Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD


Hi All.

Putting together a reference level system.
My Source is predominantly standard 16/44 played from a MacMini using iTunes and Amarra. Some of my music is purchased from iTunes and the rest is ripped from standard CD's.
For my tastes in music, my high def catalogues are still limited; so Redbook 16/44 will be my primary source for quite some time.

I'm not spending DCS or MSB money. But $15-20k retail is not out of the question.

Upsampling vs non-upsampling?
USB input vs SPDIF?

All opinions welcome.

And I know I need to hear them, but getting these ultra $$$ DAC's into your house for an audition ain't easy.

Looking for musical, emotional, engaging, accurate , with great dimension. Not looking for analytical and sterile.
mattnshilp
Dragon Vibe, not discounting your personal opinion (I know that some house wiring can cause problems with some gear that work superbly in other places),  you must certainly understand that others hold very different opinions.

At the recent Axpona show, 3 rooms had Lampis and all were well received!
Copied from ACircle..

Maurice Jefferies from Postive feedback:

Our flagship Golden Gate DAC was featured in the VSA room, featuring there new flagship speakers. This drool-inducing set-up challenged one's expectations of what an ultra-high end system can do, and what such performance costs. At 900+ lbs. per side and over seven feet tall, the VSA ULTRA 11 speakers ($295K/pair in your choice of automotive paint finishes) towered above everyone and everything. They reproduced bass instruments with concert level impact below 20Hz (this was bass you heard and felt). Highs soared to infinity yet never shouted. Grain was utterly absent from the proceedings.

Steve Rochlin from Enjoy the Music:

In the same room with our Golden Gate Stever said "Getting my personal award for being Best Sound At AXPONA 2017 is the VAC / Von Schweikert room featuring their ULTRA 11 large floorstanders "

Greg Weaver from Postive Feedback had alot to say about this same room as well. To summarize it he wrote >

All these extraordinary attributes combine to present an unsurpassed degree of soundstaging; layering, image specificity, size, and shape. The overall spatial presentation, hall dimensionality, instrumental placement and interrelationships, the space between and around those remarkably defined voices, and reverberant cues, set a new benchmark of performance.


Jana Dagdagan From Stereophile:

I love tubes and horns. So naturally, when Jason and I were dividing up rooms, I leapt at the opportunity to cover Destination Audio, a company rumored to execute tubes and horns well, even in small hotel rooms.

Our Flagship Golden Gate DAC was also the source in the Destination Sound soom. Along with the speakers, the system contained two Destination tube preamplifiers ($16,000/pair) and two Destination tube mono power amplifiers ($24,000/pair). We listened to the Kings Singers' "The Boxer," and I marveled at the depth of the soundstage and how, through such towering speakers, this beautiful male a cappella ensemble filled but did not overpower the limited-size room. Afterwards, we listened to "Ode to Billy Joe" by Patricia Barber, and the amount of detail and variation in each "snap" left me wanting more. As I'm listening, Greg Roberts of Volti Audio—another maker of horn speakers I deeply adore—happens to sit next to me. It's a beautiful thing when you see a show exhibitor take a break to sit down and enjoy another designer's offerings. As I dragged myself away in hopes of staying on schedule, I thought to myself, "what an exceptional way to start the final day of Axpona."

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Besides awarding us for the best room at the show. Peter from AVS showrooms had this to say about the sound from our Golden Gate DAC through the epic VSA ULTRA 11s >

Words cannot express what I felt when listening to Roger Waters “Amused to Death” on this system with the ULTRA 11 Von Schweikert loudspeakers. It is the best of show. It is the best of any room at any show I’ve ever attended and I have been in thousands of exhibit rooms over the years. The experience was otherworldly. The sound was big and detailed – organic; the room had a heartbeat except there was no room, everything disappeared, like having the best seat in the house at a venue with excellent acoustics. I’m usually not a big fan of large loudspeakers at shows because they are very hard to set-up properly in a less than adequate environment with little time to get things right, but this was an achievement of the first order.

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Hell yeah! I 'experienced' Amused to Death in the room and it's gonna stay with me forever! Congrats to you guys for such a phenomenal setup!

Matt,I am loving the Kithara's in combo with the Syrinx. Tomorrow, I will install the floorplate with the bass cone.
Would cable lifting make a difference for speaker cables with air dielectrics?