I need your thoughts on the art di/o dac

[RnB180]

Im thinking about purchasing one,

but would like to know if it will provide a step up in audio.

I have a pretty mediocre rig,

pioneer 563 sacd player, t-200 tube amplifier and recabled senn hd600s.

will the art DI/O help improve the audio to a substantial degree?

 

[Iron_Dreamer]

I had a modded unit with a crazy custom power supply for a while, and while it did sound good (i.e. better than the unmodded M-Audio soundcard I had at the time) it seems to me that there is better out there for the money. The EMU 1212M had a much better sound to me, and cost less. Perhaps check out the new headroom micro DAC, it has the same chip as the EMU, and at a reasonable cost. The ART is not the most up-to-date design, and is highly sensative to power quality, jitter, etc.

 

[lan]

I wouldn't get a stock DI/O. I thought they discontinued this though. There is still stock available somewhere and you can get one new? If you want a good cheap stock DAC, consider the Headroom MicroDAC.

As for the modded DI/O, there are different mods and they will all sound different. I enjoy mine a lot. I like it better than any of the emu soundcards.

>>>The ART is not the most up-to-date design, and is highly sensative to power quality, jitter, etc.

There's nothing wrong with not most up to date design. A lot of old stuff is good. As for being sensitive to power, I havn't experienced that. As for jitter, nothing but a better transport can help that. I can hear differences even using the so called immune Benchmark DAC1.