what are the Best Direct to amps Digital Players ?

The only way to get any meaningful information from an in store audition is to bring your own DAC and line it up against a few contenders. Many (some?) dealers ship components to your home for audition - some factory direct sellers also do. I would strongly suggest you consider going down that path. My personal strategy is to buy a piece I am interested in used, try it out and resell if I don't like it. While not possible for all DACs (some never show up used), for some of the contenders in the sub $2K used category this is a good used market (e.g. PS audio Perfeectwave, Bel Canto DACs and others), making this a good decision making process.

I have a wyred 4 sound dac 2. It is currently hooked up direct to amp. At first I thought I liked the sound better with preamp (ps audio hca with matching power supply), because it seemed a little more warm and full, but now I like it without the preamp. Very transparent and now seems to be getting more bass and warmth. May be time to sell preamp and power supply.

Audiolabyrinth,

Here's some feedback on the Aesthetix DAC:

http://forums.theaudioforums.com/showthread.php?321-Aesthetix-Romulus-CD-Player-DAC

Thankyou gentleman, I have read these post, they are alot of help, thankyou so much.look forward to more post, cheers.

Rrog

Don't forget now:
" Reaching down to the lowest octave creates a realism in music not otherwise experienced. Even though the fundamental note may only go down to 40Hz there are overtones reaching far below giving music the proper foundation.

It's not a guy thing and it has nothing to do with balls. Men have larger eardrums than women giving them the ability to hear low frequencies better than women.

@ sounds real audio, Wow!, I am telling the wife of this post, we argue at times that when I am hearing huge very low bass, she says I am crazy, she does not hear it!, and then at the same time, the woman, the wife can hear higher notes!, explain that one?, Is it because they have smaller ear drums?, sounds like cables, LOL!, the bigger gauge has deeper better bass, the smaller wires in a cable are better with finese and higher notes!mmmm, they are on to something here,LOL!

Gentleman,, I need an all in one player, transport and dac, not a dac, then a transport, cheers.

when I am hearing huge very low bass, she says I am crazy, she does not hear it!, and then at the same time, the woman, the wife can hear higher notes!, explain that one?, Is it because they have smaller ear drums?

It's just genetic adaptation. Over the millenia, women's ears have evolved so they could hear the highs better (to help them hear a baby crying, etc.) and conversely their response to lower frequency sounds has decreased, such as the sound of a deep male voice asking them to get you a beer.

Audiolab - you will ultimately make many compromises in sound quality by combining transport and DAC, and you will probably spend the same amount of money.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

@ Ddd1, Hi, Thats hilarious!, for some reason I believe your post,It has real world scenarios. cheers.

@ Audioengr,, Hi, No offense to you, I believe you would absolutly be wrong in this case, I own Taralabs zero gold interconnect, can you imagine buying more cables at the cost of these cables?, even the digital zero gold is exspensive, and after hearing what this interconnect does, there is no way I would use an inferrior cable to degrade my sound!, cheers.

Audiolabyrinth, you should give the Aesthetix Romulus a whirl....

Hi Edorr, I am all ears here, I no nothing of this brand, If you do not mind, and I hope I am not asking to much?, can you tell me all there is to know of this unit?, thankyou.

Aesthetix is a boutique in California, best know for tube amplifers, mostly its preamps. They also build a DAC (the Pandora), that appears the be a very good performer, and uses it tube technology for volume control (1K option I believe). I was going to audition one but never got around to it. They also have a version of the DAC with build in disc transport (the Romulus). If you're interested I may be able to hook you up with a dealer that may be willing to get you unit for in home audition.

@ Edorr, Hi, I cannot seem to find this on the net, Is it possible you can post a link here to their site so I may look over the Romulus?, thankyou.

A google search for "Aesthetix Romulus" will get you right there, but here it is. It is basically a Pandora DAC with a transport. You are more likely to find a review of the Pandora than the Romulus.

http://www.aesthetix.net/saturn.php?product=digital

Audiolabyrinth,

Aesthetix is a very good company. I completely forgot to mention the Romulus in my other posts. I haven't heard it myself, but I would recommend you consider it based on the build quality and sound quality of their other products. As Edorr says, they are very well known for making some truly excellent preamps. If I could choose someone to make a volume control for my CD player, it would be them. You shouldn't have too much difficulty finding a dealer. Its a fairly popular brand. I know you don't have anyone close, but there's a good chance you will find it at one of the dealers you plan on taking a trip to.

@ Edorr, Have you listened to a romulus player?, I finally got to research for hours this player from your info, I must of misspelled something before when I tried to look into this player, A brand alot of audiophiles look over is vincent!, I had one with the same 12ax7 or and the 12au7 tubes in the player, and yes it was a true balanced player like the aesthetix Romulus player, no 6922 tubes in the vincent, the sound description of the Romulus is exactly what i owned before, except one major difference!, the vincent had the most deep articulate bass then eany player I have experienced in my life, so imagine a full rich sound and all the rest of the attributes of the romulus with bass to die for!, get this, the vincent had volume control, 4 channel balanced with burr-brown 1796 dacs, all this for $2,800.00 !!, it was the most musical player I have ever owned!, I had to get my money back because we thought the player was bleeding d/c back into my krell amp, come to find out the Krell had issues that is now being taken care of at krell!, and the vincent is gone!, the vincent threw a huge soundstage to boot!, alot of audiophiles know nothing of vincent, the say, oh, its made in china and engineered in germany, a entry level product, wrong!, the vincent sounds a hell of alot better than my $6,350.00 Ayon 2s !!!, more musical eanyway!, I will go and hear a romulus player, if it does not beet the vincent, I do not need it, I would say that is a tall order to fill!,, I do know the romulus is closer to the sound I prefer, I thankyou Edorr for this info, we will see how this stacks up against the Esoteric K-03 and vincent player, and what ever else someone can recommend, Edorr, you are on the right track in helping me here, I really do not believe I will like the esoteric sound!, who knows, I may get another vincent player like I had!, The Romulus sound that I research is what I want, with the exception of not having the bass I love!, I hate lean sound!, I would also like to know if the Romulus sounds forward sounding at all? the vincent did not, the soundstage was spot on!, very huge, and came to the middle of the listening room like music is suppose to do!, Edorr, I hope you can answer some of these questions I have here, thankyou so much for your help, cheers.

I was in line to get an in home audition on the Aesthetix DAC, but got impatient and bought an EMM Labs DAC2X when one showed up for a great price. I have since moved on to MSB Signature Plus and added an ARC RefSE preamp for good measure, but if I was shopping in the sub 10K price bracket and wanted an integrated disc spinner, this one would be top on my list.

@ Eddor, man, you are absolutly right, it is on the top of the list to listen to, thanks to you!, I never heard of this brand or there digital players!, One thing i do not like about it is the transport, it plays red book only cds, thats kind of crazy in todays world to do that, My ayon 2s has a phillips pro 2 transport that plays everything but sacd!do you know a player cost no object that is an intergrated disc spinner with the volume control, etc..?, cheers.

I'm a little confused here. Basically - with a few exceptions - there are: (1) CD players, (2) 2 channel CD/SACD players, and (3) Universal players. It is my understanding the Ayon 2 is a CD player, as is the Romulus.

In any event, if you have some serious money to spend, and want to go the Universal players route here is what you could do. Get the spanking new MSB Universal Media Transport (UMT) plus and an MSB DAC. This transport will connect to the DAC via I2S over a piece of CAT6 wire. You'll also need one of the MSB powersupplies.

Depending on what level DAC you buy you can spend between $20,000 and $50,000 on this three piece stack. It will give you the best DAC around (according to many), play every disc on the planet, and serve as a music streamer. You can do multi channel and video as well.

While not a single component, they are thee neatly stacked chassis, and since the DAC has volume control you won't need an extra set of expensive analog cabling.

I will be auditioning an MSB UMT plus transport myself shortly - not for CDs (I ripped my entire collection), but as a network streamer for 2 channel, and a disc spinner for Multi-channel (SACD / Blu Ray).

You can also look into the boulder 1021

The Romulus looks very interesting. Audiolabyrinths aspirations for a single box transport / DAC resonates with many audiophiles who are trying to keep the box count down!

@ Edorr, Hi, Sorry about the confusion,$20,000 to $50,000 is out of my price reach for digital!,the Boulder 1021 has been out for a long time, I did not know it had volume control?, Thankyou for patiently putting up with me, you are a gentleman indeed,The Ayon 2s is a cd player, it is not red book only player, it plays CDRs but not sacd, I am confused about the Romulus, Do you beleieve it plays more than red book only?, the specs say it plays red book only on the transport, I really do not know what their version of red book is, to me, thats standard cds, nothing else, I would like a player that plays most of todays modern medias, A cd player or a cd/sacd player, this Romulus is a great recommendation!, maybe I should give them a call next week to see if their player can play my cds, CDRs that are recorded really good!, and, of course I have standard cds, The CDrs are dvd a audio and 24/192 cdrs,, My price range can go up to retail 13,000.00, ,like most audiophiles, used is good to, try to save money is always nice, Edorr, My member friends believe your recommendation of the Romulus is more my tast the the Esoteric K-03 in sound, these are the two so far on top of my list amongst others, what do you think of this new esoteric K series sound?,, cheers.

I have owned two. EAR Acute and now Ancient Audio. Both are excellent tube based players, but the Ancient Audio actually includes a pre-amp circuit with additional inputs.

Audiolabyrinth, I think you need to rethink your approach. Your parameters (<13K, single box, volume control, plays CDR, DVD-A) narrow the field to a very limited number of players (potentially zero). The problem is once you identified that player (a) you probably have to buy at full price, and (b) you are missing out on better options. So here is my thinking. Assuming rackspace is not an issue, it appears a single box is needed to avoid having to buy a pair of very pricey analog cables. Fair, enough. Just get a digital transport that meets your needs. Highly acclaimed PS Audio Perfect Wave transports are showing up in droves (nothing wrong with the transport, just many people moving away from spinning discs). Pick one up for $1,500 (MSRP = $4,000), and your in business. (of course you need a half decent digital cable - $500 tops). Now you have a very wide field of D/A converters with volume control to choose from, in your price bracket (you have around $10K left), and endless reviews / opinions. Also, you can now keep your eyes open for a used DAC that makes it to your shortlist.

First think to ask now is are you OK with digital VC, do you want analog VC, and if so how important is it is tube based. If you want tube, Aesthetix Pandora is a good option, and I'm sure there are others. If you want analog, you can get entry level MSB. A highly respected DACs with digital VC is Berkeley Audio design, well within your budget.

The advantage of this approach is you have many, many more options, and have access to the used market, and in my opinion you will end up with better sound for the money, simply because DACs is where the action and hence innovation is these days in high end audio.

It's seems crazy that someone who's system is outfitted with Tara labs zero gold would be limited to 13k retail for their source component. I think the other suggestion that you consider a transport is the right one. There is hardly a choice available or very limited for what you want.

Not necessarily. We all have out own rationale of how we spend audio money. I personally never look at how much I spend on a piece, but at depreciation. If audiolabyrint bought his cable at a very high discount (say 40% of retail or less). His cost of ownership of the cable is very low, because he can always resell at a small loss. I do it all the times - have spend thousands on used Transparent audio cabling and always got all of my money out. However, on the latest greatest digital gear, you take big hits. So $13K in digital will be worth half in 2-3 years time. Good reason to cap the budget.

@ Edorr, You are absolutly correct, I did pay alot less for my I/c and power cable than retail, I bought them here on the gon for a savings nobody has EVER heard of, atleast not me!, ,now I do have more money tied up with the rest of the cables, I also own the Taralabs the one i/c and speaker cables to be used on a second system when we rebuild that system, we sold that system to help buy the Taralabs zero gold i/c 1-meter, nothing wrong with buying used if you get the cable in question authenticated as I did,, It appears we have buying used in common, If I did go the approach you have mentioned I would settle for nothing less than the Tara zero gold digital cable, I would be un-happy if I down graded my sound to use a two box digital system, the field is wide open, I just need a volume control intergrated digital player, It can be cd/sacd, etc.. analog volume preferably, or high quality well made digital volume control, you know like transformer based volume control like the Ayon has got,, this may be temporary a couple of years untill I can get a $10,000.00 and higher cost point pre-amp, thats what it will take to out perform what I am doing here, I believe I love analog turn table sound, thats exspensive for what I would build one like,,Edorr, you are a very well seasoned audiophile, that makes it easy for me to talk to you, the reason I have such cables is to me they are an important componet in the system, your last post was spot on with me, funny, it was like you were psychic or something,LOL!, You are the best!, you have really helped me, thankyou, you are a gentleman!, I trust your recommendations as well, they are very sound!, keep the ideas rolling, I will look into what you said above, nothing is not under my micro-scope period that every one has said on this thread concerning digital, you have not gotten to my questions concerning the Esoteric k-03 and the Aestetix Romulus, Have you heard these units before?,, Happy listening.

Audiolabyrinth,

Since you're not too familiar with Aesthetix, I went to their website and had a look at their dealer page to see if I can recommend one that I know. It turns out that they only have 17 dealers in the US. Of those 17, I've done business with Audio Connection in NJ, Audio Center in FL, Sound by Singer in NY and Apex Audio in CO. I also bought something from Analog Shop in NY over the phone but I haven't been to the store. Singer is just OK (actually, I'm not sure if they are still in business), but the other 3 are exceptional. This tells me that they are one of those manufacturers that are very picky about who they allow to become dealers. Even though you haven't heard of Aesthetix, its a very popular brand and if they wanted to double or triple their number of dealers, they could do so almost over night. That's no guarantee that you'll get good service, of course, but for me personally, I would expect the dealer to be better than average.

Where I'm going with all this, is that your closest Aesthetix dealer is Audio Alternative in Liburn GA. Mapquest shows it to be about a 6 hour drive from Mobile. If it were me, I wouldn't hesitate to plan a trip to the store. Call first if you decide to go, but its almost certain that Aesthetix requires that they keep a Romulus on display since there are so few dealers.

Also, some of the other posters recommend going with a transport/dac combo. I know you don't want to go that route, but there is a pretty decent case to be made for doing so. All I'm suggesting is that if you have the opportunity to demo separates in your search, it wouldn't be a bad idea to do some listening. Maybe even bring a CD player you know well for comparison. If anything, it will be a good learning experience.

Do you have single ended Tara labs cables running into your amps or balanced?

@ Zd542, wow!, That was really cool of you to do all this that you just did!, I will make the trip to Liburn, Ga,,, you done some grat research fot me, thankyou so much, I even have a choice on pricing with a list of dealers that you provided, you know its like buying a car, one dealer can beat the next with pricing,, cheers.

@ Edorr, I have balanced running direct to amp, The Krell 700cx has no single ended connections, it has krell cast and Balanced, I thought that was weird my self, all my previous Krells had RCA etc...,, One one-meter balanced Zero gold from source to amp, another option I thought of is a Ayon 5s player, it is on my list too., I will try to call Aesthetixs today and ask them about their Romulus player, It is balanced circuitry witch is a bonus with a true balanced amp I have,, I bought this Taralabs cobalt power cord with oyaide plugs to go on source, 6-28-13, this will help any source sound better, I hope!, cheers.

I have visited the dealership in Lilburn - 45 minutes from where I live. They have Vandersteen 7s, ayre and audio research electronics. Note that the ONLY way to get any value out of such a visit is to bring your own currently used digital source component and swap them out with what they have on display. If they have any Aesthetix pieces it will probably be the Pandora, not the Romulus. If there is any way to get your hands on a Romulus for in home audition that would be a far more effective way to evaluate. I also believe that if playback of CDr is important to you, you'd be better off getting a used Perfectwave transport feeding a Pandora than getting the Romulus, but if you insist on using a $7K digital cable between the components, this would be a budget/dealbreaker. You could start out with a reasonably priced cable (used), wait for the tara labs to show up used and then swap cables. Just a thought.

I asked my question about balances/single ended, because you could get an MSB transport (UMT plus) and their entry level Analog DAC. You would connect using the I2S Pro interface with CAT6 cable. If you forgo the expensive powerbase, you can just about assemble this for $13K streetprice. The Analog DAC is however a single ended design, although it does have a XLR connection. The fully balanced platinum DAC IV will set you back a few grand more.

With the MSB Transport / DAC, you are set-up to play DSD downloads from disc (or USB stick) and SACD using native DSD between transport and DAC, something you cannot currently do and which none of the other setups you are considering would support. If you are into classical, this would be very compelling, since their is tons of content in native DSD. Non-classical - not so much.

@ Edorr, I talked to Aesthetix yesterday by phone,turns out that I do not believe the Romulus is as good as The Ayon 2s that I own, The Romulus strictly plays red book only, versus the ayon 2s plays cdrs and up samples red book to 24/192, there is a huge difference in sound in every way 24/192 compaired to red book sound, the Ayon 2s is switchable by remote between the two formats, the difference is not subtle at all!, thou the Romulus likly sounds good, I cannot use it, there is no way it could match the resolving power of the Ayon 2s.,,BTW, The Ayon 2s has connections so you can use it as a transport only, as a matter of fact, I do not know if you are aware the the phillips pro transports are well known to be one of the best, A couple of the engineers parted ways to form their own company called stream unlimited, thus the conception of the pro 2 transport, It plays bad cds with flawless ease to my supprise, we have used other digital players that did not play the same cds!this is the very same transport that is in the Ayon 5s player at retail $12,500.00,, The thing is Edorr, I am tring to not buy more cables for connections right now,We bought the tara zero gold this year, the cobalt power cord this year, the ayon 2s this year, the krell amp is at Krell right now getting totally renewed inside and out, guranteed in writting to be an absolute new amp that will take 600 hours to break-in, that is costing $3,157.00, not bad!,,If we wanted to go the route of a two box system, we already have a good transport, there is outstanding one box intergrated players out there, we just have to find all the options that are available, The Esoteric k-03 looks to be a must audition unit, Its worth doing so, I do not know if its our cup of tea?, we love the sound of tubes with quality solid state, likly as time goes by we will go the route of a state of the art pre-amp, thats costly!, it seems you have to morgage your home to better the sound of running direct from source, I do know there is pre-amps that are better, the cost is $10,000.00 plus to have a pre-amp that will!, then more cables!, so in the infant stage of this system it makes alot of since to obtain a intergrated digital player with analog or digital volume control to get by untill the day rolls around when we can get a pre-amp of that caliber, we would settle for nothing less!, I know its not about how much something cost!, It seems one will have to spend big money to achieve a pre-amp to be that good!, we are back at the drawing board, Dcs makes a good player with volume control, thats an option, I am open to eanything that may work for a one box player,, Happy listening.

@ Edorr, BTW, The Ayon 2s has spdif/usb connections too., can be used with a computer like a media player.

Seems like your quite happy with your Ayon. How do you do volume control now?

If you ultimate target is to get a preamp with two additional expensive cables (power and IC), I would just burn my budget on the preamp, get "interim" cables, wait for the right IC and PC to show up used. That is what I did - got myself a (dealer trade in) ARC Ref5SE, waited to get my hands on a pair of Transparent Reference Cables at the right price and got a great deal on a Shunyata PC.

Getting the DCS integrated player is a big gamble, and you may end taking a hit in SQ. From what I gather dCS sound is the antithesis of tubey. I only heard a dCS DAC once and did not like it.

Audiolabyrinth asked me to post in this thread the following comment I made in another thread:

08-04-13: Almarg

What made me think of the question when I posted is that with 2 piece cd players I've always heard HUGE differences between digital cables.

There are many reasons why large differences can be expected between digital cables that connect CD transports to DACs. Not only the type of cable, but even the length of the cable can make a major difference. See this paper for starters.

Basically, in those applications the effects of impedance mismatches between the cable and the components it is connecting, the introduction of noise due to ground loop effects or RFI pickup (both of which are cable sensitive), and other ways in which the cable may affect waveform integrity can ultimately have very significant effects on jitter at the point where D/A conversion is performed within the DAC (to a greater or lesser degree depending on the jitter rejection capability of the particular DAC).

None of those factors have any relevance to transmission of digital data from a USB hard drive to your Oppo, as long as nothing involved is defective. The technical considerations are completely different, and vastly less critical with respect to their potential effect on sonics.

Post back if you have further questions about this.

Regards,
-- Al

@ Edorr, Hi, Its good to hear from you, The Ayon 2s has volume control, the unit is quite nice, however, the reason of the hunt for another player is during break-in the player sounded great, after 450 hours the sound became forward, roll A front and center!, I have been told alot, but I do not know if eanything can change that sound, I bought the a/c power cable, I cannot use it on the ayon untill I get my amp back from krell, then there is talk of changing the stock tubes to $1,200.00 for 4 nos 1980 reflector Dr 6h30 tubes that will better the sound, I do not believe they can change the forward sound?, then there is resonance control where I basically am an proclaimed expert in, LOL!, the resonance tunning could be the fix, I have to buy the lame devices they have for sale these days to try to accomplish this, the old days, polycrystal products was all you needed!,, I was kidding on the Dcs, I have been told the samething you said about Dcs,, your REf5se is really good, I have read many good things about your pre-amp on the gon,,your plan you have for a pre-amp and cables is what I will do latter when we get more money, it will defiantly take a pre-amp like yours or better, to out perform running direct to amp,,I also own Taralabs, the one cable system, 1- one meter i/c and 6 ft speaker cables thats suppose to go on a second system when we go to rebuild that, had to sale all of it but the cables, to help buy the Tara zero gold i/c!, no regrets as far as the performance goes of the zero gold, the truth is we still miss the second system we once owned! sacrfices!,, I have been asking you about the Esoteric k-03, you have not gave me any feed back on this unit, I have been told the k series is a different animal of a player than the x series of players, I am not sure if I would like the esoteric players?, It is on my audition list thou, wont hurt to listen to one, huh?, they have some esoteric dealers up your way around Atlanta, Ga and in new orleans, LA, meterie, LA. I am still up for whats possible, I will also go digital media later as well, since they are craming that mediam down our throats,saying,, this is the future!, cd-players are dieing,, LOL!, they have a ways before that will happen!, neitherless, I will be ready!,, BTW, Transparent are good cables, nice choice!, Hopeing for more choices out there for a one box intergrated digital player, all ideas are welcome, cheers.

@ Almarg, Hi, thankyou so much for the repost, this is the primary reasons why I do not do two box digital systems,Do you believe useing a high quality one box digital system will yield better sound performances based on what has been said above?,will you loose sound quality with the same signal going thru more cables such as a digital cable?, Do you have some sound opinions for an intergrated digital player with analog or digital volume control, that I may audition?, Is there eanyway that you know of that I can fix a forward sound of a player that I already own?, cheers.

Audiolabyrinth, as always there are tradeoffs.

If the cable connecting a transport and DAC is not both good quality and a good match for the two specific components it can certainly have major adverse effects on the sound. And whether or not it will be a good match depends not only on its intrinsic quality, but also on a complex and mostly unpredictable set of relationships and interactions between its parameters, including length, impedance accuracy, shielding effectiveness, shield resistance, propagation velocity, etc., and the technical characteristics of what it is connecting, including signal risetimes and falltimes, impedance accuracy, jitter rejection capability, ground loop susceptibility, etc.

On the other hand, combining the transport and DAC into an integrated player can certainly have its downsides as well. Perhaps the most significant potential downside is coupling of electrical noise from the transport mechanism into the D/A converter circuit, where it can cause jitter, and also into analog circuitry.

Steve Nugent of Empirical Audio, who authored the article I linked to, and also posted earlier in this thread as "Audioengr," has far more experience that is relevant to your questions than I do. I see no reason to doubt his opinions on these matters, and so I suspect that in general, in the price range you seem to be considering, a two-box setup would be the preferable alternative. PROVIDED that a cable that is a good match for the particular components is used, and given the unpredictability of many of the technical factors I listed above significant experimentation may be necessary to find the best match. And given all of those technical factors, involving the components as well as the cable, I would not assume that higher cable price necessarily implies greater likelihood of being the best match.

As far as fixing excessively forward sound is concerned, assuming that you are referring to your Ayon player the only suggestion that occurs to me is the obvious one of tube rolling.

Regards,
-- Al

@ Almarg, It is so nice to talk to a engineer, I love it, you and my friend Edorr are awsome!, both of you gentlemen have done me well here with digital, I have spoken to steven I thought in the forums, He always signed off with Audioengr and EmPirical Audio as you said, I give him a chime and see what he may say, thankyou for the two wonderful well said post here!

@ Audioengr, Steve Nugent, Hi, If you are out there, I need some help with digital, thankyou.

Audiolabyrinth,

I'm glad I was able to help out. From reading all your posts, I know how much it means to you. After all, what in life could possibly be more important than having a good sounding CD player? Maybe Tara cables and a working kidney. But that's as far as I'll go.

Audiolabyrinth, you're welcome, and thanks for the nice words. Good luck in your quest!

Regards,
-- Al

Audiolabrynth will certainly never need it, but for sake of argument, he'd insist the Docs power the Dialysis machine with his Tara Cobalt :)

Hi Audiolabyrinth,
At first, I found you a bit annoying, then I found you a bit hilarious, then I found you to be, like myself, a bona fide audio nutcase. And there is no cure for that for the both of us.
And because we share this last trait, I would like to offer my most humble suggestion to alleviate your conundrum.
You already have a fantastic Krell power amp. So, why not go all Krell to optimise the CAST connection? Buy a Krell Cipher CD/SACD player new($10k list, if I am not mistaken) but get a used Krell pre-amp to go with your power amp. Sell your super expensive Tara IC to be replaced with CAST cables that won't cost an arm and a leg. You should be in sonic nirvana with this all Krell-and-CAST setup.
Cheers!

Hi Audiolabyrinth,
At first, I found you a bit annoying, then I found you a bit hilarious, then I found you to be, like myself, a bona fide audio nutcase. And there is no cure for that for the both of us.
And because we share this last trait, I would like to offer my most humble suggestion to alleviate your conundrum.
You already have a fantastic Krell power amp. So, why not go all Krell to optimise the CAST connection? Buy a Krell Cipher CD/SACD player new($10k list, if I am not mistaken) but get a used Krell pre-amp to go with your power amp. Sell your super expensive Tara IC to be replaced with CAST cables that won't cost an arm and a leg. You should be in sonic nirvana with this all Krell-and-CAST setup.
Cheers!

Thankyou genleman, all of us are always looking for how we can improve up on our sound, sometimes it works out, and sometimes it does not.Happy Listening.

@ jon2020, I agree!, the exception would be still use what I already own with the exspensive taralabs cables, BTw, Tara makes cast cables to use for krell products! you cannot blame a guy for tring!, I know I am crazy, I mean who in the hell spends this kind of money to enjoy music?, I would laugh too!, Me and the wife have thought serious of doing some cast connections, and a top of the brand krell pre-amp, settle for nothing less!, It would take one awsome pre-amp to better running direct to amp!, I would not knock it to you live with it,BTW, Have you listened to a cipher krell cd-player?, what are your impressions?, Do you own any krell products?, thankyou very much!, I do feel like I am going crazy tring to build this stupid stereo!