Cost is no object is easy, but....


If you had a budget of $10,000 to build a single source (CD, SACD, Analog etc.) two channel system with used or new products what products would get your vote. My vote is:

BAT VKD5 ($2,000 used)
2 Harmonic Tech Pro Sil II ($500 used)
Cat SL1 MKIII ($2,000 used)
AR VT100 MKII ($2,100 used)
Cardas Neutral Reference ($400 used)
Audio Physic Vergo ($2500 used)
9 Black Diamond Racing Cones ($500 new).
delancey

Showing 1 response by tweak1

I have owned a lot of transports, dacs, preamps, amps(both tube and SS) and speakers over the decades

I own a Oppo 105, which plays all common disc media. I used it for SACD/DVD-A exclusively, using a highly moded Pioneer PD 65 with outboard PS and various dacs until it finally died about 2 years ago.  This forced me to replace the Pioneerand listen exclusively through the 105 until I bought a Marantz HDCD-1 to use as a transport, but also as a back up for when I was between pre/dacs.

The Marantz is fabulous value connected to the dac in my Audio Alchemy DDP-1 + PS 5. Somehow I came across a section on eBay that had a bunch of linear power supplies for the 105, its well known Achilles Heel is the oem power supply. One of the suppliers was smart enough to provide a very nice tutorial complete with lots of photos. He also sold a replacement for the IEC and jumpers to the PS board and a jumper to bypass the 110/220 switch. I started with the jumper: Furutech IEC with pure silver connector to the PS board, and the jumper. I was so shocked at the improvement that I then bought a LPM. In total cost was ~ $350 and my time.


Now, my system is differentially balanced, so I used the XLR outs from the 105 to my amp and took my pre/dac out of the system, and have not bothered to reinstall
hth