Will the Big Ben improve the 24 MXL?

Hey you saved some money!! Spend it on concert tickets, or give it to a good charity!

On a related note, if it makes you feel better, I (like you) used a dCS Purcell for 4 years with my Audio Logic, against Jerry's advice, because I liked the body and weight it gave on many recordings, although it did add some noise and adversely affected the delicacy the Audio Logic has in the high frequencies. I just sold the dCS to raise money for my audio slush fund, and while I still miss a few of the things it does, I think that Jerry ultimately is right, the unit sounds better by itself. In marked contrast, I might add, to a dCS stack I heard recently, where the Purcell and the Verona master clock units made a significant improvement. In fact, I think that the Verona finally made me feel that the dCS stack was about as good as my Audio Logic; before that it just seemed very good to me but lacked that something special. So maybe Jerry did it right the first time, and for a lot less money!

Yeah, now i just have to worry about digital IC's. I know this has been addressed before but, i have to ask... what do you like? I asked the salesman at Music Direct, what he thought of the AQ Eagle Eye compared to HT's Cyberlight IC. He said the AQ is slightly better(and cheaper too!). I've thought about Audience's offering and the Stealth Varidig. Oracle Audio likes HT cables but i don't know which way to turn. I have another problem. I don't know if i should purchase the GPA F-1 shelf for the transport($850)or get the standard HRS Isolation Base($1450)?

I wonder if my DL will be detimental to the sound too!

As far as digital interconnects go, I have used Siltech Golden Ridge (nice, a little soft sounding), K-Works digital interconnect (excellent, but limited production), Purist Proteus (excellent) and Kimber Selekt 2020 (also very good, probably not yet broken in). Since I sold the Purcell I'll probably sell one of the Purist or the Kimber (I have a Marantz DVD player which I use for the 6 DADs I listen to, think I may add all of that to the audio slush fund too!!) in the near future, so take any of my recommendations with that grain of salt in mind!! Jerry O recommends, and a number of folks here in a recent thread are singing the praises of, the latest Marigo Audio Labs digital cable, so check the archives, that seems to be a winner. Also, as I mentioned in that thread, the Kubala Sosna digital cable, currently out in AES-EBU form, was developed using the Audio Logic DAC and I think Messrs. Kubala and Sosna might have picked Jerry's brain a little in developing it, it sounded very good with that DAC and a CEC TL-1 transport in Mr. Kubala's system.

I'd save money on the isolation bases for the transport till you listen to things for a while. The K-Works IsobaseK works wonders under my Forsell, and is a lot cheaper than what you describe.

And I'd think the Digital Lens should degrade the sound, in theory, if the Big Ben would, but if you have one (as your post implies) you can just insert it into the signal chain and let your own ears be the judge!

I have to be honest, i love little black boxes. I have six pairs of Audit and Tactics(RCA and AES/EBU). If i have to give those up, i'll quit. Have you tried Bybee inside the dac? What i like about the Altis is that it's modular and the boards can be swapped out with little trouble and there's lots of room to breathe. If Jerry can do DSD in the future, there's no way we owner's can lose. What PC are you using? I have a UPC 200 on my mono amps and will purchase another for the digital section.