Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD

Mitch2 - I don't disagree with your thought. But I have also spoken with others who feel that a well done computer server is just as good, and this from people have have compared them directly. I am looking at Lumin, Aurender & Antipodes. I don't have the dedicated funds until I decide on speakers to get. I'm assuming that whatever I have currently will only sound better with a dedicated server. But I'm a try before I buy kinda guy (shocker there)! I'll get all three in and see which works best for me, or that my Mac mini is actually better then we all think.

Richfield and CTSooner will be happy to hear that I have an extended audition this Thursday morning to hear the Vandy 7/2. I will report my findings.

I did get to hear the Vivid Giya2 and the Joseph Audio Pearl 3, and neither was for me. The G2 was very laid back and although the base was extended I found it tubby and disjointed from the rest of the sound. Setup and the room where clearly a factor - they have these strange sort of forward firing side ports and side firing woofers and I think the speakers were set up too close to the side and back walls. But they were simply too laid back for my tastes. The Pearl3's had a very nice engaging midrange and did wonders for vocals and piano. I found their highs to be a bit in my face occasionally and the low frequency extension doesn't go as low as I want. What it did have was tight, impactful and musical. They lacked the sense of scale and complexity I am after. With complex orchestral segments I found the speaker lacking union and cohesion.

But they did have a speaker that wasn't even on my list but works fantastically for my needs. But it was set up with mid powered tube gear and really needed high power solid state gear to shine considering its 84-85dB sensitivity. The Dynaudio Consequence Ultimate. I will be going back next week for a second listen. At 250 pounds a speaker there is no opportunity for an in home demo. I gotta do it the old fashioned way and hear them in a store.....

I'm going to try to get back next week to hear them set up with solid state gear.

I'll keep you posted.

Hi Matt, what electronics were driving the Joseph Audio Pearls? Guido

Matt, I dont think you are being limited at all. You clearly state that the real problem is nodal issues with the base resulting from the geometry of the room and the config of the speaker bass ports. many of the speakers you say have delicious mids and highs, BUT the bass is consistently and issue with anything but sealed, down or front ported.

So yeah, you can improve your source, but that wont change the laws of speaker physics. No matter what the upstream is, you STILL have to find a livable speaker solution, so keep concentrating on that.

This should be particularly reassuring to you, as I threw more speaker options than most at you. LoL

This speaker thing is a bitch. Dacs are easy breezy. Matt, I wonder how much of what you're hearing at these demoes is due to poor setup? Speaker setup is a science, and I know I have mangled it repeatedly.

When will you be hearing the Ras?

First off, sorry for all the typos. I wrote BASE instead of BASS. LoL

My Bad.

GearD, I think Matt is more in the mode of ISIS than Ra, due to the visceral impact of the 15inch woofer.

If absolute MR/HF quality was not the issue, I would tell him to get a pair of FUN Silver Phantoms and call it a day! Heheheh

The Bass there is "WRONG", ie air pushing rather than vibration propagation, BUT they hit hard and are soo much fun. True plug and play with a dose of artificial intelligence as the units talk to each other and automatically adjusts their configutration to the new optimal. Imagine a club with 32 of these suckers hung on the wall and playing in Tandem! Ultimate in cool.

You know I was snobby against the Phantoms till I heard them but I must say I enjoyed the experience. Ultimate nervosa liberation. The only thing close would be the Goldmund Logos tower, but that is $60K a pair and goes down to about 40db while the SPs go down to about 30 in practical terms. The Logos will likely be more refined in mids up, but the price to improvement ratio is not very encouraging.