Thanks for the advice T but I ain't no cheapskate. I ordered the $3500 toslink and the $1,000 footers. The reviews state that I'll hear new things on all my music, the soundstage is wider with liquid mids, airy highs and the tightest bass this side of the ghetto.
Anywho, I had this long post written out and then my phone died and I lost it so I'll give the condensed version.
A3.2= great sound
A.3.2+z dac = same great sound
Wadia 170i streaming spotify, now for the first time :-) = same great sound as a3.2.
I'm happiest about this last equation because spotify was always equal to about 90% of what I got from my cd's, now it's equal.
Big smile.
It was easy for me to do a/b comparisons in all these tests. All I had to do was switch inputs on my pre amp. I listened to the same songs, started at the same time and would switch back and forth between inputs with my remote so I'm certain in what I was hearing between the various set-ups.
Next, I'm going to upgrade from the wadia 170i wal wart to a welborne power supply. If this improves the sound from the wadia, my wadia will sound better than my cd player, which sounds great.
On a side note, I listened to my brothers klf 10's through an onkyo reciever (the onkyo was my first purchase 9 months ago when I started all this madness, and I thought then, that it was the cats pajamas) plugged into my i phone via a 20 foot 3.5 mm to rca plug. I played the same music I listen to everyday on my set up with the same i phone and the difference was absolutely huge. My rig leaves it for dead. :-) He's definitely going to need the $5,000 tos link and the $2000 footers to equal my set up.
