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Top of the line old technology VS Newer technology

Hello everyone , the purpose of this thread is to have your general opinion regarding what you would consider better regarding updating a digital front end.

As a background history, let me start by telling you all that I am Mexican and live in Mexico, I do have the means to go to USA like 2 or 3 times a year and could easily get my hands on used or new equipment, what I don´t have is too much money to spend on Hi-Fi these days, for one the Dollar vs Pesos currency is much higher than 2 or 3 years ago, I had 2 twin boys in 2005 as well and had to move to biigger house . So that resumes that I am a Family man trying to get the best for them, but once in a while I need to indulge myself on this hobby...

So this is my question......

I own "top of the line" technology of 1990´s , regarding digital front end:

-Goldmund Mimesis 12 DAC
-PS Audio Lambda Transport
-Madrigal Audio Labs MDC-1 Pro AES/EBU Coaxial Cable

This set up draw me back about $7,000 USD around 1995, I purchased all new, full retail price.

Since then , I have had a few CD Players as a secondary line up or back up, that I later sold them amongst them:

-California Audio Labs Aria MK III
-Rega Planet 2000
-Metronome CDV1

And to be honest NONE could match my current set up of Separate Transport and DAC.

So I stopped trying for a while to replace the Goldmund/PS Audio for a few years...

But along came new technology such HDCD, SACD, DVD -A, 24-bit 128 times oversampling, and all that kHz configurations.

So I am tempted again to try a new CD Player (Not ready for a Music Server) so my concern here is what dou you think is a better option these days

1-Stay with my "old school-top of the line" but obsolete technology in a separate configuration such as the DAC and Transport.

or

2-Trying a "modest" newer Cd Player with perhaps 20, 24 Bits 128 Oversampling o HDCD, that even could be used on the $2,000 or less range.
Such as:

Burmester Rondo 992
Gamut CD1-R
CEC TL51XR

In other words:

What do you think is better , Newer technology even if it is not a separate DAC/Transport, and even if its not "top of the line" or stick with my current set up of "top of the line" DAC/Transport of the 1990´s???

Any Comments?
kapa11

Showing 1 response by lostbears

lostbears's avatar
lostbears
538 posts
 


That is hard to say. I still have an old California Audio Labs Delta and Sigma II that I bought in the early 1990s. some years ago I replace the Delta transport with a Theta Jade and that made a big difference. Eventually the Jade stopped working and I started looking for a replacement. I auditioned quite a few players as I used my old Delta again. Finally I bought an Audio Research CD7 which I have been very happy with. Recently I heard an old California Audio Labs Tempest II SE that had been modded. I owned one of these in the late 1980s. It was in a lot of ways similar to my CD7. I have found that both the transport and DAC can make a big difference in the sound and that new is not always better. Though in general transports mechanisms in both the "top of the line" players and stand alone transports have improved quite a bit in the last few years.

Do you have many SACDs or DVD audios? I did not so I chose to go with a dedicated CD player. Thanks to Microsoft HDCD is pretty much dead. SACD and DVD Audio never really caught on. The number of SACDs available is very limited.
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