Raysonic 168

Undertow: Your points are well-taken, and I agree completely. It's more of a psychological thing; when I spend big bucks on an upgrade, I want everything about the new kit to be better. Of course, one should judge with their ears and not based on a parts list.

The CD168 uses not one, but two BB DACs in balanced configuration. The DACs are also different than the CD128. The CD128 uses one 1738 DAC chip whereas the CD168 uses two 1792s.

Bondmanp, Don't get me wrong I totally see your point, honestly if we all thought a single advancement in digital part #'s equates to better sound we would all have to say the latest Greatest IPOD is better than somebodys 10 year old 20,000 dollar CD player with a far inferior DAC chip in todays terms right ? :-) Its still shocking to some people especially ones that I know stop by and hear a great analog (LP) system walking away saying dammit, now my Levinson system I got at a premium from the dealer for 5 K in my new Lexus will not impress me as much! (True story by the way)

Also, Rotel is using a chip I am sure is in many other Hi end players including ones 10 times the price as it is the same in the raysonic, but the architecture of the machine is not remotely close, as a matter of fact if the DAC Part #'s were not published by the manufactures we would never think of such things in the first place, cause a 50 dollar Sony DVD player can have the same DAC chip in something a 8,000 dollar Lexicon home theater receiver has in it, makes no real difference in the end 9 times out of 10, especially in the advanced redbook Dacs from within the last 10 years.

Fatcataudio
That does change things a bit... Might be why the 168 I believe shows a 2.3 volt output and the 128 a 2.2 volt out.. Also why it costs much more its got 4 Dac's to pay for opossed to a pair..

Which two tubes are used for the RCA outputs in the CD168. Is it the pair in the center? I understand the circuit is configured in matched pairs and a identical matched quad is not needed (for tube rolling purposes) Only a specific matched pair for either the RCA or XLR outputs.

Thanks