Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD

Matt, congratulations on reaching this major milestone in your journey. Enjoy!

A point to keep in mind regarding your forthcoming audition of the Aesthetix Romulus Signature: It will be marginal, at best, in terms of its compatibility with the relatively low input impedance of your Burmester preamp (11K balanced/16.5K unbalanced, and I assume you will want to use the balanced inputs). The manual for the non-Signature Romulus states:

Recommended load impedance: >20Kohm balanced; >l0Kohm single-ended

And I would emphasize the ">"; presumably loading that is not significantly greater than those values would represent at least a small degree of compromise.

The corresponding numbers for the Signature version, which don't appear to be published, would probably be somewhat lower (better) than that, due to the output coupling capacitor upgrades it incorporates. But I suspect it would still be just marginally compatible, with the most likely consequence being some amount of rolloff in the bottom octave. So be sure that your assessment includes particular focus on material having significant content in the very deep bass region.

A number of other Aesthetix products are similarly marginal with respect to low impedance loads, which is why I suspected there might be an issue in this case and checked into these numbers.

Best regards,
-- Al

Matt,
Congratulations on your new speakers. Hopefully, they will last a couple of years before you start loosing your sleep again:))

I wish you tried Coincident Pure Reference Extreme, but this is a different audio philosophy: high power transistors vs low power SET tubes etc.

I am quite surprised by your Antipodes findings, but it is good to know that a modified mini can outperform a specialist music server. My mini was an old stock unit, so my results were quite different. Also, I would choose the Antipodes just for its usability features alone, as I said, I hate iTunes and had some unfortunate experiences with it.

I will also look at different server options after the DAC upgrade and would be very much interested about your experience with the Aurender models. Which model are you going to look at? W20 is probably a great product, but in my view is way overpriced.

Another interesting choice is the new Lampizator DSD Komputer: http://lampizator.eu/Fikus/KOMPUTER_-_MUSIC_SERVER.html. This a completely different approach to the Antipodes: a high specs Windows 2012 R2 Server machine with Swiss Audiophile Optimizer and JRiver as the user interface. It can convert PCM to DSD on the fly which is a great attraction to all Lampizator DAC owners including myself, even with my DAC DSD is superior to PCM.

The EMM Labs DAC2X must be a great DAC to outperform ODSE. It is on my DAC list to try and compare to Lampi GG. Does it support DSD?

Thanks,
Aziz

Matt, I am so proud to be a member of the rarified community of your certifiable crazy friends... Whether our symptomatology conforms to the canonic chronic model, or ours is a boundary acute degenerative case, I venture to say that we do all reach well into the stratosphere of audiophrenic morbidity.

* As you know, my bet was on the Dynaudios... I am confident that they will soar to even further heights during the next few months.

* I do admit that the win of EMM over Empirical is a stunning upset, particularly given the magnitude that you experienced. I am now intrigued to no end by what EMM has achieved. Will you be testing the upcoming Empirical superDAC as well?

* The following new thread contains a data point suggesting that the Bryston BDP2 might be a strong contender versus Aurander, in spite of BDP2's significantly lower price point:
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?ddgtl&1443219284&openusid&zzGuidocorona&4&&

Saluti, G.

Matt,
That was a Whomper of an update and I enjoyed reading it!

Glad you finally found the perfect speaker for you. Exciting news about the Emm dac. I have to admit I'm disappointed the Antipodes didn't come out better.

I'm going to stay tuned to read about about your Aurrender and the Romulus reviews.

Thanks!

Matt,
Your written descriptions of what you hear is very well done, when you describe the Isis analogy of the comfortable cabin on the mountain top, that sold me as the speaker which stirred the emotions more deeply with more appeal to the soul(well my interpretation anyway 😃). I admit my bias is toward the organic/holistic end of the spectrum. You make it clear both are quite exceptional in your home system. Again this adventure has been fun and informative.
Best Regards,
Charles,