Home Digital Drive

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

[ Follow Ups ] Thread: [ Display  All  Email ] [ Digital Drive ]
[ Alert Moderator ] [ Edit ] [ Delete ]

Re: Ditto...however,

71.232.93.134

"Some of today's $4K+ players still have problems," which makes my point even more forcefully. A good (toploading) transport mechanism, comparably good power supply, high performing capacitors, resisters, etc. are very expensive. And perhaps even more important, a work force that can assemble a complicated machine skillfully?!! How many hours should it take to assemble a good CDP? Three? Six? What do you have to pay semi-skilled assembly people? $30/hour. And they have benefits and the plant has to be paid for or rented and heated...

I considered my Naim CDX/XPS a good and durable machine, and that cost $6/7K (I think) nearly a decade ago. The Audience modified Sony 999 also seemed good and strong (though it wasn't around here long enough to tell for sure) and sounded very damn good for around $5K. That was around 2-3 years ago. It will be interesting to see what the new Audio Note one-box players are like when they finally come out. There is one in development that uses the Philips drive and a Dac 2.1 Signature that looks very promising but I'm guessing it will retail in the neighborhood of $8K. As cruel as it can't help but sound to those without lots of money to spend, my educated guess is that $7-8K is what a truly excellent AND durable one-box player will cost for the rest of this decade. That's why I always cringe when somebody comes on here asking about a good, cheap transport, dac, or one-box player. It's a fair question to ask but the answer is, well, cruel. What can I say?

The car metaphor is the right one. You can get basic transportation that won't break for around 75K miles for $14-16K, right? But if you want a virtually guaranteed 150K, you're in the twenties, and not much longer in the low twenties either. Labor and parts, parts and labor. And then a few folks along the chain have to make a living.

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
  Schiit Audio  

Follow Ups Full Thread
Follow Ups
You can not post to an archived thread.

[ Top Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2024, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]
[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]