Upgrade BC DAC 3.0 or go BC REF link instead?

Blindjim,

Welcome back. I remember your posts well.

Not sure what you meant by "I'm a front to back guy". My interpretation was "source is most important", and you mentioned all your music will come from a HDD. I'd like to offer a different alternative for your consideration: the computer as source. What will you use?

I have an Audiophilleo with PurePower connected to a Metrum Octave. In a way this mimics the BC setup with Link + DAC. I used to play from a laptop dedicated to music. I have recently built a dedicated server, but optimized in the hardware and software, and the sound difference has been striking. Would starting with the computer be the right place for you?

Jim,

In my experience, upgrading the computer has made a large difference. And the software made more of a difference than going from old laptop to new server with many audiophile bell and whistles (fanless, SSD, linear power supply, upgraded USB card, etc). Using Windows Server 2012 made a difference, and applying the AudioOptimizer by AudioPhil made the biggest impact. I have yet to try JPlay on top of what I have. You can read some references here on A'gon, and many references on Computeraudiophile.com and/or jplay forum/computer audio sub forum.

Cheers

Yes, it is a bunch to go over indeed. And computers can be tweaked forever, and that can be fun for some and a nightmare for others. I'm more of the latter group.

My suggestion to keep it as simple as possible is to use any 64-bit computer you can get your hands on. Windows Server 2012 is 64-bit, so that's why you need such computer for this test. Try the computer with the incumbent operative system (Win XP, 7, 8) and your player of choice, such as JRiver. There is a setup guide for JRiver on computeraudiophile.com that I use and I did set it and forget it - I said I didn't like tweaking forever, right? :-)

Then try with same computer, but with WS2012 and the same player. Of course this will not be a valid A/B test because a long time will elapse between A and B...but is probably the best you can do. And your own ears will be the judge. Up to here there is no money spent in the test. WS12 has a trial period of 180 days.

For me the real improvement came with the AudioOptimizer, as you know. The next step in the test would be with the same hardware, now running after the Optimizer did its thing. I believe there is a trial version as well. I might be wrong, but I recall AudioPhil (the maker) saying nobody ever returned it...FWIW. It's fairly easy/quick to switch from optimized to un-optimized and back, maybe 5 min, so it's generally obvious if it makes a difference you like or not.

Eventually you could try JPlay (next on my list), and/or hardware upgrades until you say enough. Also in my list I have trying room correction at the computer. I'm using REW for measurements with good results, and so far I have not left the bit perfect / minimalist and signal purity camp. Computers can be challenging but also offer so much flexibility.

Let us know how you move forward.