what are the Best Direct to amps Digital Players ?

I have visited the dealership in Lilburn - 45 minutes from where I live. They have Vandersteen 7s, ayre and audio research electronics. Note that the ONLY way to get any value out of such a visit is to bring your own currently used digital source component and swap them out with what they have on display. If they have any Aesthetix pieces it will probably be the Pandora, not the Romulus. If there is any way to get your hands on a Romulus for in home audition that would be a far more effective way to evaluate. I also believe that if playback of CDr is important to you, you'd be better off getting a used Perfectwave transport feeding a Pandora than getting the Romulus, but if you insist on using a $7K digital cable between the components, this would be a budget/dealbreaker. You could start out with a reasonably priced cable (used), wait for the tara labs to show up used and then swap cables. Just a thought.

I asked my question about balances/single ended, because you could get an MSB transport (UMT plus) and their entry level Analog DAC. You would connect using the I2S Pro interface with CAT6 cable. If you forgo the expensive powerbase, you can just about assemble this for $13K streetprice. The Analog DAC is however a single ended design, although it does have a XLR connection. The fully balanced platinum DAC IV will set you back a few grand more.

With the MSB Transport / DAC, you are set-up to play DSD downloads from disc (or USB stick) and SACD using native DSD between transport and DAC, something you cannot currently do and which none of the other setups you are considering would support. If you are into classical, this would be very compelling, since their is tons of content in native DSD. Non-classical - not so much.

@ Edorr, I talked to Aesthetix yesterday by phone,turns out that I do not believe the Romulus is as good as The Ayon 2s that I own, The Romulus strictly plays red book only, versus the ayon 2s plays cdrs and up samples red book to 24/192, there is a huge difference in sound in every way 24/192 compaired to red book sound, the Ayon 2s is switchable by remote between the two formats, the difference is not subtle at all!, thou the Romulus likly sounds good, I cannot use it, there is no way it could match the resolving power of the Ayon 2s.,,BTW, The Ayon 2s has connections so you can use it as a transport only, as a matter of fact, I do not know if you are aware the the phillips pro transports are well known to be one of the best, A couple of the engineers parted ways to form their own company called stream unlimited, thus the conception of the pro 2 transport, It plays bad cds with flawless ease to my supprise, we have used other digital players that did not play the same cds!this is the very same transport that is in the Ayon 5s player at retail $12,500.00,, The thing is Edorr, I am tring to not buy more cables for connections right now,We bought the tara zero gold this year, the cobalt power cord this year, the ayon 2s this year, the krell amp is at Krell right now getting totally renewed inside and out, guranteed in writting to be an absolute new amp that will take 600 hours to break-in, that is costing $3,157.00, not bad!,,If we wanted to go the route of a two box system, we already have a good transport, there is outstanding one box intergrated players out there, we just have to find all the options that are available, The Esoteric k-03 looks to be a must audition unit, Its worth doing so, I do not know if its our cup of tea?, we love the sound of tubes with quality solid state, likly as time goes by we will go the route of a state of the art pre-amp, thats costly!, it seems you have to morgage your home to better the sound of running direct from source, I do know there is pre-amps that are better, the cost is $10,000.00 plus to have a pre-amp that will!, then more cables!, so in the infant stage of this system it makes alot of since to obtain a intergrated digital player with analog or digital volume control to get by untill the day rolls around when we can get a pre-amp of that caliber, we would settle for nothing less!, I know its not about how much something cost!, It seems one will have to spend big money to achieve a pre-amp to be that good!, we are back at the drawing board, Dcs makes a good player with volume control, thats an option, I am open to eanything that may work for a one box player,, Happy listening.

@ Edorr, BTW, The Ayon 2s has spdif/usb connections too., can be used with a computer like a media player.

Seems like your quite happy with your Ayon. How do you do volume control now?

If you ultimate target is to get a preamp with two additional expensive cables (power and IC), I would just burn my budget on the preamp, get "interim" cables, wait for the right IC and PC to show up used. That is what I did - got myself a (dealer trade in) ARC Ref5SE, waited to get my hands on a pair of Transparent Reference Cables at the right price and got a great deal on a Shunyata PC.

Getting the DCS integrated player is a big gamble, and you may end taking a hit in SQ. From what I gather dCS sound is the antithesis of tubey. I only heard a dCS DAC once and did not like it.

Audiolabyrinth asked me to post in this thread the following comment I made in another thread:

08-04-13: Almarg

What made me think of the question when I posted is that with 2 piece cd players I've always heard HUGE differences between digital cables.

There are many reasons why large differences can be expected between digital cables that connect CD transports to DACs. Not only the type of cable, but even the length of the cable can make a major difference. See this paper for starters.

Basically, in those applications the effects of impedance mismatches between the cable and the components it is connecting, the introduction of noise due to ground loop effects or RFI pickup (both of which are cable sensitive), and other ways in which the cable may affect waveform integrity can ultimately have very significant effects on jitter at the point where D/A conversion is performed within the DAC (to a greater or lesser degree depending on the jitter rejection capability of the particular DAC).

None of those factors have any relevance to transmission of digital data from a USB hard drive to your Oppo, as long as nothing involved is defective. The technical considerations are completely different, and vastly less critical with respect to their potential effect on sonics.

Post back if you have further questions about this.

Regards,
-- Al