Here's my verdict: not a lot of difference. I am playing Diana Krall on CD two ways: from Marantz going into the PS Audio Dig Link iii DAC via optical and going into a Rega R integrated amp via RCA interconnects. I hear no difference. None. Do I have the best trained ears? No, but I can go pretty quickly between the two Rega line-ins and I hear nada difference. By the way, the PS Audio on test one was upsampling to 96. When I set it to 192, still no real difference. If there is one small noticeable difference, the PS Audio may sound a tad airier. So, here's my next test: go from Apple lossless via Wadia into PS Audio, comparing it to the Marantz directly into Rega via RCA.
PS Audio DAC iii and Marantz SA 8100 CD Player
My basic question is this: should I route the SA 8001 through the DAC or are the converters within the Marantz good enough to stand on their own? This would only be for playing CDs, I think, since SACDs, as I understand it, can only play through analog .
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