DougD
500+ Head-Fier
My lack of respect for delta sigma DACs is only slightly exceeded by the same for sigma delta A2D converters - they are suitable for cheap (oops, inexpensive) prosumer stuff. How much is it worth for a user to digitize their vinyl?? Think about it. If they were making original recordings, it would be worth a bit more. Easy to do for Bifrost money or less, and amazing in the context of all of the other insipid stuff out there.
To do a real multi-bit megacomboburrito deal recording at balanced in at 24 bit 250-500KHz sampling rate AES/EBU out (USB is for children and feral wannabe engineers) as good as the stuff I made (Gain 1) for Mobile Fidelity is going to cost like an Yggy. But it will be really *** good. How many people really need that? Wants and needs are different.
An excellent framework for thinking about this.
My collection of vinyl, and interest in vinyl to digital conversions, is Bifrost-sized. It's not Yggy-sized. If I thought that vinyl/analog was the ultimate high-fidelity storage and technology for delivering music content to the consumers' ears, that would justify a larger commitment and budget. Or the best tradeoff of cost & quality. But, personally, I do not believe either of those is true as broad generalizations. And I'm not creating any original content. So an Yggy-in-Reverse would be out of my budget range. (N=1)
However, I think we can take "megacomboburrito A2D converter" off the guessing list for what the 2016 Manhattan project is all about.