Best Digital Source That Money Can Buy?


(1) Either single unit CD Player or Transport/DAC combo.

(2) no modded units please, only factory stock models

(3) please rank them if you can

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A few come to my mind:

EMM Labs, DCC2 SE + CDSA SE combo
Esoteric, P-03/D-03/G-0Rb combo
Wadia, 581 Pro
...
abe_av
To Dcstep:

I hereby append my prior "baseless claim" as follows:

my opinion based on my experience with other digital i have heard is that the dCS Scarlatti DAC might be on another level compared to anything out there. but i have not had everything in my system to compare.

I ask you to once again critique it's worth - but THIS time along with the worth of the next to last paragraph of the initial response in this thread made to the original poster by another member on 8-03-08.
hi dave:

you have not specified what "improve" means. instead of invective, why not facilitate communication by defining "improvement".
Jb0194, your original vote for the dCS Scarlatti had no "might be" in it. You agreed with Newly, who was writing in absolute terms, specifically mentioning other brands that he had no doubt that the dCS was superior to. He's not reappeared here to verify that he'd actually listened to the others that he named. You now say as much now. So, your unequivical agreement with Newly must have indeed been baseless.

This is not a magazine where we're "paid" for our opinions and there's a code of ethics, but generally when we say something like, "this is better than that" then we will have some basis for making a statement like that. If you say, "I've heard people say this is better than that" then we'll know that you don't know and your passing along hearsay. That's ok. If you've heard the two pieces and you prefer one to the other, then it's entirely ok to say you like one better than the other and it can be really useful if you explain why. In your case, by virtue of agreeing with Newly, you indicated that you agreed that the dCS was better than the Playback Designs, when you hadn't heard the PD.

That's all I'm pointing out.

I can't understand your last paragraph. If you'd like me to try to answer it, would you rephrase it?

Dave
Mrt, I'm not interested in defining "improve" to you. You started that line and I'm not going down that road. You think that any change is an improvement, I must conclude from you examples. That's your perogative and I'm glad that you made that clear.

Dave