Which is better: Transport+DAC or PC system+DAC

Jfrech,

The system is composed by preamp and monos Soulution and speakers MBL 101 MKII, cables from Kubala Sosna Elation and David Elrod PC and turntable Clearaudio ref and tangential arm

My subjective answer to yr question is, forget it. Keep what you have & listen to music.

For the record, I tackled the dilemma as well and yes, I was inspired by the post Mgattmch mentions.

The quick answer to my experiment is, the PC (RAM to spdif out) -> DAC combo was clearly better, in very immediate terms (i.e., frequency extension, dynamic effect, liquid-non grainy violins, fuller sound, you-name-it...).

Of course this doesn't answer the question in absolute terms -- because the equipment was different & you use the clocking device w/ yr purcell and together they sound superb.

So you have a excellent system...congratulations, now I can see why you might want more than the dCS Puccini+Uclock (which I used to own).

The dCS Scarlatti's, used prices are great, is a killer upgrade for you. Last year I traded in my Puccini/uclock and for a Scarlatti stack...

I think you will find a transport still the better sound. I've tried it several times and really no contest. Are you into SACD? if so, not sure all your choices above allow it.

What about dCS Vivaldi? It's pricey, but in the context of your system should be considered...

Jfrech and Gregm,

Really I´m not very very interested on SACD, I have logically SACDs, and if you can have both worlds ,why not?

For DAC I´m thinking on MSB Diamond DAC with femtosecond,I think is a little better than the dCS Scarlatti or Vivaldi.

Hi Emigene,

You have a nice system. I would agree with you that the MSB Diamond DAC IV with the Galaxy Femto clock is better sonically than the the DCS Scarlatti digital stack as I have done the head to head comparison. As for the question of a transport versus some type of music server I would suggest the following. If you do go with the MSB Diamond DAC IV then I would recommend that you go with the top line MSB Signature transport and Signature transport power base. Doing this allows you take advantage of MSB's Pro I2s input between the transport and dac as well as the clock sync function between the DAC and transport. This will give you the best possible sound that MSB has to offer. MSB's USB input (if you use a server of some type) is very good but it won't match using their transport and taking advantage of the clock sync). And with the MSB transport you can play redbook CD's plus hi-rez PCM downloads (just burn them to a DVD as .WAV files).

Arnie