Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD

Fwiw...my brother in law was in the same dilemma...and spent a boat load on a premium dac ...suffice to say...it was a marginal improvement at best...but he at least got bragging rights out of it...haha

The cost is really cheap, I mean it is more than my entire system!I suppose I am a guppie in the world of High-End audio, really, I would say that this turn table would be in the customer market of .99.999999% of a percent world wide, can you imagine tring to move this around in your listening room?, you could invite thieves inside of your home and say, if you can pick it up, it's yours, Ha, ha!

If there is one thing that I learn about all vibration, it is that mass helps a great deal. My present turntable weighs a hundred pounds and needs to be on a rack. It was a beast to get it there, as I was the only one around. At first I was somewhat disappointed with it until I realized that the Ikeda 407 tonearm was not very tightly mounted on the special mounting boards. So rigidity is also very important. But I suppose that with enough weight even rigidity might lose it importance to some degree.

I once had a Final Audio turntable which was solid copper with a 6 inch thick copper platter and substantial solid copper bearing. This assembly weighed 285 pounds. It just sat on the mounting board as did the column for the tone arm. It was thread driven by a substantial motor. There was no isolation at all. And it sounded fantastic when on my slab floor. It was nowhere near as good on a wooden shelf.

08-25-14: Phasecorrect
Fwiw...my brother in law was in the same dilemma...and spent a boat load on a premium dac ...suffice to say...it was a marginal improvement at best...but he at least got bragging rights out of it...haha

Phasecorrect, that's funny. What did he get and what did it replace? I too have experienced nominal changes in digital. I believe one of the reasons why this thread has so much traction is the population of philes in digital purgatory is pretty high and everyone is looking for an out. That being said, my Lampizator L7 being fed DSD (and RB for that matter) via an Auralic Aries is a quantum leap forward for moi....stunning.

Hey, my Kuzma is only 140 pounds but be my guest beating it with any digital, cost no object. :-)

Paul,

Sure I understand. Yes, the monos sounded better when I've auditioned them at the Munich show. Better in terms of a cleaner top-end and overall more realistic and natural presentation.

Because of Matt's findings and many other people who are into NOS DACs, I have decided to give you guys an option for zero oversampling (no digital filters) so you get the same type of sound. :-)
To my ears, the top gets a tad blurry, but the mids shine. So maybe this little trade-off coloration will be good for some ears and systems. Shoot me off an email if you'd like to schedule DSD-S audition.

And specially for Guido, I am thinking about Zero, 2x, 4x and 8x selectable options with slow and sharp digital filter roll-off characteristics for CD resolution playback, but that will probably happen in a couple of months from now, right on time for a cool audition in the listening room. :-)

Anything else on the wish list? Just let me know. :-)

Best,
Alex Peychev
APL Hi-Fi