Revisiting Digital?

I have read two articles, nearly 3yrs apart on the differences between McIntosh Media Servers and good CD playback. Read the article yourself, it is a good read, but here is the punchline. To get the real deep base, the impactfull midrange that hits you in the chest. And yes, that elusive AIR and space we all covet is far more present in the stand alone player vs the media player. Bits are not just bits, if you take these guys at their word.

http://www.stereophile.com/mediaservers/108mac/index.html

This is essentially, what I want to get from my digital source. I want the best from digital, so I think I will give up the ease of use of a music server, for the purity of great digital. I know Analog-Vinyl offers the best of this, but as mentioned earlier, I am nearly done with the issues of vinyl. I have listened to the VPI cleaned albums after a three step process, and find still find myself lacking the sound I seek. It needs to be new, and perfectly clean to get it to the point I hope to hear.

So if you are still with my, what would you put on the list for great digital playback? I need to add a great BluRay player to my system, but would be happy to add a universal player for great SACD or DVD-A in addition to Redbook.

Jeff

The digital I've ever heard comes from Audio Note DACs. The combination of no oversampling, no filtering of any kind, a very good power supply, and a very good tubed output stage (NOT a buffer!) does absolute wonders for digital.

I tried a kit DAC 1.1 (used) and it was so revelatory I bought & built the Kit DAC 2.1C Signature. This $2200 DAC fed by a Mac Mini stomps any other digital I've heard at any price - although I would have to guess that the expensive factory AN DACs, ranging up to about 25x the cost of mine (!), are indeed better, there's no doubt that their entry-level stuff fully captures their house sound as well.

As good as this DAC is - it is tonally accurate, detailed without *ever* being fatiguing, extremely dynamic in the micro & macro senses, very smooth & liquid *without* glossing over anything - my somewhat modest vinyl front-end does stomp it.

In a good system, there is no digital that is the equal of even middle-of-the-rode analog in terms of musicality - period.

In a good system, there is no digital that is the equal of even middle-of-the-rode analog in terms of musicality - period.

That's right. It's just like the way a $250 Blu-ray player will give you a better image (playing a Blu-ray disc) than a $7K upconverting DVD player can give you with a std-def DVD.

CDs have pathetically low resolution compared to an LP. The best player or DAC can't manufacture data that's missing on the disc any more than a multi-thou DVD player can create picture detail that isn't on the std-def DVD.

My humble Technics/Audio Technica LP rig blasts to smithereens the most expensive redbook players I've ever heard, especially regarding resolution of low level and inner detail.

I don't think it's resolution - cause I tried SACD for a while and it couldn't equal vinyl either.

I think it's jitter/noise/other issues that plague the A/D and D/A processes and I think we're a long way from fixing it.

This is my concern about turning my back on this "New" found high resolution format called RECORDS. I do love the musicality of Analog. Instruments sound like real instruments. But changing a record from side to side every few songs, the cleaning mess-trying to get a clean noiseless sound, is not optimal. What I am hearing is what I fear, I will not get the real sound from even a great digital system in 2009.

Bummer