Question for DACs

The Bel Canto Dac 1 is an upsamlling dac and would probably work well with your DVD player, particularly its toslink output. It should give you a significant improvement. Unfortunately, the Bel Canto lists for $1,295 but is available used for $900. If $900 is too much, there is a dac called the Birdland Odeon Lite, which I think is around $800 and is also an upsampler but I have only read about it.

I really like my Bel Canto DAC1. Check out these reviews, I think they might answer your questions. Good Luck,Charlie http://www.onhifi.com/product.shtml http://www.soundstage.com/revequip/belcanto_dac1.htm http://www.soundstage.com/revequip/belcanto_dac1_followup.htm

HuiJames, I'm sorry. I meant to say, in my first post, that I really, really love my DAC1. I find it is like having a whole new library of remastered cd's, except for those that have a lot of hiss or drop off from the master tape or due to poor production, (ain't no fixin' that,) and it has made me forget the question of "what is the next format?" Charlie

If you can find a Cambridge Audio S-700 DAC it will decode HDCD. I've seen them on eBay and Audiogon pretty cheap. In addition to the PMD-100 HDCD filter, it comes with an SSA-7350 DAC-7 converter chip. It is also its own issolation platform for putting your transport on.

The newer EVS Millenium II DAC's that Ric will be coming out with soon should be a FABULOUS steal at appr. $850. These are upsamplers and upgradeable as newer standards are released. I know that Ric likes using some of the various DVD players as transports, so that should not be a problem. The only problems that i do foresee is that they might not have HDCD circuitry and that you'll probably have a pretty long wait getting one. I know that he's already backordered for quite a few units. The first ones to be produced should be rolling out the doors in a few weeks. I'm one of the early ones on the list, so i can't wait for mine to arrive !!! Sean >