Best Digital Source That Money Can Buy?

hi mikelavigne:

why did your friend prefer the playback designs, given the amr's flexibility for changes in tubes and sampling rate ?

that is, in what respect did he find the playback designs a superior unit ?

Mr. Tennis, rather than post hearsay, i'll e-mail you his e-mail address and you can ask him directly. we did not discuss any tube rolling or different AMR set-up choices. he typically calls me on the phone and it may take awhile to find his e-mail address.

i will e-mail this to you later today.

Mrtennis, I haven't compared to the PD to the AMR, so I can't comment on that, but many of us would consider the "amr's flexibility for changes in tubes and sampling rate" to be negative. If changing a tube can improve the sound, then that implies a weakness in the designer's unit as distributed.

I think those two things (circuit design and sampling rate) are the designer's responsibility and would hope that I couldn't improve upon the designer's choices.

BTW, I never have figured out why people put tubes in DACs. Is there any technical advantage to doing this?

Dave

Will Playback Designs be at CES this year and if so what venue.

Jonathan Tinn told me that PD would be at CES. I'll write him to see which venue.

Dave