Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD

Any opinions on Rockna digital gear? DAC and music server?

You are right Matt, looking at the web site, Rockna Audio looks, at least on paper, very interesting. The DAC is all based on FPGA, and the server combines a spinning disk player with a server / memory player. I have not found any US prices, the company being based in Roumania.

http://www.rockna-audio.com

The US importer is:

AudioPrana LLC
69 Boston Ave Medford, Massachusetts 02155-3521 United States
Tel.: 617 669 3275
audioprana@gmail.com

G.

Matt- which DACs are on the short list to contend with your Empirical once you've settled on speakers, etc.?

I'm curious as to how the DirectStream with Yale firmware would stack up against the ODSE and also a higher priced DAC such as totaldac D1-twelve. Does anyone following this thread have the Yale firmware yet?

-Josh

Guys, there are some very real DAC's that will hit the market in the next year or so. I think that folks may want to hold off a bit on upper end DACs/Servers as things may just blow up in the next year. I can't share the companies right now as I was asked not to, but we all know Steve is also coming out with his new upper end DAC too. there are only a handful of DACs that I personally enjoy as I still love vinyl, but I have been enjoying Steve's OSDE/SE a whole lot for the same reasons Matt has his. We've spoken a bit about it. I think Steve just gets the digital and analog filtering correct. I have liked Berkley's newest DAC, but I really need to hear the mk II vs the Overdrive and I hope to do that in the next couple of weeks when I head back to NJ to listen at my dealer there.

Mhdt non over sampling dacs check all those boxes and could save you thousands. I use SS Constantine and tube paradisea. I've heard and coveted dcs and others for reference and these keep me satisfied.