EAD lovers: tell me about the $10K TM Sig Classic

The bottom line is there nothing in software passed 24/96.Theotricaly it is possible to get to 192,though I have yet to hear or see anything close to it.As far as I know you cannot get blood from of a stone.This upsampling,oversampling is nothing but a lot of hype.As a dealer I have heard all the so called "Kings of the Hill"(Meitner,Audio Aero,Burmeister ect)and to my ears this added information is just that.I feel that the music has become totaly lost in mathematical equations..

Obviously I cannot be all wrong as some of the more tradidtional companies still maintain 18 and 20 bit dacs,some with no filtering ie Audio Note,47 labs,Goldmund ect.The Theatermaster Signature and the Classic were and are the best out there when it comes to a pre/pro.Yes you are gving up on the newer technology,dpl II dpl Ex upsampling ect.The decison must be wether you want the best sound ,or you are willing to sacrifice for the more updated offerings that are essensialy of the shelf boards and dacs that are slapped together.

You have on other recourse if you want to stay with EAD and that is the Signature 8,Has full analog pass through,for your hi rez.The DAC chips though are 17632s which was the progression of the downward spiral on quality dac chips.

I forgot.Since the the Alpha Digital EAD is NOT a true balanced pre/pro,other than convenience there is no audible improvement of single ended.

How would something like this (Classic) compare to one of these good analog multichannel preamps?

You have no dsp engines with them.Since bass management,roll off, ect , are pretty much very bacic in most of these DVD and Universal Player systems you probably would be be very limitied in customizing your sound

Well, my loss. I was unwilling to exceed my maximum on the auction, so I lost out on the TM Classic. Oh well.

As far as BM, some DVD players like the Marantz have pretty decent capability. I can do speaker size settings, distance for each speaker to the nearest 6 inches (okay, it's not to the nearest inch), gain to the nearest 1/2 dB. Don't have variable crossover (I think). I'm hoping the 9500 or Onkyo SP1000 will be better.

I feel bad for losing out on the Classic, but for the going price, plus the extra money for the Black Gate and Rectifier mods from Boelen it would have put me in a price range where I could buy a decent used 6 channel preamp. The purest audiophile in me likes that option better (I have to say this to keep from kicking myself, although it is really true), as I still can't see why I'd be spending money on a source with all that stuff in it if I'm just going to run it through more conversions or override it.