what are the Best Direct to amps Digital Players ?

Audiolabyrinth,

Aesthetix is a very good company. I completely forgot to mention the Romulus in my other posts. I haven't heard it myself, but I would recommend you consider it based on the build quality and sound quality of their other products. As Edorr says, they are very well known for making some truly excellent preamps. If I could choose someone to make a volume control for my CD player, it would be them. You shouldn't have too much difficulty finding a dealer. Its a fairly popular brand. I know you don't have anyone close, but there's a good chance you will find it at one of the dealers you plan on taking a trip to.

@ Edorr, Have you listened to a romulus player?, I finally got to research for hours this player from your info, I must of misspelled something before when I tried to look into this player, A brand alot of audiophiles look over is vincent!, I had one with the same 12ax7 or and the 12au7 tubes in the player, and yes it was a true balanced player like the aesthetix Romulus player, no 6922 tubes in the vincent, the sound description of the Romulus is exactly what i owned before, except one major difference!, the vincent had the most deep articulate bass then eany player I have experienced in my life, so imagine a full rich sound and all the rest of the attributes of the romulus with bass to die for!, get this, the vincent had volume control, 4 channel balanced with burr-brown 1796 dacs, all this for $2,800.00 !!, it was the most musical player I have ever owned!, I had to get my money back because we thought the player was bleeding d/c back into my krell amp, come to find out the Krell had issues that is now being taken care of at krell!, and the vincent is gone!, the vincent threw a huge soundstage to boot!, alot of audiophiles know nothing of vincent, the say, oh, its made in china and engineered in germany, a entry level product, wrong!, the vincent sounds a hell of alot better than my $6,350.00 Ayon 2s !!!, more musical eanyway!, I will go and hear a romulus player, if it does not beet the vincent, I do not need it, I would say that is a tall order to fill!,, I do know the romulus is closer to the sound I prefer, I thankyou Edorr for this info, we will see how this stacks up against the Esoteric K-03 and vincent player, and what ever else someone can recommend, Edorr, you are on the right track in helping me here, I really do not believe I will like the esoteric sound!, who knows, I may get another vincent player like I had!, The Romulus sound that I research is what I want, with the exception of not having the bass I love!, I hate lean sound!, I would also like to know if the Romulus sounds forward sounding at all? the vincent did not, the soundstage was spot on!, very huge, and came to the middle of the listening room like music is suppose to do!, Edorr, I hope you can answer some of these questions I have here, thankyou so much for your help, cheers.

@ Eddor, man, you are absolutly right, it is on the top of the list to listen to, thanks to you!, I never heard of this brand or there digital players!, One thing i do not like about it is the transport, it plays red book only cds, thats kind of crazy in todays world to do that, My ayon 2s has a phillips pro 2 transport that plays everything but sacd!do you know a player cost no object that is an intergrated disc spinner with the volume control, etc..?, cheers.

I'm a little confused here. Basically - with a few exceptions - there are: (1) CD players, (2) 2 channel CD/SACD players, and (3) Universal players. It is my understanding the Ayon 2 is a CD player, as is the Romulus.

In any event, if you have some serious money to spend, and want to go the Universal players route here is what you could do. Get the spanking new MSB Universal Media Transport (UMT) plus and an MSB DAC. This transport will connect to the DAC via I2S over a piece of CAT6 wire. You'll also need one of the MSB powersupplies.

Depending on what level DAC you buy you can spend between $20,000 and $50,000 on this three piece stack. It will give you the best DAC around (according to many), play every disc on the planet, and serve as a music streamer. You can do multi channel and video as well.

While not a single component, they are thee neatly stacked chassis, and since the DAC has volume control you won't need an extra set of expensive analog cabling.

I will be auditioning an MSB UMT plus transport myself shortly - not for CDs (I ripped my entire collection), but as a network streamer for 2 channel, and a disc spinner for Multi-channel (SACD / Blu Ray).