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Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD

Hi All.

Putting together a reference level system.
My Source is predominantly standard 16/44 played from a MacMini using iTunes and Amarra. Some of my music is purchased from iTunes and the rest is ripped from standard CD's.
For my tastes in music, my high def catalogues are still limited; so Redbook 16/44 will be my primary source for quite some time.

I'm not spending DCS or MSB money. But $15-20k retail is not out of the question.

Upsampling vs non-upsampling?
USB input vs SPDIF?

All opinions welcome.

And I know I need to hear them, but getting these ultra $$$ DAC's into your house for an audition ain't easy.

Looking for musical, emotional, engaging, accurate , with great dimension. Not looking for analytical and sterile.
mattnshilp
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 

Each to his own, as for what just I heard, no, there were 8 of us.
We all thought the Bricasti was the sweeter and less in your face with poor quality pcm cd's
.
But with good to very good cd's the Total was more detailed had better bass, dynamics and had a jump factor that the Bricasti couldn't come close to.
  
And Kramer being a reviewer and has to compare review equipment to what he has, and wanted the best warts and all (even if playing poor cd's) and not to be kind to them.

Cheers George 
gdhal's avatar
gdhal
1,641 posts
 
Gdhal’s comments just didn’t correlate with my actual listening experiences of many DACs of both type of designs.

Hi @charles1dad 

I would like to point out that the comment to which you refer I made, prior to your post, is with respect to the technology of delta-sigma itself, which would have nothing to do with subjective listening preferences.

Not true. I think you are maybe confusing this with lossy formats.


Hi @audioengr 

I note the occurrence of the word (including stemming) "approximate" appears no less than five (5) times in the following article:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta-sigma_modulation
gdhal's avatar
gdhal
1,641 posts
 
Not sure why some are so adamant to keep on trying to say R2R is always better etc...

@ctsooner 

I suspect the answer to your question has something to do with feedback (no pun intended) from those - such as myself - who have heard both technologies and merely wish to convey their findings.
gdhal's avatar
gdhal
1,641 posts
 
I think you don’t know what your talking about. Delta sigma beat discrete how could that be if information is missing?

@jwm 

In answer to your question, please refer to the post I directed to audioengr 01-13-2018 7:34pm. Thanks.
jwm
918 posts
 
If the Bricasti was not used with Ethernet through it’s own internal board then no contest. Through usb it’s good but not great. I had the latest total dac and the Bricasti had way more dynamics. There was nothing about the total dac that was better. If you like hi fi sound then I could see how you could like the total dac. 
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