeks now and playing daily for long hours so not a short audition before I initiated this topic.

Many units I have had, I had plenty of time not a short 2 day audition, weeks to get comfortable with. I have had the Audio Aero Capitol but the other I just am unable to mention for other reasons.

Muralman1: Well I am comfotable with my amplification, I have 3 systems all in and I have the original Spectral DMC 10 Delta upgrade and DMC 12 with phono and Spectral Power, so I have lots of resolution and speed for sure on one system.

They other maybe but at the same time I am not dishing the sound of CD, I just find the newer units other than Meridian and Spectral (to name a few) many newer stuff is just not quite enjoyable compared to some older stuff.

I agree Boa2 that there are great new digital components, but I am expecting to pay for example $5000 and expect a good jump in digital source imporvement, not 5% better compared to something that came out 10 years ago! Thats hard, I am expecting 10 years of digital engineering imporvement going further ahead much more. Thats all, I feel that there is comming to a point things are slowing down there is so much more white paper talk compared to reality.

I dont know this but I tried this unit next (even the Capitol) compared to my Theta GEN V balanced which is actuall around 10 years old now and for those of you out there who are very familiar with this piece, using a good transport.... I had 4 people over (audiophiles) and all of them prefered the Theta, especially the bottom end, not even close.....try some difficult passages by Stanley Clark and Mark Egan and I was just asking to my self....hmmm well (same experience the newer remastered Fleetwood Mac CD I guess)

Just an opinion