2. digital
  3. 130072-84906

Who listens primarily to Redbook CD?

My primary (only, actually) source is a CEC TL5 Transport feeding an Audio Note Kit 1.1 NOS DAC through a Cerious Technologies Graphene Extreme AES/EBU digital cable. They are both decked out with CT GE power cords, Synergistic Research Quantum Black fuses, Herbie's Audio Lab Tenderfeet isolation footers, plus other misc. tweaks.

Sounds great, and I have very little desire to add another source. Pretty much all the music I want is available on CD, and is usually quite cheap. I hope to upgrade to an AN factory DAC (3.1x/II, or better, would be nice), and a Teo Audio liquid metal digital cable (I have their Game Changer ICs, and absolutely love them!) in the future.

Who else is happy with Redbook CD as their primary source?
tommylion
gsm18439
895 posts
 
IMHO there is a greater variance among performances and recording quality than between Redbook versus other formats. I have an AncientAudio LektorPrime CDP.
lalitk's avatar
lalitk
5,550 posts
 
CD + Tidal streaming, both very gratifying in my system. 
lak's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
lak
4,643 posts
 
In both of my systems, I've been very happy with my Sonic Frontiers SFT-1 Transports (modified) and my Yamamoto DA converters YDA-01(slightly modified).
I heard such improvement with that combo I deceided to have them in both systems.
shadorne's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
shadorne
7,477 posts
 
Several 1000 CD ripped to a hardrive using iTunes about 10 years ago. Some HD tracks hi resolution material. More recently Tidal. I like the way I can sync my iPhone and get a compressed lossy version of my complete catalog for the car.

I discovered Benchmark DAC1 about the same time and I now own a DAC 2 also and a DAC 3 is being shipped to me right now.

To add to what Georgehifi said: About 15 years ago R2R DACs were indeed better sounding than early Delta Sigma DACs. However early Delta Sigma issues (glare) have been resolved and their performance currently far exceeds R2R.

I would add that I use a Mac Mini and optical to the DAC. I use a digital volume setting of 1 and an app "BitPerfect" to ensure iTunes original file sample rate is preserved all the way to the DAC (Bitperfect controls the Mac audio output and ensures it changes on the fly to match the original file sample rate). I believe it is best to let the DAC handle the original bitperfect file and do all conversion (upsampling) to analog.

For Tidal, I use the Tidal app and set it to highest quality and also to control audio output sample rate to match the original Tidal source file sample rate.
bigkidz
3,387 posts
 
I build my own components so I use a Direct Heated Triode DAC.  Power supply is 35lbs alone.  Use an older Audiomeca CDP as a transport (same as the CEC).  Have you compared your CEC to anything else?  I wanted the 3 series but its not made anymore.  I have heard my DAC with the top CEC and it was amazing.


I also have a HDMI connection with the DAC and build a converter and a server, its very close but I have not perfected it yet.  Working on it.

For a Digital cable I have come back to using a Moray James.  For some reason it just has a tone that I really like.  I also have a Shunyata Cobra but that seems to make everything sound smoothed out, and seems to hold back some dynamics in direct comparison.  It seems to mask the digital glare that some system may require, but that is not my system with my dac.

Happy Listening.
More to discover