A DAC that can make digital sound analog?

@bretmckee,

Thank you for the clarification.  I think what you are looking for, in my words to see if if understand, is something that will play digitally-recorded music, which you like better than analog (? I think), in a way that mimics analog but keeps the digital "quality?"

I think I am still confused. However, it is YOUR system and your listening experience, so have at it.  I am sure you will find what you are looking for given the lists of DAC products given here.

Good luck and happy listening!

Cheers,

Richard

I have heard many good sounding CDs so I don't think the problems with digital sound are inherent in the medium; it is mostly the case of how recordings are mastered.  A lot of digital recordings are mastered to sound hard-edged and bright.  

There are some CD players that sound less brittle, tizzy, and hard edged (i.e., not as sibilant), and whether or not they are altering the sound and are therefore not as "accurate," I personally don't care.  I think all of the Audio Note DACs fall in the "more analogue" sounding camp.  The emphasis in their lineup is on the analogue amplification/buffering side, and not on the actual digital conversion.  As you got up the line, the improvements are made on that analogue side, not the digital side (which is simple and barebones).

The older, recently discontinued Naim CDP555 player, also sounded more like analogue (warmer tonal balance) than most digital gear; the problem here is that this is  VERY expensive player.  I know this because I own this name player and I own their 555 server; the CD player is more warm sounding.

@larryi  is spot on with his assessment of Audio Note DACs. They are NOS with no filtering in the digital or analogue stages. 

And I agree the mastering is the all-important element in creating digital music. Many original CDs which were transferred from analogue sources have excellent sonics. The countless times that discs have been remastered makes for some rough sounding CDs.

richopp74 

If 74 is your birth year we are the same age. If not you now know how old I am.

I know you are trying to be coy and/or kind about my point of view and/or system and thanks for that I think. 

No you are not confused. I’d like to not have to deal with tape and/or vinyl all the time but I want the tape and/or vinyl sound from a digital source. The ritual and fragility of both tape and vinyl is frankly annoying. And honestly I don’t want to listen to my favorite albums or tracks with clicks and pops intermixed all the time.

Now that I can play back 7 1/2 tape in my system, I can hear what is lacking in both vinyl and digital. Above average quality tape feels supremely integrated and without any softening or rounding (or clicks and pops). It has a very natural contrast and excellent reproduction of space/time. Vinyl does some of this but it’s more warm and syrupy sounding. Vinyl, due to its additional mastering phase generally has a pleasant—essentials only—sound. Digital can occasionally do space/time as good as tape and can go get details buried under tape hiss and/or vinyl surface noise. But quite often digital is too stark, there seems to be something extra added to the presentation, something offputting that is never present in vinyl or tape. I believe most often it’s inaudible brief transient overloads of the analog-to-digital processor at time of initial tape capture resulting in aliasing in the audible frequencies. 

I am certain digital can sound as good, if not better than, vinyl and tape. And I am curious to find solutions towards that end.

Well I received my Ortho Spectrum AR-2000 Analog Reconstructor the mystical, mythical Japanese filter that's supposed to remove all the digital nasties from the analog signal coming out of ones DAC.  Will try it out this weekend and let you all know.

It's old voodoo, but potentially strong voodoo.