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Have You Heard the Northstar CD Combo?

WOW! I just bought a Northstar Transport and the Extremo DAC. I can't believe how good this sounds. It blows away my Sony scd-1 in stock mode, and even betters it with the mods that I had in the Sony. I never thought I could get this excited about a piece of digital equipment. I also love the size. Very small compared the the scd-1 beast. That thing almost broke my back! It is still not the equal of my analog system, but I can go from listening to LP's to CD's and not feel the need shut the digital off and fire up the TT right away.
slowhand
gammajo's avatar
gammajo
846 posts
 
I have never had my Northstar skip or fail to read any CD that I have thrown at it including CD-R and CD-RW over the years that I have owned the unit with about average of 10 hours play per week
audiobb
103 posts
 
Gammajo,thanks.Has anyone heard 192 transport/DAC with any tube gear (SET maybe) and highly sensitive speakers?
clio09
3,360 posts
 
My combo has no trouble reading CDs, CDRs, etc. You can select the input on the front panel. There are 4 options: 2 coaxial RCA, 1 toslink, and 1 I2S.
gammajo's avatar
gammajo
846 posts
 
I run mine with the Audio Horizons preamp which uses 4 6922 tubes and I am using Seimans cca's for this. Speakers are Von Schweikert VR4 SR's which are plenty sensitive for me to hear differences in tubes and IC's
slowhand OP
610 posts
 
Gammajo,

I am using a Supratek Cortese tube preamp and a Berning ZH270 tube power amp with my Northstar/Extremo DAC combo. This is the best cd sound I have ever achieved in my system. Beats the Sony scd-1 player I had (and it had the VSEI mods). I am using Gallo Reference 2 speakers (90 db efficiency).
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