ARCAM rDAC

I have one. I sourced it from the UK; I don't know if it's available in the US yet. The wall wart is universal, so I think we'll get the same unit here in the US when it does arrive.

I got it in anticipation of a Red Wine Audio-based setup, but right now have it feeding an April Aura Note via the Note's AUX input, into Omega single-driver speakers. The Note has its own USB input, and I've also messed around with driving it with a NuForce uDAC and a Centrance DACport. The rDAC is better than any of them. Most noticeable to me is a large, really well-defined soundstage and a really crisp presentation. I'm not noticing any particular coloration, it just sounds really good.

Talking with others who have more experience than I do, it seems that you need to get up to, say, the PS Audio DL 3 level to do better than the DACport, and the rDAC is better, so I think it's in that neigbhorhood anyway.

I got it because it's small and well-specced - good components and asynchronous USB, at a relatively low price. I'm very happy with it.

Hope that helps.

Sorry - also, feeding the rDAC via USB from a PC, so the above is all with respect to the USB input.

I haven't heard an Arcam CP player, sorry. There's a guy on one of the other forums who says using the rDAC moved his CD17 to CD37 levels, and also that Arcam's John Dawson preferred the CD37 feeding this DAC to the CD37's native DAC. I'm not sure what the rules are here about crossposting, so I won't, but you should be able to find it.

I can't comment on the relative highs, either. It doesn't sound "polite" to my ears, though.