Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD

LOL.

No. It retails for $53k and was still crazy expensive, even with my great price. And it wasn't local; so I would have been paying a fortune for a DAC I have never heard. I have also read it bests all else out there no matter what the cost, but with all of my other current expenses and projects its beyond my reach. If the deal is still available in a few months I might jump on it. I'd rather upgrade my speakers to either Evolution Acoustics MM2's or Focal Utopia 3 Stella's with that money (which would unquestionably yield HUGE improvements), or do all the cabinetry in my home office, or build an outdoor fireplace then upgrade my DAC at that cost.

Because the DAC and music server are so tech dependent and will likely be upgraded/replaced every few years I am more hesitant to spend mega bucks on them. We all know that great pre-amps, speakers and amps can last forever without ever really being "outdated".... But even the absolute top tier $50K+++ DAC from 10 years ago is practically worthless now on resale and easily bested by the average current $2500- DAC.

I love Steve's products. And, he is constantly fiddling and upgrading them and making those upgrades available to his customers for a reasonable price; not just discontinuing the product and replacing it with a different one. I really like that business model. It creates very loyal customers...

Actually a used Pacific Microsonics PM2 DAC/ADC will likely cost more than $20K used!

Matt - I'm not worried. SX slays them all.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

Steve, any thought about having an external clock input on your SX to allow using the clock from an external source or external clock? It's a feature many look for in a reference level DAC.

Don't hold back. Cost no object. Blow us away! :)

Most of these clock inputs are word-clock only, which is simply a bad idea.

The Overdrive already has I2S input, which includes word-clock, bit clock and master clock. I am already using this with my Off-Ramp and soon my new Interchange network renderer. Separate external master clocks (2 needed) are only interesting if the external clocks are a lot better than the internal clocks.

A word clock output however is a much better idea. This way the DAC always becomes the master., but the source must have word-clock input and be able to sync to it.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio