Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD

My Criterion and the Aeris are far from dark. The Criterion is toneless. The Capri S2 has a bit of a dark tinge, but the Criterion is not remotely dark, nor is the Aeris. In fact, the Aeris is currently a bit bright if anything. I just don't want your statement to confuse the readers. The Aeris and Criterion are not the old Rowland house sound.

That said, of course my room acoustics are going to have an affect on the sound and my equipment selection. That's why I felt it necessary to describe the room. It's not over the top bright though.

I will try to run direct Wed and report my findings. The Direct Stream is due in tomorrow. I will report first impressions of that as well if I have time.

Hi Matt, you are right... While Criterion is far from being a "bright" pre, it does not share the slightly dark golden house sound of classic Rowland products from the 1990s and the earlier part of the 200X decade... Fact is that, with some exceptions, the "dark Rowland sound" is becoming a bit of a charming urban legend.
On the other hand, I expect that Aeris's juvenile exhuberance in the treble region should start to be reabsorbed once you pass the 450 hours mark.

Concerning Final Drive and its transformer coupling... It is worth pointing out that both Aeris and Criterion have trnsformer-coupled balanced I/O... on Aeris transformer-coupled input is the SPDIF 75 Ohm coaxial. Conversely, Veritas inputs are not transformer coupled as far as I know. G.

"Steve (Empirical Audio), is it safe to say your Final Drive is virtually a Music First or Bent TAP-X without a volume control?"

Essentially yes, except for the transformer quality. I have an all-silver Music First and the FD beats it hands-down. The FD is in two chassis on purpose, so the fields do not interact. I use better switches than the MF. The MF also has some strange wiring in it, different for left and right channels on grounding...

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

" I know Steve Nugent made the comment that Rowland has a darker tinge to it"

Actually, I was talking about Mark Levinson. I have had Rowland, ML and Pass Labs preamps in the house. None of them lit my fire. Like most components, I needed to mod them and even then, not spectacular. These were older models though. Some of these guys have learned some lessons I think.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

Guido - the Final Drive is only for analog outputs, not AES/EBU or S/PDIF inputs.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio