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How do I spend $5000? A CD player or DAC for my De

After my fiasco with auditioning McIntosh 871 universal player (which I didn't like at all) I'm now considering either buying a dedicated redbook player instead of Sony XA9000ES and keeping my Denon 3930 for DVDs only or indeed buying a DAC to use with Denon as a transport. I don't think I'm ready to spend more than $5000 for either. The thing is I simply don't know which is better - a dedicated $5000 CD player or Denon 3930 plus $5000 DAC? I'm selling Sony anyway - the rack has place for only 2 sources and of course I need a DVD player anyway. What do you,guys, think?
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antonkk

Showing 1 response by yage

yage
401 posts
 

I think an external DAC makes more sense. It gives you more flexibility in case you change transports (e.g if the laser dies) or want to add a streamer in the future.

 

A well-engineered DAC should be largely immune to jitter or at least have artifacts below the threshold of hearing, so there's no need for fancy / expensive cables. As an example, I can't tell the difference between music streamed from my Raspberry Pi 3 B+  via USB and the same track played from the Oppo UDP-203 via SPDIF coax with both hooked up to a Benchmark DAC3 B.

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