If you purchase an MHDT Orchid and you're handy with a soldering iron, you can do much more to upgrade this DAC to a more analog sound by not only tube rolling but replacing the large 2 uF caps with much higher quality caps and investing in an 'S' grade chip(but these can be expensive....takes some hunting to find one for less than $200). I'm using an Audiolab CD transport. This combo comes very close to sounding like my very expensive analog system fed through high quality speakers.
Ruminations On CD Players
After multiple factory rebuilds, I'm ready to replace my twenty year old Arcam CD-73 CD player. I've looked through lists of recommended CD players in the $2000 range, and have noticed that some are all-inclusive while others have separate transports and DACs. Other than ease of replacement, what are the benefits of having the transport and DAC separate? Any recommendations on CD players in this price range? I only have music CDs so don't need anything that can do more than that.
Thanks,
John Cotner
New Ulm, MN