Hello James.
Ayon makes tubed equipment that has many talking about. Their CD players are said to be fantastic. Also their DAC, which also has a fantastic volume stage. Actually, some or their CD players also have this feature.
Esoteric X03SE would be a very nice CD player, for the money. As Tomcy6 said above, I doubt you would find it edgy. Please keep in mind there are underlying arguments about spinning discs vs computer audio being better, so you are likely to get people getting on their soapbox. Just be aware. Likely someone who already replied will say the Linn will beat any Esoteric...fine. Just read around. BTW, I don't spin disks anymore, but I do belive there are fantastic CD players around.
A very nice DAC I think is Aesthetix (tubes), Berkeley Audio (SS), Lampizator (tubes), to name some. If I knew I was only going to spin discs I would probably get a Accustic Arts CD transport and DAC (German, SS). Be aware that computer audio, while it opens a number of doors, also has a steep learning curve and is still quirkier than spinning disks.
I hope this helps.
Ayon makes tubed equipment that has many talking about. Their CD players are said to be fantastic. Also their DAC, which also has a fantastic volume stage. Actually, some or their CD players also have this feature.
Esoteric X03SE would be a very nice CD player, for the money. As Tomcy6 said above, I doubt you would find it edgy. Please keep in mind there are underlying arguments about spinning discs vs computer audio being better, so you are likely to get people getting on their soapbox. Just be aware. Likely someone who already replied will say the Linn will beat any Esoteric...fine. Just read around. BTW, I don't spin disks anymore, but I do belive there are fantastic CD players around.
A very nice DAC I think is Aesthetix (tubes), Berkeley Audio (SS), Lampizator (tubes), to name some. If I knew I was only going to spin discs I would probably get a Accustic Arts CD transport and DAC (German, SS). Be aware that computer audio, while it opens a number of doors, also has a steep learning curve and is still quirkier than spinning disks.
I hope this helps.