Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD

@wisnon thanks for the information. I'm enjoying the fact that I'm not being hooked up to a computer is one that I love and will probably never give up. I take my best recordings get them up sampled to Dsd and I am very happy with the sound. No power supply crap. No jitter crap. No server noise crap. Im happy with what I have. Kr audio va 900 with this dac is very musical. I listen to my favorite 100 to 150 recordings through the dac in 2xdsd and if I want to listen to others I have an e.a.r CD player. When you look at it. How much time do we have to listen to music? I find well recorded music through a great dac going up to Dsd keeps me pretty happy. Resonessence did a great job. To get better you are going to spend 8k plus easy. Sd cards rock!

All I can say is that the rooms that have been mentioned were not among those that impressed me. I liked the PS Audio and German Physics rooms most. Both of these in the past did not impress me, but they turned the corner this year.

I had one Jeff Rowland first amps in the early '80s. It was very good at that time. His venturing into the class D amps turned me off.

TBG,

Variety is the spice of life!

TBG - have you heard a class D from Rowland or Merrill Audio? Condemning class D forever because of what class D used to be is like saying you don't like modern Cadillacs because your grandfather used to drive a Caddy u-boat.....

Norm, as Matt said, today's class D amps can be a far cry from the uninspiring sound of early low end class D devices common during the early part of the last decade.

Mind you, class D has the same potential for magic and horridity as any other class of operation... It all depends on underlying active and passive componentry, sophistication of circuit design, execution, quality control, and musical/sonic goals and phylosophy of the designer/engineer.

Like with any other class of operation, some companies and designers have been more successful than other companies, and within the same company, some devices have been more successful than other ones in delivering audio nirvana at their respective price points. And some outliers still seem bent to producing an acrid sound... But isn't that true of the industry in general?!

It's worth being experimentalists and shed preconceived notions... Unavoidably, some amps we will love, and some we will hate... The important thing is to listen with our ears, and suspend judgement until we can apply our musical evaluation in situ, on a case by case basis, while avoiding the pitfalls of apriori induction logic.

Admittedly, there is one thing that a big honking class D amp might have problems achieving.... That is to turn your music room into an oven.

G.