Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD

I would suggest the Schiit modi multibit. I think still at $249. I have both that and 10x more expensive Schiit Yggdrasil. For redbook they sound darn similar and very pleasant. I find the diminishing returns curve very steep for digital. Get the modi and spend your savings on good headphones or speakers.

Well said @ dlcockrum!!

Good post acoustic, I would only add that the rest of one's system needs to be capable of resolution and detail, which no doubt someone said already in this very long thread( no way I"m going to read all 4000 posts!)

With my current system I can't hear much in the way of differences between two very different stand mount speakers, but I'm waiting for a better pre amp, for starters.  I've got the Bifrost Mulibit, btw, and yes one can save and go with the Modi.  The Modi doesn't have the latest Schiit USB standard, however, if that matters to anyone.

Interesting CT, except how was the T+A being fed? If you look at Computer Audiophile’s section on the Dac 8 you will find that there are many people who have findings about the Dac 8 that mirror our own.

The common thread is that the Dac 8 needs to be fed quad rate DSD to experirence the full magic that the Dac is capable of. Many computers will not do DSD 512 as they are not fast enough to do the processirng.and most stand alone servers like the Lumin and Aurrender  products don't do up or crossconversion at all.

 
The Dac 8 is acutally a far more advanced Dac then the Ayre which uses a single  ESS Dac chip to do the conversion for both DSD and PCM processing. then going to a Ayre FPGA filter.

The Dac 8 is one of the very few dacs that does not turn PCM into DSD or DSD into PCM. The Dac 8 actually has two completely seprate decoding engines, one for each format. The DSD engine is the more special of the two, as the DSD engine uses all proprietary T+A decoding technology vs the PCM engine which uses four Burr Brown Dac chips in a summed operaton.

Wiling to bet you didn’t hear the Dac 8 DSD being fed that kind of playback material.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ

Audiotroy - that’s a unique requirement of a product. Many servers can’t selectively output all material at that rate. That basically leaves PC sources only, which is fine. So many great products. So many opinions. But let’s keep this at the forum discussion level, not pushy salesperson level (which your scratching the surface of).

There are are some great points made recently:

1) a well done $10k system can sound better then a poorly done $100k system.
2) gear is system dependent and matching is everything!
3) declare the signature of your system with a primary component like speakers, amp or pre-amp and then adjust flavor with all other components.
4) your gear may sound awesome in your system and not so great in someone else’s.
5) your audition of a piece of equipment may have been suboptimal due to poor implementation of the unit.

All great stuff!!!