Good cd player and a great DAC or great cd player?

Bel Canto first thoughts: It arrived about 2 hours ago. I have it hooked up to JVC DVD player for initial impressions. (We'll begin all the transport switching later. I can't get to anything else. This I didn't need the husband for.) First impressions- I'm in the 10th row of the opera house with Puccini echoing around me; I didn't know that you could hear Tori Amos's piano key come back up; and let's dance. It's beautiful! It made me forget to eat. :)

I'm hoping to pick up the Ikemi tomorrow for the comparison. From memory, I may like the Ikemi a little more, but that might 1. not be true 2. be the more expensive amps (by far) at the dealers 3. be the $10,000 Wilson speakers at the dealers. As promised, I will compare the two and compare the Ikemi as transport vs. my Sony and my DVD player.

For what it's worth, I think that spending money on a source is the right thing to do. There are numerous examples of how a top quality source on a less than wonderful system sounds better than a crappy source on fabulous speakers. I listen to a lot of indie music. It's not going to go SACD or DVD Audio anytime soon, and even if I move to a new format at some point, I have 1000+ cd's...most of which I will not re-buy and will still want to listen to. A good CD player will part of my system for a long time to come. (BTW, there are about 4 album I own on vinyl, cassette and CD.)

OK, I can't resist sharing my updates as they come. We connected the sony carousel to the DAC2 using toslink and the DVD player using coax and used the switch on the unit to A/B (finally a use for the multiple copies of the cds we brought into this relationship). I switched while my husband listened and he switched while I listened. Multiple albums, multiple songs, no idea which transport was which and…we couldn’t tell the difference. At first I thought I heard something, but when I tried to repeat it, it was gone. Shocked me. Neither is a particularly high quality transport. I will let you know if the Ikemi makes a difference.

Joyelise, way to go ! Thanks so much for sharing your impressions so far. I'm really looking forward to more if you get the chance.

Best wishes, Toby

Totally agree with Ritteri and Dmitrydr.

My limited experience tells me the speaker is THE most critical part in an audio system. Comparing two electronics chain, one is $399 and the other is $5500 (all list price) with two set of speakers: one pair is $1k and the other is $4800. Swapping speakers made most audible difference while I had, and still have, trouble most of time to differeniate the two electronics setups.

I'd also add media, e.g. CD or LP or MP3 (LOL!), to the most critical link to speakers. The quality of recording/engineering of an album is the first limiting factor. This is especially evident when you have higher end systems. But I'd worry about speakers first.

just my 2 cents.

Abe

Bel Canto DAC2 vs. Ikemi
First we set off to decide which we preferred, the Ikemi or the Bel Canto DAC2. We started with Tori Amos’s “Under the Pick.” Our first thought was the Bel Canto kicks the Ikemi’s a**. Then we sat down for some serious listening. We used Diana Krall’s “Love Scenes,” Shawn Colvin’s “A Few Small Repairs” and a Puccini opera. We thought the Bel Canto was deeper, more transparent, and far more detailed. There was more air. The Ikemi was more intimate and smoother. With the Ikemi, it sounds like Diana Krall is playing in your living room, with the Bel Canto in a small club. Where the Bel Canto really stood out was in creating a sense of space. The cymbals rang out longer, the music echoed as if in a large space. The Ikemi was much flatter. If you haven’t figured it out already, we’re keeping the Bel Canto. At a third of the price, it’s an amazing deal.

Transport
The short of it is, the transport matters. We may not have been able to tell the difference between the DVD player and the carousel, but we had no problem telling the Ikemi from the DVD player. We used Tori Amos’s “Under the Pick” and Indigo Girls self titled album (two copies of each). Within just 2 or 3 A/B’s with each, the difference was easily apparent. The Ikemi was more full bodied and detailed. I was hoping it wouldn’t be the case. Now I have to shop for a transport. Any suggestions? We can’t afford the Ikemi for a transport. :)