Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD

Richfield, sorry I missed you yesterday and Matt, I'm sorry I'll miss you today. I've liked many of the Dynaudio I've heard. I think that may have been the speaker I"d have gotten if I didn't fall in love with the Vandersteen when I did.

As for servers, I have Steve's mac mini with Hynes power supply and it's amazing. I"ve heard most of the servers being talked about in this thread and I have to say the the three that Matt is looking at are all outstanding, but honestly, I'm not sure if they better my set up with the tricked out OSDE/SE and the mac mini playing high rez music from it's upgraded SS drive. The only problem I have now is finding the right NAS and also CD drive as I want to rip all my CD;s to a NAS and then I may get a server when things settle down and get even better. Any NAS/Blueray, DVD drives suggestions are fine too ;)...

Paul79 - I never said they were bright. In fact they were not. But I found at times they shouted at me. And the low frequency just didn't get to where I wanted. The room wasn't ideal but it wasn't poorly setup. I feel I got a good sense of what they were capable of.

Wisnon. Going Goldman is a huge right angle turn from my current direction. I'm not sure I can emotionally handle that drastic a change. I know and like Bob so I'll call him to chat.

I re-heard the Vandy 7/2 today. I don't have time now to report and I need to gather my thoughts and opinions. I'm running into the operating room. I'll post later.

I also have the Mac Mini, with the SR5-18v5 Paul Hynes. SSD, 8g ram, Amarra, Audirvana... It is pretty good, but the Totaldac Server is ALLOT better in every way, most notably in transparency, dynamics, and 3D imaging/sound-staging. I also hear no difference in FLAC, AIFF, WAV, that sort of thing... It all sounds fantastic (Linux for music man!!).

The Totaldac USB Cable is a nice tweak for cleaning up the sound from the Mac Mini also. This is something cheap to try. That little sucker was my gateway drug into a full Totaldac Twelve 4 box front end, which I find to be other worldly digital reproduction. Not cheap, but I am not looking for another DAC...

I recently did a comparison to an $80K analog front end, and the Twelve held its own. Both in same system with the same music. DSD vs. LP. The Totaldac lost out to the ultimate ambient resolution and absolute perfect transparency of the analog rig, but in every other way, the two were comparable. Speed, image focus, tuneful accurate bass, soundstage accuracy, sound of the instruments, dynamic contrasting, etc...

Matt, no need to do an about turn, just go lisetn to see what is possible.

You have so far been wide open in giving everything a chance to better hpne in on what you like...

Paul, the Totaldac server is pricey correct?