DAC suggestion

perhaps you'd be better off buying the about-to-be-released oppo bdp-95 (amazon, musicdirect). it'll play anything you can throw at it and most likely will sound considerably better than any of your current gear + you'll eliminate some clutter, not need a digital cable, etc.

admittedly, for the $1K price, you might be able to find a used DAC that will sound a smidge better on redbook (+ even that is questionable) - but it won't play DVD-A, SACD, blu-ray, mpeg, etc.

daniel

I haven't paid much attention to what can/can't be done with bluray, but it doesn't surprise me.

On the oppo bdp-95, that's a DVD Player.. or maybe I should say multi-disc player. Surprised you guys on here think it'll be great musically. But given I know zero about it, I'll keep my eyes open for reviews..thanks!

My experience with DVD players is that I purchased a pioneer a few years ago, that played DVD-Audio and folks raved about it.. well it does play DVD-Audio but I found it very dry and small sounding. I can't really listen to it. It does make a great transport though and i can pipe the digital to my DAC for redbook and hdcd (dvd-audio doesn't seem to work).

the bdp-95 is their replacement for the bdp83se; you could search for reviews of that one to get a sense of what to expect.

the whole point of the 'se' version of the 83 was to make a player geared towards audiophiles (as opposed to blu-ray fans). the 95, being more expensive and 'next generation', by all rights ought to be even better. since they're internet only, they offer a money-back guarantee, although I don't know how they are re 'I just don't like how it sounds' (vs. 'it doesn't work'...).

it's a fair guess that there will be plenty of chatter about them - including here - once they're out.

Thanks again for the clarification. I'll look around. I have to admit my higher end audio bug comes and goes so I'm coming back from a lapse.

I've been listening to a VDAC with my squeezebox touch and I love it!