2nd hand DAC for DVD/CD Player

DVD players used for the current (and future?) 16/44 standard CDs are not what some of the "chat" leads people to believe. If you don't watch DVDs much, consider just getting a better CD player. DVD audio and SACD are stuck right now...and there is not enough software to be concerned about it yet. I do believe the upsampling DACs do an excellent job. But if you try a Bel Canto or other with a DVD transport...and an excellent CD transport..you will, most likely, prefer the CD transport. Most DVD are using a seperate laser for the CD reading..and if they have two and a bunch of chips...plus a drive...how do people come up with a 200 or 300 dollar DVD player being of audiophile quality?...wishfull thinking.

I have the pioneer 525 and your right it sucks. It was to timid and lifeless sounding (before being broken in though it was really really bright). Now I have a resolution audio quantum DAC ($3200 new) that sounds absolutely amazing with the pioneer as a transport but before that I had an Audio alchemy dac-in-the-box. I picked the AA up for $50 and it made a huge difference. But I did have a $325 digital wire. You don't have to spend that much on a wire but at least find one with a solid core and you'll be in good shape. You'll be real happy with a transport and DAC combo so I say difinitly go for it. You won't be sorry.

This is more a response to Whatjd above. My equipment is certainly not "high end" but it is decent enough to be pretty musical and reveal just about any change in equipment within the chain. I was literally shocked when my el-cheapo RCA 5223P DVD player easily outperformed my Arcam Alpha 8SE CD player (I owned the RCA for 8 months before even seriously comparing it because I figured the Arcam would be a lot better). My full review of the RCA (which is now a discontinued model unfortunately) is listed in the review section at Audio Asylum and I have been living quite happily with the RCA for about 2 months now, getting performance out of it that is probably somewhere between Arcam 8SE and Arcam 9 quality. Maybe it's just system "synergy"; I don't really know. The RCA is certainly not perfect-the tray is pretty flimsy and the player is somewhat noisy while playing (noticeable during some quiet passages-the rest of the build quality is quite good though and the player is much heaver and solid than the Toshibas for example and on a par with my Arcam), but I can live with all that after selling the Arcam for about twice what I paid for the RCA. Unfortunately, you can't really audition a lot of the cheaper DVD players before you buy, so it may be a matter of luck (?), but this has been an interesting experience, to say the least, for me.

A few years ago I got the urge to add a dac to my second system which resides in my home office. Due to space constraints, I intially only considered Audio Alchemy products. I tried the Dac in the box but thought it sounded like your description of the Pioneer. I then tried it with an Audio Alchemy DTI, which made it more listenable, but not what I wanted. I then tried the AA XDP, which sounded much better. Unfortunately, the XDP requires a DTI and an I2S cable, but they all available cheap on the used market. The XDP does emit some RFI, so be careful. I then auditioned the AA 3.0 when it came out, but my dealer then offered to sell me his Micromega Duo BS2 display model, which was much better than the AA 3.0. Micromega's should also be available used at a reasonable price. I believe you can set the Pioneer to transmit either 96k or 48K or less signals, so you should not have any problems interfacing it. Good luck.

The Krell designed Soundstream is auctioned on this site a lot. A used Cambridge Audio DacMagic is another good choice.