I have been told that the Aiwa xc37m is the sonically the same as the xc35m , so either player will work. Although I can't recall every DAC that everyone has, here is a short list of all my buddies DACs : MSB Platinum, MSB link original, and link 2 (both with Supermod enhancements), Bel Canto, Monarchy, Parasound, Theta, Wadia and Classe. Now, as to the Sony question; If you re-read my original posting on the Aiwa (see "good entry level transport"), you will see that the original comparison test involved EVERY japanese cd player, that had an optical output. And the Aiwa was the ONLY player that was indistiguishable from the Wadia (which was used as the benchmark transport). So, why isn't a better constructed Sony player, similiar in performance to the Awia? Because they have different internal electronics. The outstanding performance of the Aiwa was definately NOT a design consideration. THIS IS AN ANOMOLY! What probably happened is that the Aiwa design team sourced in inexpensive digital output devices, that just happened to have incredible performance. This DOES happen once in a while. For example, I sell chips for a living, and have sold a couple of "budget" chips, that actually use ultra expensive design topologies (which are not common to my compeditors' offerings). This is done to commonize chip manufacturing, and ultimately save the chip manufacturer money through reduced tooling expenses (chip tooling can be in the millions of dollars). Of course, we don't inform the customer that we have budget chips, that are actually equivilent in performance, to our flagship devices. In fact, we don't even publish their true specifications. Instead, we "underspecify' the chip, knowing that it will trounce the listed specifications. The above aforemented scenario is probably what happened with the Aiwa. A design engineer at Aiwa bought a cheap xyz chip (or chips), not knowing that they are actually an exotic topology, common to an ultra high performance chip. It may be only a matter of time until a "high end" transport manufacturer finds out about this player, and purchaces one for teardown to determine why it is so great sonically. But, believe me, they are NOT going to pass this cost savings on to the consumer, with a reasonably priced transport. Why do I say this?; Because us audiophiles are conditioned into thinking that we HAVE to spend fortunes, for those state of the art sonics. It would be bad business for the transport manufacturer to provide a sonically state of the art product, at a reasonable price. Do any of you really think that those ultra expensive cables don't have a serious mark-up? I PERSONALY know three MAJOR cable manufacturers, and they are laughing all the way to the bank. (One did try to provide a sonically superior cable at a reasonable price. Unfortunately, not many people bought it, and he made less money than if he would have priced it much higher).
