Wow, what a derailed thread this has become, right off the bat. I don't intend on arguing with anyone but I do have a few points to make:
Leeperry: you do seem to come across as aggressive and elitist. It is likely that you are not intentionally doing so, but that is still the impression being made. You call into question dozens or even hundreds of positive reviews (from magazines, recording engineers, forum members, etc.) of the Cambridge DacMagic and Benchmark DAC-1, based simply on the fact that they use some parts that you feel just can't sound good. At the same time, you list a few people who agree with you about the op-amp issue. Why are you and your little group more credible than the people who have heard and enjoyed those 2 DACs? Sure, some were inexperienced, but plenty were not.
It seems as if you have a predetermined dismissal for everything: some people don't have enough experience to know the difference, other people don't have enough quality gear, others don't have a trained ear, and lastly some are just shills. Factor all those together and we should see that NOBODY who counts really likes the DAC-1 or DacMagic, right? And it's all because of a few op-amps. Of course, each of those issues is valid in some instances, but certainly not all of them. You have to accept the fact that some experienced non-shills with good gear and good ears simply liked the sound made by those devices, despite the supposed limitations imposed by the op-amps.
I don't know what your stance is on cables, but your attitude towards op-amps seems interchangeable with a cable fanatic. Even if you are a proponent of cable upgrades, I'm sure you have been annoyed by extremists popping into threads and giving absurdly bad advice, or calling out systems which they feel don't have the proper cabling. It's not helpful and frankly it gets old.
Basically anytime someone ascribes too much worth to any particular little thing, it is likely wrong and usually annoying. We've seen people go overboard with cables, vibration reduction, power filtration, oversampling/upsampling, and on and on. These people will insist that their one little pet issue is the overwhelming priority for good sound, and without handling it the system or product is worthless. You are rapidly approaching that level of extremism with your op-amp posts, or at least that's the impression I am getting from you. I am still interested in information about any double-blind test where people could clearly identify op-amps.
I'm not trying to call you out and start a flame war. But it seems that you don't get the hint people are giving you in this thread. For better or for worse, people don't seem to agree with your assertion that op-amps are extremely important to the overall sound. I know you've probably argued it to death in other threads, so let's not do that here. You have made your points, some of which I agree with, so please move on.
I'm a Pascal fan myself, and here is a relevant quote:
"We are so unfortunate that we can only take pleasure in a thing on condition of being annoyed if it turn out ill, as a thousand things can do, and do every hour. He who should find the secret of rejoicing in the good, without troubling himself with its contrary evil, would have hit the mark."
Regarding the Matrix Cube: I do in fact have one, as I posted in that other thread. It sounds good. Really good. But I have to spend a lot more time with it, with different headphones, and comparing with different DACs, before I post a full review. So please be patient. I don't like the usual ongoing review type threads with dairly updates of listening impressions. That's just not my style. I'd hate to like it initially and have other people buy it based on that, only to later determine that it wasn't so great after all.....
