External DAC for PS3

"Wonderful_electric":

Your Quote -- "But what do you think about the latest top of the line offering from Meridian?"

My Answer -- I "REALLY" don't know. Because up until recently, I have been satisfied with my 508.24. So, I haven't auditioned any of Meridian's new offerings in a long time. But being that the 508.24 is an older player, I have every reason to believe that today's equivalent would probably supersede the 508.24 though. But then, the question remains, do you think that you have to spend upward to $10K to get a top quality CD Player??? My answer to that question remains no. I am willing to bet that there are EVEN affordable alternatives available today that would probably smoke my 508.24. And you have to remember that the 508.24 is about 10 years old. And yes, it is still alive and kicking right now, and I still use it. But if it does kick the bucket, you can best believe I won't be spending NO WHERE close to the $1,600.00 I paid for my (used) 508.24 a few years ago. Its replacement is going to be a WHOLE LOT cheaper, which as of now, I am using my i-Pod Classic with a Wadia i-Transport 170 Docking System and a Cambridge Audio "DAC Magic" DAC.

Getting the sound quality that tops my Meridian 508.24 combined with the convenience of not having to get up and change CD's all the time is intoxicating.

--Charles--

Charles,

I'm in entire agreement with you. The gap - at least in digital - has narrowed in the past 15 years. This is the benefit of 25 years of digital. Many of the worst offending problems have been dealt with and one can now more blame the recording quality and not the playback system.

I am not saying that differences do not exist - but part of it is just the presentation rather than a specific fault with one product versus another.

I already have the classic DAC1 and have been using it with a computer system and uncompressed audio files. I do not have blu ray or HDMI support yet. I am looking into getting the Integra 9.8 processor and a PS3. My ultimate goal would be to use the optical out to my Benchmark DAC1 for 2 channel music via 44.1 khz and the HDMI to the Integra for movies. Will the PS3 determine the output format depending on the media I'm using or will I have to go into the settings each time to tell it whether I want to output via optical or HDMI? That would be annoying if I had to change the settings every time I want to change between the HDMI with movies and optical for music.