Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD

Erikminer -
It's not my house, it's our house and she works just as hard as I do, if not harder. So that thought process doesn't apply in my house. I have a ton of space in the house, but the dedicated room is neither in the budget right now, nor is their space until the kids are older and I repurpose part of the basement to my needs. That, and a wine cellar. ;)

I am not unhappy with my current scenario, and the system sounds f'in amazing already! I just want to fine tune my gear and then slowly make the room as acoustically friendly as I can. Eventually, I want to have someone come in and do a master setup. The side glass doors now have soft transparent drapes on them and the floor has a good size area rug. All it still needs is window treatments and something I can put on the center glass door. I can probably get the speakers out another 6-10 inches without issue.

I'm doing my best. She lets me buy whatever equipment I want, watches and cars. So I'm certainly not suffering….

Look at the non upsampling, 44.1k, DACs, Ypsilon, Audionote... There are others. Beware, once you listen, you will be tainted, and it will be very difficult to settle for something lesser. The downside is the price. Good luck.

Hey Mattnshilp, Cars and watches are good! Any distance more you can get off the back wall would help.. How far apart are the speakers and how far do you sit from them?

If you're gonna be in that room for awhile I'd certainly spend the $300. or so for dedicated AC lines that's a cheap tweak.. that has zero WAF effect..

I'm lucky my son is away at college so room isn't an issue, the $45K year that it costs, that is an issue! I sure could buy a lot of wine, watches and HiFi with that cash :-)

Listening Room:
19'x14.5'
Speakers are centered on the long wall, about 8.5' apart and 18" from front wall to the back of the speakers. I am seated 8.5-9' from the front of the speakers (essentially an equilateral triangle) and the rear wall is 3' behind my head.

Ypsilon, Audio Note, Concert Fidelity - all require a USB to spdif converter.
No issue with that, but $$$ for converter and cables.

I prefer to try something with a USB input first....