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What about adding a DAC? You already have transports that are not likely to be improved on, you'll get more for your money by just adding the DAC hardware.
Freo-1: Has Dan made significant changes within the past 2 years? The reason my asking, I had a Modwright/Sony 9100 Signature Truth and actually preferred the stock Sony outputs over the tube output.
My digital set up is a Mac Mini with a decent DAC. You spoke of convenience in the original post; nothing is more convenient than having your entire CD collection accessible from one source. And, controlling it from an iPhone/iPod is amazingly simple. Accessing the music from a solid state drive means no more spinning parts, and a separate DAC allows for future upgrades. I am now completely Lp based or lossless file. The CDs are stored. You can certainly be up and running for $1500 easy.Another added benefit is using the Mac Mini as an audio/video/web enabled media server and file sharing unit.The main pitfall is setting up and ripping your CDs properly. There are a few very good guides to doing this, but it does take time. Also, backing up your data is important. I can point you in the right direction if you are interested.I really think that buying an expensive CD player at this point in time is a little short sighted (just my opinion -- not trying to start anything).
Yeah. Dropping $1k on a DAC is substantial. In my statement above I'm thinking $1500 for computer, DAC and storage. This won't get you in the super high end but will get the ball rolling and leave room for future digital improvements as tech and prices change. After all this is the vinyl forum and that's where the quality experiences come from for me.
I have maybe 1000 CDs and CD-Rs and I like the convenience of CDs. A shopping spree is coming up and I figure I can spend $1500 for a CD player. Is there anything out there that will come close to a Well Tempered Classic with an Ortofon 2M Black or a 47 year old tube tuner?
Doug was kind enough to send me that art di/o to play with and it is a tremendous improvement over the stock Jolida but as he said, it's not vinyl.I think that my next CD player/upgrade is going to be another turntable.A tube FM tuner will be for convenience.
That's an interesting place you came out at, Steve What I've found regarding CD advances is that they're all uniformly pretty good these days...even the DVD/CD players under $60. I'd take a recent $60 player over nearly any 10 year old (maybe even 7 year old) formerly pricey flagship player of yesteryear. Digital gear prices seem to bear out the same for most buyers as the depreciation on digital gear is by-and-large the worst in audio. You generally get nowhere near your purchase price with digital gear a few years later because the newer players simply sound as good or better....and modding the older players is simply working inferior (older) guts to a higher level. Substitution of some parts seems no match for the general march of technology. Standalone CD players exhibit the lowest noise...so if the higher res formats hold no interest than go that route. I'm not fond of outboard DAC's as the physical junctions themselves add noise, jitter and discontinuity to the proceedings (I don't like the clutter of too many boxes, either, but that has nothing to do with the music). I certainly haven't heard all the computer based systems out there, but each time I have I hear no better playback than some really nice standalone players. Perhaps I'm not discriminating enough in musical refinement Personally, I think DVD-A is simply stellar (I have no idea if it's the higher bit rates or that the recordings were simply performed more carefully or mastered with more recent knowledge of digital techniques), but they sound good. I'd like to investigate Blu-ray releases too and might end up with the Oppo 95 soon for this reason. Buy some player, generally best with a linear (toroid / low leakage) transformer and putting an inexpensive isolation transformer on it is generally a ticket to digital excellence. The isotranny likely is more beneficial as a wastegate for digital hash flowing back into your system than an outright 'clean' power source...but, it's a dang trick upgrade for digital gear. I also have found on 4 players now the benefits of the Dakiom Feedback Stabilizers. I'm sure there's $2 of shit inside the $60-$120 devices, but it's an improvement in smoother sound for each player. Interestingly, as time has marched on, each player has benefitted LESS from the addition of the Dakiom....which tells me some part of the ripening digital evolution is feedback stabilization anyhow. The owner, Dr. Kim, writes crazy shit on Audiogon, but the damn things work for whatever the hell reason. The RCA doo-dads work I should add, I haven't found benefit enough to notice with the speaker pigtail units they sell. I don't know how to describe it - you put one on and you like the music more. You take it off and I'm less happy. So, they stay on.My last player is now 2-3years old...so it may be that the very newest players don't benefit at all from it. All the same, digital and vinyl have distinctively different sounds, now more alike than they ever were, but I cannot see how the twain will ever fully meet at the same place. There just seems to be folks of every stripe that will choose one as good enough and stick with it. Me? - I like 'em both but have had no goosebump moments with anything but vinyl so far in my life Frankly, I'd LOVE to ditch vinyl - it's a big pain in my ane - but, it's the format that serves the music best and that's why I'm an audiophool since age 13 or so first smitten.
That's an interesting place you came out at, Steve What I've found regarding CD advances is that they're all uniformly pretty good these days...even the DVD/CD players under $60. I'd take a recent $60 player over nearly any 10 year old (maybe even 7 year old) formerly pricey flagship player of yesteryear. Digital gear prices seem to bear out the same for most buyers as the depreciation on digital gear is by-and-large the worst in audio.
I'm always willing to be proven wrong.With digital sources I get up after a bit and end up doing something else; with vinyl my fat butt's glued to the chair. Switching from CD over to a tuner made in 1964 makes a tremendous sonic improvement in my system.Freo-1, are you anywhere near the wilds of the Commonwealth of Pennsyltucky? I'll give a listen.
Freo-1,I heard the Modwright Oppo 83 a year ago at the Rocky Mountain Musicfest (Fritzspeakers room) and it sounded superb. That said, if you smother digital with enough tubes it loses it's last vestiges of graininess. Nonetheless, the Modwright option would be a possibility for me, as well, if I get the Oppo 95.Thanks for chiming in John
