Conrad Johnson DA2b

Can I play 24/96 and 24/192 flac (vinyl rips) files from it?
Did CJ downsampled it to 16/44 on the fly?
Does it mean that output will be the same as CD?

This is an outstanding dac. It is the best my system to date. I have tried a moderately priced 24 bit dac (stereophile class c), highly rated dac ss & tube 32 bit (stereomojo), and two older Dac. They all sounded good but did not stand out in music production. I have a CJ ET3 SE with ICE powered Martin Logan Purity speakers. I do know the lower gain of the D/A-2b (I like that 2b = tube) is definitely better in my system as the CJ will sing better at higher volume settings. I replaced the stock tubes with Mullards for $60 and added the Monarchy DIP ( a slight improvement with the DIP (more detail) but also sounded great without the DIP).

I have to say, I will not be changing this unit. The layers of texture, wide sound stage, and liquidity of the music is magical in my system. If you can find one, I would recommend a listen.

Djlebaron, both the DR-1 and DA2b were trouble-prone but it's been 10+ years since I had them and don't really remember the particulars, just that I kept schlepping them back to C-J. And I gave away lots of CDs that wouldn't play in the transport but (as it turned out) were fine in every other player/transport. Sonically, the pair were REALLY laid back at (what I assumed to be) their best. This was pleasant enough to me at the time, though my friends were not kind AFTER I sold them.

The "I gotta sell these things" trigger came when I started listening to CDs on a cheap Pioneer 414 DVD player I already had -- it was briefly praised in this CD role in the Absolute Sound -- and could not believe how much better it sounded than the DR-1/DA2b combo.

No I didn't try the DA2b as a separate DAC, and should have. I assumed that the ultra "laidbackness" was a function of the DAC and frankly had lost all confidence in both it and the transport. Dave

I have read your same gripe several times on several boards, and I can understand your frustration with an expensive piece of gear giving you trouble. We I had searched for info about this DA converter all of the negative comments seem to come from using it with the DR-1. Did you ever use just the DA2b with a digital music file server or just CDs with the DR-1? And did you have reliability issues with the DA converter itself? If so, what were they?

Good luck with it. I really came to dislike mine. Good thing that C-J is just across the river from me, because I made the trip often enough. I had the DR-1 transport too. It refused to play roughly 5% of my CDs. Getting that pair -- I bought them new, at $3,700 -- was probably my biggest audio mistake. Beautiful looking, though.