[rappsy]

Hello:

New to the forum.

I have an Outlaw 1070 receiver and love it. They are hooked up to a pair of Axiom M60's and no subwoofer (the bass is plenty and never felt I needed to add one.) At this time, I do not use a center, but have an Infinity that is not being used. For the rear, I use an old pair of Infiniti bookshelves and they do the job.

I am looking to buy a DVD/CD player or a standalone CD Player or most recently I have been reading about a DAC and now I am totally confused but am leaning towards this being my answer.

I also want my Senn HD580's to be pushed the way they should be. I enjoy the sound of them but think that they can sound better.

I currently own a Pioneer 563A which is adequate, but I think I am ready for another one unless an added DAC will do the job. A friend loaned me an original Rega Planet (10 years old) and when I hooked it up, I noticed the difference in the soundstage, presence, and definition, if not a little laid back relaxed sound, which is perfectly fine as I listen to everything flat. It wasn't a drastic difference, but it was noticeable. With it’s age, the cost would be $250 to purchase her machine and it was well cared for and used sparingly. I am willing to go more if you think that it will work for me after reading the following.

My listening habits are as follows:

I do not have any DVD-A and SACD disks and have no intention of ever using them. I own thousands of regular CD's and this will be my prominent listening. Mostly rock, but I also like blues, contemporary jazz, and have soundtracks and New Age. I can easily go from Deep Purple to Buddy Guy to Guys and Dolls in one sitting.

My CD or CD/DVD player will be used 85% CD listening and 15% DVD, so as you can see the importance will be in the music.

I have seen OPPO but it seems to more video oriented instead of audion. I have read about Cambridge, Arcam, and Rotel as well.

Should the audio out of the machine be used with an optical out or coax out or are the RCA outs good enough. Is one more preferable and is it substantially better than regular audio cables out? I realize if I use a DAC it is optical out.

The more I read about DAC's the more I think this is what I want. Also, can the DAC be split so that I can hook it up to a CD player and to the computer so that I can get 2 bangs for my buck. Can I use the computer as the transport to the DAC as well? Computerized music is where it's headed and I would like to be ready.

I need someone to tell me why DAC's are the way to go, if they are indeed the way to go. If not, recommendations of a machine are also needed. (I'm willing to go to an older machine.) I am looking in the $300-500 range for either of my solutions, but if convinced, I could go more. This is long term and I'm not going to let a few bucks get in the way.

I know this is a lot and I thank you so much in advance for your help.

Lenny...

 

[John Reeves]

Hi,

I was in the same predicament at one time and this is the route I followed, together with some of the reasons. This is not definitive and I am sure that other may well propose a different solution, which is equally as good or maybe even better. My aims were quality and convenience. I personally agree that computer based solutions are the way to go.

First I decided to build a HTPC to hold all my media. If you use a standalone CD player then there are other factors to consider, rather than just the DAC. The transport mechanism is important to reduce jitter as are the rest of the internal electronics. If you rip your music and DVD's to the hard drive on a reasonably speced. computer you can eliminate a lot of the above problems. Then in order to get the sound out to your amplifier you need a decent sound card. I use a Juli@ which is an excellent card, with a decent on board DAC. I dislike EMU because of the complicated, prone to crash software IMHO. The other advantage of the Juli@ is that it has co-ax connections which are better in most peoples opinion than optical. You can get an optical to co-ax Converter if you need to in the short term.

You can then add an external DAC of whatever quality you wish when your pocket has recovered from the first stage.

Despite what you may read, a lot of people now consider that you need a decent sound card to get a good output digital signal.

Regarding video. I use a passive cooled NVidia based card to a 42 ins. plasma.

Storage is now cheap and you do not need fast disk drives unless you go for blue ray in the future, You can then use a free front end, such as media portal to put all your DVD's and music at your fingertips with a simple selection screen which anyone can use, not just a nerd like me!!

I use FLAC and ASIO to store and playback my music. Music is ripped using EAC and DVD's using DVD Fab (Paid for) or DVD Decryptor (Free)

I hope this is of help in your selection process, if not now, then in the future. If you have any queries then let me know and I will do my best to answer them.

Best regards

John