Great question, one that gets me all the time. I have an X03SE and it totally rocks, but I am annoyed that there is no dig input. I would even consider a moderate upgrade to have it done, as long as it wouldnt be thousands. I am annoyed beyond belief. |
Very, very few players have digital in. It's digital out that makes the most sense. Connect your ipod directly, wtf? |
Tarsando -
I could not disagree more (about digital out making the most sense). Why would I buy an expensive player like the Esoteric, and choose to bypass the excellent dac that is built in? Alternatively, wouldn't it be great to be able to use that nice dac that I paid for with my 500 gigabyte library of lossless music? All I would need to do is plug in a $300 Squeezebox to the digital in, and I could control playback with my Iphone.
Off the top of my head I can think of many players that have a Digital in. Just to name a few:
Resolution Audio Opus 21
Wadia (all recent models)
Cary 306/200, 306 SACD
Cambridge Audio 840C
Mark Levinson 390
DCS P8i
Simaudio Supernova
plenty of others...
What do you even mean about the Ipod? I never even mentioned if I had an Ipod. Are you recommending to use an Ipod's dac, connect the analog out to a high-end system, and expect high-end sound?
Going with the Ipod example, wouldn't it be a lot better to plug it into the Wadia dock to get a real digital out, and plug it into my CD player's digital input? |
Playback Designs is another great player with several digital inputs. I love it and plan to use it later with a server. For now, I use a Wadia 170i iPod dock to use my iPod Classic 160G as a mini-server. The Wadia bypasses the iPod's internal DAC and the PD's DAC upconverts the 44.1hz signal to DSD, applies an alogarythm or two and produces great sound from lossless files ripped with error correction.
I wonder sometimes is Esoteric and Emm are worried about cutting into their separate DAC and clock sales. It's just something that pops into my mind as I consider various CD/SACD player options. When you're spending lots of money it's nice to get complete functionality out of all the parts.
Dave |
As usual, one must go much farther up The Esoteric line to get the feature set found with the competition. You have to use one of their stand alone dacs to get inputs. |
F&A... Every high end SACD player should have a digital in... even before redbook. And how about a USB in that does I2S conversion. |
Undeniably TEAC Esoteric is rather conservative. . . yet, you should expect by CES time TEAC to introduce a version of the D-03 DAC that supports at least USB input. . . I do not remember about Ethernet. . . . after that, 'tis probably going to be gradual trickle down technology to the more affordable players. |
Actually, G, there could also be some Esoteric trickle-up next year as they may go to 32-bit AKM Dacs in the D-03, which they currently use in the D-05. I believe there are some capacity/bandwith issues involved, or something like that. As you can tell, not an engineer...............
FYI - It also looks like APL HiFi will be coming out with 32-bit DAC boxes early next year as well - haven't heard one, but if they are anything like his Denon and Esoteric pieces, they should be very good. |
What was Tarnado's response all about??? I don't get it. |
11-25-08 Dcstep writes: I wonder sometimes is Esoteric and Emm are worried about cutting into their separate DAC and clock sales. It's just something that pops into my mind as I consider various CD/SACD player options. When you're spending lots of money it's nice to get complete functionality out of all the parts. The latest DAC2 Stereo D/A Converter from emmLabs has the following inputs: AES/EBU, USB Audio, SPDIF Coax, 2 x S/PDIF Toslink and the EMM Link. Regards, |
Goat,
What does WTF mean?
Bad hair day
Cranky
Over reaction
I know, a kool talker because that little F Word showes authority. |
Thank you Fplanner2000, I hope that Esoteric and others will unveil their newest server-compatible offerings at CES. . . it should be fun! |
Eactly my point Metralla, a DAC2 is a DAC, not a CDP. We're talking about expensive CDPs lacking digital inputs.
Dave |
11-25-08: Tarsando said:
"Very, very few players have digital in. It's digital out that makes the most sense. Connect your ipod directly, wtf?"
Actually, you don't connect your iPod directly, instead you use a Wadia 170i to bypass the iPod's DAC and then run it into the digital-input of a high quality DAC. The results are amazingly good.
There are plenty of players with digital inputs. My thought, particularly when you get into the high-bucks range of Esoteric, Emm, Playback Designs, etc. I want to be able to use the included very nice DAC for a wide range of sources.
Dave |
