I do not
post much here, but here are a couple of observations regarding your situation
with digital music. I have the same
needs in terms of two channel audio.
I am 100% digital,
have been for a long time although I still own a turntable I bought in 1981
(JVC QL-Y5F).
By reading
between the lines I gather that you are using either USB Flash Drives or external
hard drives to play digital files through an Oppo 105. So was I a few years ago.
I also gather that you are playing CD
and SACD through the Oppo and are buying the Ayre for this reason.
I do not doubt
for a moment that the Arye is much better for the CD’s and SACD’s. The Oppo is a great player for Blu-ray music
discs.
Here in a
nut shell are my main 2 channel system source units:
Cambridge Audio
851N
Cambridge Audio
CXC
Cambridge
Audio 752BD
This is not
an advertisement for CA, it is just the way things have developed over the last
5 years. I have a my Oppo 105 now in a different system for audio & video.
I would use the Oppo in this 2 ch system in place of the 752BD, but my amplifier
only has one XLR input (Hegel H300). I am only using the 752BD in the 2 ch
system for my small collection of SACD’s.
I run a pair of Audioquest Niagara RCA to the Hegel from the 752BD. At some point I would like to have a better
player for SACD, but don’t have enough to justify it.
To play CD’s
(I have many SHM CD’s, plus MFSL gold) I run an AQ Coffee RCA to the 851N from
the CA CXC. I run an XLR pair of AQ Fire to the Hegel from the 851N. (I run a
pair of AQ Redwood to PSB Synchrony One). The CD’s sound amazing. FWIW, I still
have a working Sony X555ES I bought in 1993).
But the real
deal is the HD tracks played with a flash drive on the 851N through an AQ
Jitterbug. And the cream on the cake is
the discovery of the difference it made when I switched to a SOLID STATE flash
drive. All the noise/jitter/whatever is GONE. I use a 128 and 256 GB SanDisk
Extreme Pro SS flash drive.
Two final thoughts.
I am convinced that the KEY in this system is the up-sampling digital player.
The 851N up-samples to 384Khz. That and the silver cables.
Cheers. Enjoy
the music.