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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
charles1dad's avatar
charles1dad
10,250 posts
 
"I have faith in the average audiophile" Elizabeth,  I share that faith. 
I assume that the thread participants are adults capable of independently forming their own judgements.  The  repetitive dogmatic   approach can alienate and thus be unintentionally counterproductive.  
Charles 
mattnshilp OP
917 posts
 
Sorry for the delay. I just came home from a week long trip to London and Paris. Great family time. Loved it all. Looking forward to getting some solid listening time in this week though. Yes, I missed my stereo.... I went to one store in London but it turned out to be a tech store more then Audio. Apparently, Diavalet have crossed over to mainstream mass market audio....

I won’t have much to report for a day or three, so let’s run off topic for a bit and hear about trips you guys have recently taken to audio related locations. Shows, intentional trips to audition gear, concerts, anything that involves music, gear and traveling.

Should be a fun diversion.
ctsooner's avatar
ctsooner
2,480 posts
 
welcome back buddy.  Glad that it was a great trip.  Elizebeth, I too have heard that marantz.  I think most equate it with their mass market stuff.  Most have not heard their reference gear which is very nice sounding.  I like warm and not 'hot' gear.  I don't put your DAC into either category.  I think it's a fairly neutral sound with a bit of dynamics.  If anything, the soundstage was a bit more intimate than say the Empirical ODSE/SE that I owned.  Steve's gear threw huge stages.  The Marantz seemed to me to be a nice piece.
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
Next to the Total Dac, this was another jaw dropping moment that really impressed when converting pcm Redbook either 16/44 or 24/96.

http://www.aquahifi.com/la_scala.html

Cheers George
jay23
210 posts
 
@georgehifi 
Funny you mentioned these two, we had exactly this shoot out for a whole day on a reviewers system at his place in the beautiful Blue Mtns on his Wilson Alexia MkII, Gryphon Antillion Evo Signature my passive pre. We also went direct, with the same results.
The Total dac was far better than the Bricasti in every area, even the owner of the Bricasti SE conceded, and is going to sell it to go to R2R.

Don’t get me wrong the Bricasti was lovely and sweet and smooth, but not exciting when compared, it had no jump factor like the Total, that snapped your head back in disbelief with some of the dynamics, and yet it still stayed sweet and smooth when needed.
You could hear deeper into the music because of this expanse from quiet to loud. And it gave all this to you not from the speaker but all around it with an image and depth that washed over you instead of directed from the each of the drivers of the speakers, as if the speakers weren't there in the room.

Cheers George
We had 5 techs, 3 non techs at our meeting and were all insistent on perfect level matching.
All levels were matched overhaul not by spl by ear or meter but by the voltage down to the mV fed into the speakers at differing sine waves with a tech cd to get the levels absolutely identical to the mV
And the Total Dac 7 with larger optional off board power supply, was by far the better, with PCM Redbook replay.

Cheers George

Did you really only use a passive preamp or direct to DAC for this DAC comparison?

This would give the Total DAC a big advantage, as its output is 6.4 Vrms max, compared to the Briscasti's 2 Vrms.
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