[Duncan]

To cut a long story short, my Marantz pretty much died, with even its digital connector becoming intermittent, so... I was searching around the local pawn shop, and saw a nice neat little CD player... Aura AUC-50... unfortunately it didn't come with a manual, and I can't find anything on the internet about this company ~ the only lead is on the back of the player, where it is stated that Aura is part of B&W...

Its a very minimalist player, with only 5 buttons on the fascia... but that aside, the player itself sounds significantly better than running through my Cambridge Audio S700 DAC (which in turn means it would obliterate my Marantz!!)

There is much more slam, bite ~ yet at the same time delicacy, when called for than with the DAC...

Obviously I don't know the original retail cost of this unit, but I bought it for the equivilant of $140... so, the question is... Is it normal to move away from an external DAC ~ of which I thought were the be all, and end all...

Thanks

(oh, and one lucky thing... the remote that was supplied is not working... but by sheer fluke, my Marantz remote works it like a dream

)

 

[Anders]

I didn't think we at Head-Fi are concerned about normality! If it sounds better, why not?

 

[Hirsch]

As in all things, it depends. If the DAC in the one-box unit is better than the external DAC, I'd go with the one-box and save money on interconnects. My modded ART DI/O has served me well...but I'm in the process of moving to a Creek CD53, which IMO provides a level of refinement the DI/O can't reach (in my hands, anyway. Some of the better modifiers can do more with it). So, you're not the only one moving away from an external DAC right now.

 

[bifcake]

Jitter is much more pronounced when using an external DAC. The longer the path of the digital signal to the DAC, the more prone it is to jitter. Therefore, it's entirely possible that you're hearing better results with a stand-alone player. This player may not even be up to par to your components. However, it's better than the sum of the parts of your existing system.

 

[Onix]

Some info in Italian about that player (freq response I think):

http://www.audionautes.com/Altriprod...ggio/lista.htm

 

[DanG]

It has also been brought up on the Audio Asylum that converting to S/PDIF to export the digital signal degrades the sound much like a format conversion (since that's what it is). Some have reported better luck with I2S connections or BNC connections. But in the end, I think it's just a matter of which one-box player you're listening to and which DAC you're auditioning.

My Marantz is dead too, as you know. I won't be buying another product from that company. I don't think old Saul would have been too happy with the direction his company has taken under the wing of Phillips.

 

[Duncan]

Quote:

Originally posted by Onix Some info in Italian about that player (freq response I think): http://www.audionautes.com/Altriprod...ggio/lista.htm

Thanks Onix...

So... I'll have to research now, if having such a low frequency master clock is a bad thing (sure doesn't sound as if it should be

)

Aura AUC-50 ~ 11,2896Mhz

Any ideas from the gurus here?