Hard Drive based system

I mentioned two USB DACs in the previous post. Some people like the Apogee mini DAC better than the popular Benchmark DAC1 which I use and surely recommend.

I noticed that you mentioned Sony player in another thread. If you get it modded by TRL, it will be hard to find an affordable DAC to beat it, hard drive system or not.

I can't quite follow Dr. Greenman's reasoning.

Basically, if the DAC reclocks, the clock in the DAC takes over. If the DAC does not reclock, it takes the timing info from the digital input. This aspect has nothing to do with whether the input is hard drive based or not.

The issue here is that the bit-perfectness and the quality of timing/jitter can be of very high quality even from a relatively low cost hard drive based system, especially when high quality USB to SPDIF converters are used.

Surely you can't wait to hear it but the burning-in is for real. So wait one hundred hours anyway :)

Please post your impression after 300 hours. I can't wait.

Audioengr can probably tell you whether it is okay to go with Transit (optical out only) as a starter unit or that you have to use one of his mods to obtain acceptable quality.

Have you decided on the DAC? If you end up with a DAC with USB input (e.g. mini DAC, Grace 902), you may not need the converter at all. However, you do have more options with a converter.

Interesting dilemma.

TRL's Sony mod is quite amazing for the price. My experience is with TRL/Sony 595. I assume your model will sound even better. On sonics alone, it will provide much bigger bang for the buck than a music server system for you, since you don't yet have a DAC.

I would recommend getting the TRL mod anyway and slowly building up a music server which is a lot of fun. When you find your favorite DAC, the music server will really sing for you.

Ecruz,

Congratulations! It is a waste not to TRL a Sony player.

Any comments on video and audio quality for DVD playback?