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Need advice! Do I upgrade DAC or buy a new player?

Hello all...I have been heavily back into analog for the past 3 years however I have come to cycle in my audiophilia that I am listening to a lot of CDs again.  I have about 300 mostly from '98 and back.  Don't get me wrong I am vinyl through and through but there are a lot of CDs I have that are shall we say casual listeners.  I have no desire to replace them with there vinyl brethren but I know many are very, very good and well recorded.  My dilemma is this I have a fairly decent system and a CD player that I think is "ok" but I want better sound and seeing as there are 10-30k CD players there must be a better option problem is I am not gonna spend that kind of money (even if I could).  So the question is do I upgrade my DAC and use my current CD Player or do I just get a "better" player?  Oh here are the system dynamics:  I use an Audio Research SP20 pre amp mated to a Bryston  14B SST2 speakers are Def Tec 7000sc's I don't think my vinyl preamps matter nor do the tables so I will omit them....
The CD player is an Emotiva ERC-3, I like the player but want a better soundstage a bit deeper and dare I say more analog sounding.  I am a huge soundstage freak so if a sacrifice were to be made it would not be there.  I am running balanced out of the Emotiva.  I don't need SACD but ok if it's there.  I don't have a problem with pre-owned I don't need a DAC that downloads FLAC or can be hooked up to any other sources other than the Emotiva being used as a transport.  As for budget I would say $1,500 to $2,000 if it makes sense.  Any advice would help thanks!  
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audioengr
3,282 posts
 

Frankly, I would not waste any real money on a Transport, only on a CD player that you use the analog outs for DSD. I do think you should improve the transport jitter though, by adding a reclocker to the digital cable as well as a better digital cable. The soundstage/imaging problems you are describing are likely jitter related. To get the jitter levels you can get from a $599 Synchro-Mesh reclocker and a $499 Reference BNC cable (20psec), you would need to spend at least $20K on a new Transport IME. You can make the reclocker even better by upgrading the power supply. I would do this first before you consider a new DAC. 30-day money-back, less shipping.

As for the DAC, I can highly recommend changing to a DAC with balanced outputs if you don’t have that already. This will usually give you a lower noise floor and better soundstage as well.

First, just try the new cable and reclocker and see if this does not satisfy you. It also provides galvanic isolation, eliminating a ground-loop that you have now.

BTW, if you also have a home theater with SS processor, I can highly recommend the iFi SPDIF Purifier for $149 driving my Standard BNC S/PDIF cable to reduce jitter for Dolby Digital and DTS.

Steve N.

Empirical Audio

mesch
3,414 posts
 
I would look for a DAC and use the player as a transport. As you don't need USB input, you could purchase a high quality older DAC for a fraction of the original price. 
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rikintpa OP
20 posts
 
Looks like the DAC may be the way to go...any suggestions?
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1graber2's avatar
1graber2
303 posts
 
Well, yeah .... you got AR on the front end followed by Bryston, and an entry level CD Player. Dude, your world is going to change. 

With $1500-2k, you have a host of high quality options that will allow the AR, Bryston, etc really sound their best. So far, the Emotiva has been the limiting factor for your Sound Quality. If the EMotiva is used as a transport, it will still be your limiting factor, b/c you will be feeding a lower sound quality signal to an expensive DAC.
To be honest R, I would replace the Emotiva altogether with a stand-alone CDPlayer that at the least has a digital SPDIF RCA out (will give you future options for other DACs). There are many great CD Players out there for under $2000.
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