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
Glad you believe to have found "perfection" in DACs at such modest prices. Apparently there are different ways to define exactly what perfection means, unless you've compared them to the best existing DACs available at any price. If you haven't done that such declarations are essentially meaningless, and really just saying nothing more than you've found some low cost DACs which meet your standards. Others may have higher goals and more resolving systems which reveal flaws that you may be willing to live with. To each their own, that's why we have free markets! Let the competition for the ultimate DAC continue here...
Perfection is easily defined in theory, and pretty easily in practice. It is the quality level above human hearing acuity. The good news is that with DACs that level is reached quite easily, and for fairly modest outlays. Quality wise, DACs are the most accurate part of the audio chain, so they deserve least attention.
Next down the quality pecking order are amplifiers, and then, much further down, loudspeakers (and cartridges).
Well now that we have that on good authority it's settled, so we can end any further discussions about such sound quality differences. What a relief! ;~)
Wow. Leave the house alone for a few weeks and look what happens. Lol. 

Ok. I’ve been enjoying the crap out of my earthshatteringly good Davinci 2. I cant explain how good it is other then to say that it creates visual cues within the layers of musical eddies and currents. One of my friends feels it lacks the last molecule of accuracy compared to something like the Emm product. But I feel it’s representation of accuracy is proper and not meticulous; musical and not overly analytical. 

I have moved my beloved ODSX to my office system, which has turned into a kick ass system on its own:
Aurender N10
Empirical Audio ODSX DAC 
Constellation Virgo 2 preamp
Constellation Centaur stereo amp
Torus RM20 BAL conditioner with dedicated 240V balanced dedicated stranded 10ga circuit
Focal Sopra #2 speakers

Shhhhhhh. Wanna hear a secret???

I have a Boulder 2120 DAC incoming for audition ($65k)!!! It has a built in music server. I’m school girl giddy to compare it to my N10/Davinci 2 combo!!!  

Stay tuned!

i’m not throlling!
i just tried to say that i enjoy more this little dac FOR REDBOOK(and my collection is 99.9% of redbook) than any other i had (ex:audio note dac 3) which was more natural, more palpable, more realistic BUT LESS MUSICAL! SOTA? hummmm BUT NO MUSIC? Something is wrong with ultra capable dacs! i also had a 1bit native dsd cs4398 dac very good in dsd but atrocious with 44/16. Top tier dac for redbook is probably a dac that does only redbook!!!!! the uca202 seems to output what is on the cd and it has no preamp or analogue output circuit as high end dacs. so you can add your own preamp!!! 2. SOTA DAC working on usb??? bah. AND AGAIN i insist that with such SOTA devices 50% of your collection is inaudible (i hear a lot of classical music not recognized to be well recorded) and when the message goes very complex a lot of those SOTA dacs are totally UNCAPABLE. if you wanna buy a 30.000$ dac just for hear Diana Krall or only some jazz trios is up to you! 3. some high end music servers are build around a 40$ raspberry like boards! and it will be sold for 6000$. IS TIME TO WAKE UP IDIOPHILES!