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Anyone ever heard of it? 1990/91, build quality seems insane. There is a local hifi that had it used for sale but it quickly went. Sony CDP-X777ES on TVK, detailed inside views AudiogoN ForSale: Sony CDP-X777es

What's interesting about this one is that it does HDMI -- I wonder how far off we are from one that can be set to record?

I have this in my system now for about two days. Inside pictures later when I can figure out how to open it up and get my camera back. It is stock, not modded by John Wright. I've been comparing it with my also Parasound DAC1100 (using Squeezebox 3 as digital transport). The Bitstream is definitely on the same level as the 1100. The Bitstream has more presence in the upper mids which opens up the Omega 2 a bit. The high freq extension is also exceptional on the Bitstream. I will run some test tones later, but right now nothing is missing from the highs. Bass might also have a bit more oomph, but this is too close to tell at this point. Both the Parasound and Museate…

The two sources are: An Oppo DV-980H and a PS3. The PS3 has no analog outputs as I'm sure everyone knows. I need a headphone amp or some kind of hybrid setup that can handle both of those sources at the same time. Ideally, the Oppo should be connected via left and right analogs for SACD and DVD-A playback and the PS3 would have to be connected via optical output. This is for my sister who's ready to start getting more serious about headphones now that she is using my AKG 701s while I've moved to the Sennheiser 800s. Ideally, she doesn't want to spend more than about $500 if it can be helped. Ideally, I would steer her towards something like the Gilmore Lite…

I have a handful of redbook CD digital transports. For the purpose of this post, I'm going to concentrate on three: the Sonic Frontiers SFT-1, Micromega Drive 3, and Parasound C/BD-2000. It's interesting to note that both the SFT-1 and Drive 3 use the same Philips CDM 12.4 drive mechanism, while the Parasound of course is a belt-driven CEC jobbie. I have always felt they all had their own sound, however I was extremely happy with the Micromega Drive 3. Either way, I bought a Genesis Digital Lens for yuks to see if it would make them all sound the same, because I really like using the Parasound thanks to its unique user experience of sliding open the door and pla…

Hi, I am considering abandoning my computer as main transport, and would like to find a hd based one. I saw a few for sale around here, but I am wondering which of those would do bitperfect digital out, as well as have decent jitter rejection performances. My source is a non-upsampling Melior Bitstream, and I would use coaxial wire. Thanks for any inputs you can provide.

Has anyone had a chance to hear the new McIntosh SACD/CD beast yet. I'm pretty sure this uses the new ESS ES9018 chip. It also has SPDIF in so this is certainly a contender for the 2-channel system. Well except for the fact it has a $6500 MSRP and at that price point it better be pretty special.

Neko Audio D100 Impressions After being a speaker only guy for awhile I wanted to put together a headphone rig again for late night listening sessions. I had never sold my 650's so I had the headphone part covered and then I was fortunate enough to get a Dynahi at a fantastic price. Leaving the source as the only thing left to get, I knew I wanted a dac as I was planning to use the Squeezebox as the transport. I've heard quite a few dacs in the $1k price range over the years and none really ever satisfied me and some I flat out hated then I recalled reading this thread about a new transformer coupled dac. I've had very good experiences with transforme…

Does anyone here have the USB Off Ramp Turbo 2? I know of only one person on Headfi that has one and he said it was an improvement over an Audiophile USB as transport to his DA10. I'm a bit skeptical and Empirical Audio makes no mention of a money back guarantee. Their engineer posts a lot on Headfi and AudioAsylum. Website: http://www.empiricalaudio.com/

Hi Everyone. I just heard the Cary 306 professional and I loved how it sounded. It had a bunch of detail and the highs sounded bright to me, but it didn't sound harsh or shrill. Also, every instrument and the vocals had it's own space. Overall it was just amazing. What is a good price for a used one? Also, does anyone know of a comparable source that may be a little cheaper? Thanks for any help or sugguestions.

What good/excellent sources are there with usb and toslink inputs that have an inbuilt preamp or have consumer (-10dBu) rather than line-level (+4dBu) analog XLR outputs ? It`d need to have usb and toslink inputs at a bare minimum, i2s would help future proof it . I am looking for a quieter source than my line-level mini-dac so that I can remove the voltage divider I`m having to use to reduce its volume. A source with as good or better performance than the mini-dac is preffered. my current solution http://www.head-case.org/forums/do-yourself/5997-resistor-type-make-volume-attenuation.html#post218512

Well after some futzing I have modified Exact Audio Copy to check to see if a file has HDCD Data and if it does use this: HDCD Software Decoder [Archive] - Doom9's Forum or: Index of /~cjk32/hdcd to convert it to a 24 bit file and then encode to a lossless WMA at with 24 bits. The files aren't much bigger than the 16 bit files because most of the extra bits are zeros anyway. Pretty cool Can I hear the difference? haven't tried yet but I certainly like knowing that I can get everything out of the HDCDs. Only problem now is that I will have to go through and re-rip my HDCDs.

Just got this baby installed. It sounds a little better than my Moodlab did, still breaking in, only 1 hour old. Have a 1962 GE tube in it, been conjuring up the wallet resources to get a fancier tube like a 396 or a Bendix *shudder*. Seems to be more musical than other DACs as people have told me...you really get a feel for the instruments not just fancy bold noises and sounds. And with that, I'll take any questions. MHDT has good service, they took about a day to get back to me and then I got set up. DAC took 4 days to come. Shipped Saturday, came Wednesday. They're turbo fast, it cleared customs in 4 hours luckily enough. There was a powdered Chinese tube …

The AKM 32bit Dac is interesting to me as I commonly see people refering to it as a wonderful sounding Dac. Also to add that it seems to be found in a couple very high end sources such as the APL NWO 3.0 GO and Esoteric D-05 Dac. I myself have auditioned the APL NWO 3.0 and I do realize that it has something insane like twenty 32bit converters in each channel, but I cannot forget that smooth yet detailed sound I enjoyed so much. This is why I want to audition the D-05 and APL Denon 3910.(with the AKM dac) I have a couple questions about sources that would help clarify my understanding. First, im sure that its not just the dac in a source that determines the sound qual…

My Zhaolu won't receive a coax or optical signal....I can hear a current rush through the headphones when I power it up, but then it goes to mute.. and then nothing.... Headphone amp module doesn't work either. I use it for late night TV with an M^3, but it stopped working yesterday. It just goes to mute after I turn it on. Here are some pics, maybe some of the DIYers can spot what's wrong with it. All the leds inside light up and the muting led flashes. Nothing looks burnt or leaking, what do you guys think? Thanks for taking a look. USG

So what do you guys (and gals) think? A Sony TTS-8000 turntable and Fidelity Research FR-54 arm for $1800 total including shipping. Yay or Nay?

DAC1 PRE - Benchmark Media Systems, Inc. I have never heard a DAC1, and I get the impression that they are generally frowned upon here at Head-Case, while the rest of the audio world seems to be impressed. The review of the new Benchmark DAC1 PRE in the most recent Hi-Fi news was nothing short of glowing. Ken Kessler couldn't seem to find enough good things to say about this unit, including that it made one recording "...sound as lush and room-filling as a mint original vinyl pressing." So anyone heard one of these? Its level of functionality truly is enticing at its price tag of $1575.

Hi everyone, I am looking for a new DAC new and kind of love Esoteric product. Right now there is one for sale on audiogon. However, I don't know whether Esoteric D-05 is really an amazing DAC for that much investment or not. Can any owner of Esoteric D-05 tell me your opinion? what is the price range for a used one? thanks

The story starts here: http://www.head-case.org/forums/home-source-components/5712-vintage-dac-sonic-frontiers-sfd-2-a.html So to summarize the story: last week I bought a vintage Sonic Frontiers DAC and I come home and the right channel is completely distorted. Although it managed to work for a few hours (giving me a taste of its magic), afterwards the distortion came back and never left . So I take it to a repair shop and the person confirms it is the right DAC is at fault. Yes, the one with the bizarre foil on it . So I've been had. The D20400A chip is probably quite hard to find these days and probably obsolete as well so a solution occurred to me which …

*Gets straight to the point* https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=226826 Its not a replacement for foobar (only plays one file at time, doesn't support anything besides flac and wav), but I think it actually sounds better. It gobbles up 1gb of my RAM with AWE on though and the file I'm playing is only 300mb~ The main improvement I think I'm hearing is in the soundstage, there seems to be a lot more depth now, and the sounds are nicely spaced out when it sometimes gets a bit cluttered with foobar. This is where I heard about it: http://www.odysseyaudiohk.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1215105279

I was thinking of picking up this computer to use as a transport for the Pico Dac: The Dell Online Store: Build Your System It comes with XP Home, 1 gb ram and 8 gb ss hard drive. It's $299 and has a 8.9" screen. I would be running itunes only with an external drive connected to it containing the music files. It seems perfect as it has a small screen if any issues come up requiring reboots, etc. I would use the remote on my iphone. I had the mac mini, which was great but also had to have a separate monitor attached. This will save room and should do exactly what I need.

Hi Everyone, after getting advice from Icarium, I think I will skip Esoteric DAC lines. Right now , I have just known the Plantinum DAC III and plan to hunt for a used one. Does anyone know how much it will cost for a used one so i can save enough money for it? any owners, here?? thanks

Hopefully this is the right place. For 22 years I've gone from not knowing what DACs are, or what EQ and DSPs are good for (didn't even know the term DSP existed), to experiencing the best sound quality I've ever heard through headphones, due to learning a ton this past week or so. I thought I'd share. I made some tweaks to foobar's DSPs that are all incredible sound-quality improvers. ...For headphones, at least. (I have Denon Ah-D2000s.) I'll type up a guide about it now! (This is copied from my journal. I wonder if it's a decent newbie guide.) Everyone's audio system is different, so the guide may not produce a purely positive result without further tweaking.…

Just in case people are interested in having a sample rate converter for Foobar2000 I just found this: A new resampler DSP for foobar2000 - Hydrogenaudio Forums I don't think the SRC is going to make my audio sound any different but I have also learned that they can do a lot of damage too. If you don't believe me look at the comparisons here: SRC Comparisons The one above is based on the SoX resampler which looks excellent in the test results above and has lots of options about phasing of the impluse response if you buy what Ayre says in that other thread. I went looking for something that had been measured to settle any misgivings I had about the PPHS res…

I bought a NOS dac (audiosector/audio zone) and love the sound and am wondering about these (audial see below) or other higher end NOS dac's. I know the arguments against these (noisy, no resolution etc) not interested in a debate. Any help with these dacs would be appreciated. Audial :: High Quality Audio Equipment