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In Reply to: RE: Upgrade Rotel 965BX vs. Starting Anew? posted by RC620 on February 26, 2008 at 13:32:34
> I've read comments about the 965BX being "bright" and somewhat harsh. . .
Of course, standards shift. When it was new (in '92?), as an
example of the then-new Philips bitstream technology (SAA7323, IIRC),
it would have been considered less harsh than many multibit-DAC players
available at the time, including the predecessor Rotel RCD-855.
(Of course, **these** days, the TDA1541AS1 DAC chip in the 855 is
considered highly desirable, though not so much the accompanying
SAA7220 digital filter.)
I remember that Cary Audio Design offered a tube-output-stage
modification for both these players.
> [F]olks told me that I was buying a transport for the most part. . .
So use it as a transport! Get a high bang-for-the-buck DAC
like, oh, the PS Audio Digital Link III
http://www.psaudio.com/products/digital_link_iii.asp
($995 from Audio Advisor
http://www.audioadvisor.com/prodinfo.asp?number=PSDL3
but there was one sold on Audiogon just recently for
$650. There is also a modified version of this DAC
selling [new] on Audiogon for $1180.00
http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?dgtlconv&1207450169 ).
> For the record, and a "spatial fanatic," as I love a
> holographic soundstage and detail, detail, detail. . .
Well, the PS Link III will give you plenty of that (I have
one).
Another DAC I can recommend is the Bel Canto DAC2 (discontinued,
but they show up on Audiogon from time to time)
http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/bcd/bcd.html
Here's another possibility for you: Channel Islands Audio VDA-2
http://www.musicdirect.com/product/73297
The VDA-2 is not upsampling (some people would consider that
an advantage), and will accept up to 24-bit/192kHz coaxial S/PDIF via
a CS8416 input receiver chip; the PS Audio has (nondefeatable,
to either 96kHz or 192kHz) upsampling via the highly-regarded
Burr-Brown SRC4192 ASRC chip, and will also accept up to 24-bit/192kHz coaxial
S/PDIF via a CS8416 input receiver chip; the Bel Canto
has (nondefeatable) upsampling to 192kHz via the AD1896 ASRC,
but can only input up to 96kHz S/PDIF.
All of the DACs I mentioned use 24-bit/192kHz Burr-Brown (now Texas Instruments)
DAC chips -- PCM1738 in the Bel Canto, PCM1798 in the PS Audio, and
PCM1794 in the Channel Islands. Certainly the **specs** of these new
chips are better than those of the old Philips SAA7323.
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