Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD

Sometimes I wonder how we would each enjoy our systems if we never spoke with each other and never read any reviews. Is our capacity to enjoy different and are our happy buttons different then they would have otherwise been?

I believe "yes" Matt, and thanks for the reminder that what we hear, and the level of enjoyment that brings to us, is what really counts and not bragging rights, audio reviews or internet consensus.

Many years ago, when I put my first system together, before the internet, and before I had ever read a single audio magazine, I went to a couple of different shops and in both cases the salespeople simply let me listen to gear in my price range and make my own choices. I ended up with a NAD 3040, Thorens TD166 MkII and ADS L810s. 35 years later, the NAD still powers my outdoor system. After owning and listening to them for over 20 years, selling the L810s and Thorens were two of my earliest audio transactions and two of my biggest mistakes. I believe the longevity of that first gear was because it represented equipment that sounded good to me, without outside influences.

Hi Mat, at the cost of being deemed uncooth and a country bumpkin, analog is what I abandoned in 1984... And never felt the need to look back since.

As for "analog sound" done well, I have a hard time distinguishing it from "digital sound" done well... I have heard fab analog sound and fab digital sound... as much as Crappy digital sound and equally crappy analog rigs.

Yes, I have been equally enchanted/mesmerized down to my soul by complexity, and textured richness of analog front ends as much as by the same in digital front ends. "The Analog vs digital" discussion is covering in my opinion a false problem. Or at least, it is a matter that has more to do with the social sciences than engineering.

G

+1 Guidocorona thoughts regarding digital and analog.

I agree. But Mike L. was very specific to use the term analogue as a descriptor. I guess we all have our own interpretation of what that implies. But you are 100% correct Guido. Same as tube vs. solid state. As they get better they become more and more like each other.

Guidocorona, I have been involved with a pro guy in Canada for some years now and have had success with a heavily modified Mac Mini using JRiver MC 21 for a digital sound that easily surpasses what I ever heard on a cd player. I was playing double DSD files from SACDs and many cds ripped to my hard drives. Initially, he had made the Mac Mini think it was just iTunes playing but then Apple made the Mac Mini into a device that could run Windows 8. The later version moved to running the Mac running Widow 7.

Now he is seeking to reduce the latency of the computer, which entails abandoning much of the conveniency of iTunes or typical JRiver MCs organization. I have or had a new music server and managed to hear one cut before losing control of it. That cut was so outstanding and only rivaled by a quad DSD recording I heard at the RMAF that I am hoping to get the server back soon with some conveniences added. Both the one cut that I heard on this server and what I heard in the German Physics room quad DSD cut, were different than analog sources, but clearly their equal. Transient attacks were quite striking and bass control, realism, and extension were awesome.

I think that quad DSD is the wave of the future and that 44.1 and cds will be gone soon be gone. I really hope that my friend can get me a low latency music server with some ease of use. I'm also hoping that SONY makes their quad DSDs available in that format.