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Upsamplers, DACs, jitter, shakes and analogue withdrawals, this is it.

RE: Move from CD Player to DAC

Hmm… nobody asked you about your music collection, what you listen to, etc. How your system wants to be set up depends on what you want it to do with it. My thinking is that you need both a decent CD player and a USB DAC to play, respectively, shinydiscs and computer files.

Computer audio is a good option to add to your system as music sales and distribution change to online models in the very near future. You can keep all your CDs there too- 3 years ago I ripped my entire CD library to lossless digital files on a big external HD (backed up 100%). "All" I had to do is rip a zillion CDs into digital files. Rip losslessly or better still as .WAV files; storage is very cheap.

You can find a very decent USB DACs for $300-400 which is probably a good investment. USB DACs are, in essence, external soundcards. Most audiophile applications do not use internal soundcards- you get better processing and easier upgradeability with a USB DAC. Setting up a computer to play music well is pretty critical- surf PC Audio asylum for ideas. Also check out computer audio at: computeraudiophile.com and for well-balanced, current information: thewelltemperedcomputer.com

It’s worked out well enough for us- we listen to 99% of digital music via PC (most of the CD’s are in a storage locker somewhere) and there is a very, very small quality difference between that and my disc player. I hear differences but can't say which is more "right." Computer audio is convenient and fun and sounds quite fine. YMMV, of course.

I don't think any quantum leaps in RBCD playback have come along in the past several years. So your “vintage” Arcam might be viewed as delivering about everything a CD has to give. It might carry you into the future, if it keeps running you might not need another. Kinda depends on how you look at things.

Read this super-detailed review of a supposed $30 'giant-killer' DAC: http://nwavguy.blogspot.com/2011/02/behringer-uca202-review.html
Worth a shot.


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