Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD


Hi All.

Putting together a reference level system.
My Source is predominantly standard 16/44 played from a MacMini using iTunes and Amarra. Some of my music is purchased from iTunes and the rest is ripped from standard CD's.
For my tastes in music, my high def catalogues are still limited; so Redbook 16/44 will be my primary source for quite some time.

I'm not spending DCS or MSB money. But $15-20k retail is not out of the question.

Upsampling vs non-upsampling?
USB input vs SPDIF?

All opinions welcome.

And I know I need to hear them, but getting these ultra $$$ DAC's into your house for an audition ain't easy.

Looking for musical, emotional, engaging, accurate , with great dimension. Not looking for analytical and sterile.
mattnshilp
Steve Nugent, wow!, your volume control is quite impressive too!, see, this is what I'm talking about, closeing the gap with the volume controls today made on modern state of the art dacs and cd-players versus active pre-amps is a big learning exsperience for me here, I had no idea that volume controls these days were this profound!, cheers to you steve.
Thank you steve, could you please give more detail about the OV digital filter selections, and preemphasis settings.

B
BTW... I enjoy learning about OV from Steve... DSD-S from Alex... And K-01 from Esoteric... Please do continue to sing the refined virtues of your very own designs!

Yet, Call me oldfashioned, I am deeply uncomfortable reading engineers publicly and shamelessly peeking into each other's technical "private parts".

G.
Steve - the advantages of your volume control make perfect sense, but your knob is still more of an attenuator then a formal volume control. It doesn't go down to silent, or really anywhere close to silent. It can adjust the music within my listening range from "on the quiet side of where I would listen" to "on the loud side of where I would listen"

For a computer I can see that being ok (although I was always under the impression that you needed to 100% the volume on the computer USB out to get the best sound), but not for a transport with no way to adjust volume.

Am I missing something?
Great thread and some great dacs. But I can't help wondering that the using mac mini is the bottleneck and not doing remotely any justice to these top of the line dacs.