My head hurts....

" I've also found a stunning thing... each of the USB ports on the MacMini (four of them) sound a little different... one or two are much, much better than the others... go figure"

Ed (Istanbulu)

Can you tell us which particular physical USB port(s) sound the best.

Thanks,
Dave

An alternative to a stand-alone DAC is a one-box CD/SACD player like the Playback Designs MPS-5, with upsampling to DSD and digital inputs. Most importantly, the PD is a player that competes heads up with the best analog while providing support for other digital inputs, such as a server-based system.

I believe that you should select a player or DAC for their musicality first, then next look at versatility. Ideally you'll find excellent musicality combined with flexible digital I/O, hopefully with several sources possible.

Dave

I had the pleasure of working with the Stahltek DAC at the RMAF. It accepts 16/24 bits from MP-3 all the way up to 192KHz. So we were running a lot of 24 bit 192KHz files off of a server, which worked quite well. I'm a big analog freak, but I had to actually look and see if the turntable was playing, more than once...

The nice thing about this approach is that the transport can be executed on most any laptop (we use a Linux based server); the DAC accepts USB. So for those worried about obsolescence its a good way to go.

Add a Benchmark DAC which can absorb 24/192 at a decent price, then you can play with internet based extremely high quality music as well as route any other players you have through it. It looks like PCM 24/192 via BR or FLAC files might be the replacement for SACD, but of course, who knows. But with the Benchmark, you are well protected.

Now my head hurts too. I also have been looking for a new player. I have until 5PM today to choose between a two used players and one new. The two used are a Meridian G08, a BAT VKD-5 and a new Unision Unico CD. All about the same price (except the Unico is maybe $100 cheaper).
Given how often CD players break and/or need repairs, is it wise to buy used when there's new?
Any thoughts?