Hard Drive based system

As soon as I finished my previous post the phone rang, it was Paul at TRL. I had asked if he could install a digital input on the player. He said it had never occured to him to put one in his mods, but they would look at it and if it was possible, they'd install one! I would love to be able to use this as a DAC too.

He said it would be on it's way back to me possibly Fri, Mon at the latest.

I have an Alesis Masterlink as well. If you were to
use it as "the hard drive", what would you have modified
on the box? Would it not be taking advantage of bypassing
the whole "laser reading" process as well as the DAC?

I use the balanced digital out to a Mark Levinson DAC
and it sounds very nice.

The track names and playlist features of the Masterlink
don't compare with that of a server/client package like
Squeezebox however.

Thoughts?

Ecruz: Do you know if Paul added a digital input? Anytime I have inquired about adding digital input to a CD player it has always been met with a fairly high degree of skepticism. Thoug if anyone could do it i'm sure TRL could. I will be curious to hear what you make if this unit after you get it and break it in.

I just talked with him last night. He said he had never thought about it, but they would check it out and if they could put one in, they would. I may not know until I get it back.

All high-end CD players should include digital inputs these days. I know they don't, but they should, because many of us want to add hard drives as a source.

APL HI-Fi has a digital in for their mods. I am going to have Alex add one to my APL player. Then I can take the digital out from the Squeezebox instead of having to use its DACs and analog outputs.