When is digital going to get the soul of music?

If you really want goosebumps, I can honestly recommend the Great Northern Sound Company Statement mod for the Wadia S7i. Paired with a good ss amp and tube preamp, heaven is just a remote button away. Yes, speakers and cable would help also. :)

To my ears digital, done right, has finally come home...with the right gear.

These days its up to the listener to derive "the soul" from whatever they chose to listen to, not the format.

Some will work to achieve it. Others will not. Some will prefer to whine and complain or maybe buy into conspiracy theories no matter. To each their own! Whatever turns you on.

Detlof, I have to agree that we are strongly moving to much better digital. Recently, I have discovered how substantially vulnerable to vibrations dacs are and how much EMI and RFI gets into dacs from the digital wire to it. The vibrations did not really come as a surprise to me as I have been on a slippery and expensive slope. StillPoints products have been a revelation as to how insidious vibrations are. But recently a friend sent me a Hitachi Finemet core through which I ran the Firewire cable to the Weiss DAC202 dac. It was placed close to the dac. Framkly it transformed my digital. Where can you get one of these cores? I don't know, but I have tried other ferrite rings and they don't do what this does.

This is what I found out about Finemet. "Hitachi Metals developed the first nanocrystalline soft magnetic material in the world, named “FINEMET®”. “FINEMET®” has high saturation flux density and high permeability. It also has stable temperature characteristics. “FINEMET®” provides excellent performance in electromagnetic noise suppression and contributes to energy saving. It will allow reduction in size and weight of electric and electronics devices as well. It is our hope, “FINEMET®” will be the best solution for your application due to its unique soft magnetic properties."

Do I think it is better than my vinyl? No, it is different and certainly more convenient. Do I think it is quite listenable? Yes, certainly.

MY LINN Akurate DS already has the soul of the music...