I have all my music (16/44 cd wav rips and high res FLAC downloads) on a large hard drive in a Dvico Slim 1 media player, by coaxial S/PDIF output connected to a Audio GD Ref 7 DAC. Further downstream are a Stax 507 and a pair of Quad ESL63. Sound is brilliant, but the Dvico looks decidedly cheap next to the other stuff. I can imagine this small 200 dollar box isn't the last word in clock accuracy, low noise power supply and high quality S/PDIF output.
Are there better machines for dedicated harddisk replay? The Bryston BDP-1 looks very interesting, but is expensive. I found this link (http://lampizator.eu/szop/szopproducts/LZ-TRANSPORT/Lampizator%20transport.html) also very interesting, but this 'digital transport' is very costly too.
I'd rather use a high quality dedicated hard disc player than a (electronically and/or mechanically) noisy pc or laptop. I prefer a coaxial output to the DAC than a USB-connection full of compromises. Galvanic isolation of the DAC from a pc is often troublesome too.
Has anyone successfully upgraded cheap players (Popcorn Hour, Squeezeboxes and the like) with better clocks, power supplies, digital outputs? I suspect a gap in the market here. Anyone?
