The title is:"There's No Such Thing As Digital..."

Johnnyb53 and Audioengr,

Thanks for your posts. I found them to be very helpful.

The last few posts reveal the perspective as to which is better--how much sound quality do you get for your money? In my case I've never spent a lot for a CD player, maybe $500 tops. I did have an Audio Alchemy transport feeding a $700 SoundStream DAC (designed with help from Krell), but when I later got a CEC CD player, it sounded better. I've heard excellent CD players demoed at high end stores, and I play SACDs and DVD-As on an Oppo.

But I had the laptop for other uses already, and stacks of CDs ready to rip. All I needed was Audirvana Plus for $49 (now up to $79), properly configured, to easily exceed the musical satisfaction of my various digital disk players. And Audirvana just keeps getting better. When I updated to 1.5.2 (now it's at 1.5.4), I noticed a significant and pleasant improvement in the sound quality and how engaging the music is. Not bad for $49.

Nice relevant posts, one and all. As Steve has pointed out, $5K will buy one a killer PC set up and that's just for the PC part. That was close to the total cost of my previous system. All I had to spend was $1600 on a source unit so a SACD demo unit was the way to go for me and even that was put on plastic.

Having said that, I'm getting killer sound out of my system that thrills me to no end. I even feel smug, for what it's worth. I also feel that I'm with about 90% of folk here who only have so much to spend yet still want great sound. Lots or recent posts are about bang for the buck and diminishing returns with opinions needed as to which way to go.

I chose my way and don't begrudge anyone who's willing to blaze the path to better ways to listen but for now, I'm content to take the road most traveled by as I know it well and how much it costs.

All the best,
Nonoise

Good for you Nonoise. We are all here to learn from the experience of others with the common purpose of enjoying the reproduction of music - however that may be achieved.

Perhap both you and Audioengr could provide a "bill of materials" on respective solutions for cited overall investments?

Speaking personally, thus far, I have not been able to a music server and DAC to better my Esoteric K-series CDP for around the same investment. I've tried what many believe to be the best of breed servers out their i.e. Aurender and SotM music servers coupled to the DAC's from Meitner and Antelope Audio - but somehow whilst extremely capable, they really were not musically engaging. They lost something. I don't know why. I wondered whether the USB interface between the Server and DAC is a point of weakness? I also wondered whether the multiple linear power supplies in the Esoteric provided a superior foundation on which to create musical reproduction? I don't know and thats why I read forums. To hear from others.

Kiwi - usually if its not musically engaging, this is jitter and the USB interface is at fault. Upsampling hardware can also be at fault, both for the clocks and the algorithms.

Here are some systems that are musically engaging and not megabux:

iPod or iPhone and:
Pure I20 docking station - $89.00
Synchro-Mesh reclocker - $599.00
Hynes power supply for Synchro-Mesh - $600
BNC cable - $250
Concero DAC - $600
Total = $2138.00

Sonos - $400
Synchro-Mesh reclocker - $599.00
Hynes power supply for Synchro-Mesh - $600
BNC cable - $250
Concero DAC - $600
Total = $2449

used Mac Mini 2009- ~450 with SSD and DRAM
Mac Mini Hynes power supply - $900
USB cable - $400
Off-Ramp 5/Turboclock/S/PDIF Hynes reg - $2249
Hynes supply for Off-Ramp 5 - $600
BNC cable - $250
Concero DAC - $600
Total = $5449.00

used Mac Mini 2009- ~450 with SSD and DRAM
Mac Mini Hynes power supply - $900
USB cable - $400
Off-Ramp 5/Turboclock/HDMI Hynes reg - $2249
Off-Ramp Hynes power supply - $600
HDMI I2S cable - $250 from partsconnexion.com
Wyred 4 Sound DAC2 - $1500
Total = $6949.00

As for the linear regulators: IF they are not really fast-responding, then not so great for digital. The Hynes supplies that I design are extremely fast responding. If they are based on off-the-shelf three terminal regulators, this does not cut it IME.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio