508 18 bit upgrade or just add a dac, benchmark?

I just want to be able to listen to my music for more than an hour without being irritated. That's what you said.

My friend, you need not to switch your equipment, but your musical preference! Try Smooth Jazz at moderate volume! No Headaches! ;)

Smooth jazz may equal no headaches, but for me it would probably also equal no head, mostly because of the 9mm I'd to blow brains out if I had to listen to that for an hour.

What exactly is ERS paper...I guess I'll do a search.

Fetch, maybe that's the way to go- analogue. It's true, my friend has a lot of the music I like on vinyl and they sound pretty good on his very long into tooth technics+sony set-up. Didn't realize they could screw it up so much in the transfer to digital. Great test choices by the way. Personally, I like to use some of my worst discs to test equipment. There's a few tracks on Pixies Dolittle that do the trick (Debaser). And basically all of Jesus and Mary Chain's Psychocandy. As bad as that disc sounds I still have it on frequent rotation...good music trumps bad sound. Wish it wasn't quite so awful. Good to find some punk rock loving fools out there in the audiophile world!

Mogami 2804 Speaker Cables.
Mogami 2803 I/C(It's indeed AU24).
Order from Japan.

Seanbaik,

I'm with you man! I'd get a shotgun and pull a Kurt Cobain if I had to listen to smooth jazz! I remember some old audiophile who had me over to show off his system and he played the GRP All-Stars (don't ask just be very afraid) and it nearly killed me. I had a pasted on smile and yes, the system sounded great but I couldn't concentrate because the music was so bad! Owcha! And my tastes run far and wide and I'm a classical aficionado as well. I used to be a classical buyer for Tower records. But for me the music is always first and the recording quality just is what it is. I've never bought a record for good sound and never will.

As for your digital woes, believe me, a cheap turntable will take you far away from the land of digititis. I lived quite happily for with a Dual 505 turntable that had a Denon 165 cartridge on it(total cost was $250 for both) for quite awhile. It made a lot of music and even though I have upgraded to an Oracle I never felt that old combo was embarassed. There is still tons of vinyl out there to be had cheap and those old punk records sound great. So many memories, like the time I *sniff* blew out one of my cheap speakers playing The Stooges "Funhouse" at maximum volume while utterly intoxicated. Those were the days!

ERS paper is some magnetically damping something or other that they apply inside of components to make 'em sound better. It's supposed to work pretty well.

Get a cheap table and spin away! That'll cure those digital blues! I have the 12" of Jesus and Mary Chain's "Never Understand" and that thing is sonic bliss! Great stuff. I lost interest in that band when they lost interest in giant walls of feedback and distortion. So I moved on to Spaceman 3.

Let us know if you decide to get a 'table.

Fetch,

It is really too bad about JMC. The genius of mating waves of distortion to catchy old school rock riffs and dark lyrics somehow degenerated to just catchy pop tunes.

What's a good cheap turntable? Gonna try the ers sheets before I give up on the digital.

Its funny you should mention Cobain, I live 5minutes away from where he took his life. I'm telling you, just say "NO!" to smooth jazz.