Holographic imaging

"Not in my experience when using very good digital equipment; however, at the lower end of the price scale, say under #1000 per component, then analog tends to trump digital in almost every respect."

I've found recently adding a <$1000 tube DAC (mhdt Paradisea in my case)can help provide more of the common benefits mentioned that many associate with a more analog sound with digital source media.

I'm finding this to be true regardless of whether the source is a Wifi networked PC music server or a $600 CD player/recorder in my case.

How the DAC does its thing to produce the intended sound seems to be of more importance than the digital nature of the source.

Mapman said:

"How the DAC does its thing to produce the intended sound seems to be of more importance than the digital nature of the source."

I totally agree with this, but didn't think that it could be done for under $1000.

Running my $180 Oppo through my Playback Design MPS-5's DAC makes the Oppo sound better than an Emm, IMHO. Transports and sources are important, but the DAC is more important, IME.

Dave

"I totally agree with this, but didn't think that it could be done for under $1000."

I'm not sure how much it must cost to get a particular sound, but I would say with certainty that $1000 spent on a good DAC that you can feed somehow from any decent digital source will probably get you a good bit further than $1000 spent on a complete CD player.

Agreed, Mapman.

You think great DACs are realtively immune to the transport use? And if so, is that a recent development? Seems like a while back, the transport was viewed as being just as important. In a review of my Accustic Arts DAC, the reviewer found that whatever source he used with it seem to have little effect - he was sure the compoany did not want to hear as they sell a fairly expensive transport as well (that I happen to own). I always naively[?] felt thgat a good DAC should be able to deal with whatever jitter the source might present; maybe we are there.