CD upgrade.

A few relatively low priced ($1,000 US new) current CD/SACD players with digital inputs that many people seem to like are:

Sony SA5400ES (recently discontinued)
Marantz SA8004
Oppo BDP95

Digital inputs allow you access to the DAC inside the player from other sources, such as another transport or a music server. You really should get a player with digital inputs so that it doesn't become obsolete if music servers take over for cd players, which probably will happen one of these years.

The Oppo is a universal player BluRay, SACD, CD, DVD, DVD-A. It's got all the bases covered.

There is probably a lot of opinion on each of these players on the forum. A search will give you lots of reading.

The optical output on your cd player is digital out. It is for sending the digital bits from the Droplet to a different DAC (like the ones in the players above). I think optical is going out of style as a digital connection. I don't think that the players I mentioned above have an optical digital input, but I could be wrong.

Hope this helps.

P.S. You may find with the newer players that cd sound has improved enough that you don't need the tubes to take the edge off the sound. There are still prenty of good tubed players around though

Audiofreak,

L&M is a top notch dealer. Sounds like you got a good deal considering they did the set up. Enjoy!

James,

Regarding the claim of the Olive, as you increase the sampling rate (from 44.1 to 96khz) and word length (16 to 24 bit) you greatly increase the amount of data being stored. This does not result in anywhere near a proportional increase in sound quality though.

The Olive is designed for someone to rip their cds to and I think it upsamples them. This will give you maybe a small improvement in sound quality, maybe not, but not nearly as much as a file that was recorded at a higher sampling rate and bit depth (96/24 for example) and delivered to you at that same resolution through SACD or high-res download. Some people think that even high-res files are not that much of an improvement over cds. The Absolute Sound has an article on that very subject in the July/August issue.

IMHO, computer audio has not developed to the point that most people should get rid of a cd player and go to computer audio exclusively. Audiofreak will vehemently disagree with me on this. I'm not anxious to rip all my cds to a server. I don't mind playing cds and I see computer audio more as a means to download and store high-res files when that market matures a little more.

Computer audio is still pretty glitchy if you are not comfortable with computers and electronic devices. I think that it will get more user friendly and cheaper in the next few years. That's why I recommended that you get a player with digital inputs at present. Do a lot of homework if you think you want to stop spinning cds and go to computer audio. I'm waiting but a lot of people have made the change and like it a lot.

Audiofreak,

I'm sure you've got a great sounding system. What did the the digital portion (Linn DS, NAS, controller, router, etc.) cost and how easy was it to set up? Who is your dealer in AZ?

James,

There are a lot of DACS available and I don't know much about any of them. You could go with a transport and DAC or a player, whatever works for you. Digital is evolving pretty rapidly right now so what I would do is get something that's a nice step up for you but not too expensive. A lot of digital products will be hitting the market in the near future and I think the sound quality and ease of use will be improving and the price declining. I could be wrong though. It has happened before.

Check out HDTracks.com they sell high-res downloads and they seem to be adding a lot of titles lately.

James,

No one can really tell you how a specific piece of gear will sound to you in your system, or how dependable it will be. All you can do is get a diverse set of opinions.

Audiogon has a bluebook which will tell you, for a fee, what equipment has sold for on Audiogon.

You can search the forums and reviews for opinions on gear. I'm sure the AMR 77 has been discussed and those discussions may be useful in deciding if you want to give it a try. Listening to it in your system is really the only way to be sure whether it's right for you or not though.