Specialty custom 5-channel: circa 24-bit/96k, Boz Scaggs "My Funny Valentine", vocal & awesome grand only, recorded in Boz's SF home, on the original hard drive, into Pacific Microsonics DACs, then unknown (probably Pass) insanely nice preamp, then Pass Labs 160W Class A high-range amps, Pass MONSTER AB bass, into five (circa $86k/pair) Andrew Jones' TAD Reference 1s. Sublime doesn't begin...I cried tears...thank goodness I was in the back...
Back to earth: I assume we're talking consumer gear playing Red Book, right?
Either my own TRL-modded (all solid-state) Sony DVP-NS900V (circa $1300, all video functions deleted, SACD remains) or the $3900 Audience-modded Denon. I lean heavily toward the Audience till doing a direct AB. A much more interesting/closer-in-cost comparison would be if the TRL had the $750-extra battery supply upgrade for the DACs only (transport remains AC powered).
Allison Krause's Live SACD/CD has about the best bluegrass/roots players on earth & it's a fantastic recording. I'm not great but I have a nice guitar & I play fairly good. So good is the TRL's Red Book performance that the CD layer beats the SACD, & once you tune into the difference it's pretty substantial.
I am emphatic about the following since getting a state of the art preamp: Comparing a Red Book source w/o a state of the art preamp is limited by the quality of the preamp employed or not employed in all cases. I'd challenge anyone thinking their digital source adequately drives cables & an amp to insert a state of the art preamp in between & double check their conclusion. I suppose the only exception is if the signal remains digital throughout as per Meridian, TACT, etc. But that has its own seperate list of perils.
I've auditioned preamps over the decades from stock PAS-3, stock PAT-4, trannies, passives, stepped Vishay attenutors, up to the now-$17k VTL, $15k Krell Evo/CAST 202, & my current preamp, the $5900 SST Ambrosia. If I had to give up the level of performance added by the preamp now I'd consider giving up the hobby altogether, such is the quantity of the upgrade. Anyone disputing this probably has never auditioned such a piece at home.
The preamp allowed me to downgrade two steps in speakers & still enjoy the performance better.
Didn't mean to hijack the thread but it does relate specifically to comparisons such as are the subject. The point is: no SOTA preamp, inaccurate conclusions.
