DAC vs. New CDP

Les_creative_edge

If I may, just because a cd player is a few years old does not mean it does not sound as good as a new player. Your unit may sound better, worse or more likely just different than others especially new choices at your disposal. But this is a crux of many in hifi thinking a newer product must be better.

That is an excellent post. A cdp made 10 years ago by a really good company probably had a lot of effort go into the "sound" portion of the construction. That extra effort put into making it sound right might more than make up for whatever small changes that have been made to the latest DAC in a more cheaply executed unit.

Some say the Golden Age of the standalone player was 10 years ago. :) As others have said, I would keep the Classe as a transport to a new DAC. This still gives you the option of switching back to the Classe if you get bored or if you miss some of its old attributes.

Fritter5, Here are some of my comments on your situation. If you go with a DAC, you will have the added cost of getting a quality digital cable and power cable (They do matter, IMHO) and also have to store it on an additional self. If you are OK with that... Who knows the transport on your classe may go and you may have to replace that in a few years. I would go with a new CDP unit. The new CDP units from Simaudio and Bryston are outstanding and have many great reviews. See Stereophile and The Absolute Sound. Try them on loan from a dealer that has a return policy and see for yourself. The Krell 280 is good but I feel the newer technology from Simaudio and Bryston are better. I used to own a KAV 2250, PRE 280 and CDP 280 system. Also, when you upgrade use the balanced outputs from the CDP to KAV 280 pre. The Krell system works optimal with balanced connections. Good luck and have fun with your reseach and findings.

"If you go with a DAC, you will have the added cost of getting a quality digital cable and power cable (They do matter, IMHO) and also have to store it on an additional self."

Not exactly - if you need better power cable for DAC then you need it for CDP as well - no savings here. I agree about digital cable, but with upsampling jitter rejecting DAC like Benchmark cable quality doesn't matter (Benchmark tested it with 1000' of cable)and you can get the cheapest one in Radio Shack or make one yourself (as I did). Next - you can sell Clasee CDP and buy $70 DVD player (as I did). Very good tracking and MP3 playback.

My previous CDP was Cambridge CD4SE - one of the best Cambridge ever made but transport failed. Combination of DVD player with Benchmark is hands down better (clarity, transparency). If you can spend more try Bel Canto DAC3 - also jitter rejecting (I think)and a little fuller sounding. Both have reviews on "Stereophile" website. They like DAC3 a little better (for twice the cost) but Benchmark was once "component of the year".

Question for all the "dac" people.

If someone was looking for an across the board improvement, and had the budget, wouldn't it make the most sense to address both the dac along with the transport? There seems to be little concern given to the sound quality of the transport.

Goatwuss - There are two schools (as usual). One says - get asynchronous upsampling DAC (jitter rejecting like Benchmark DAC1) and cheap transport since the only virtue of the expensive transport is lower jitter while the other school says - get NOS (non oversampling) DAC and better transport.

Cost wise first solution is better and that's what I did but you'll find many audiophiles who like NOS better. It is personal/subjective. NOS DACs are not as common as oversampling or upsampling DACs but you might like them.