Digital Front End: Critical Listening

I recently compared my older Adcom CD player (a very good model in it's time - with Class A circuitry) to my Ah! Njoe Tjoeb CD with upsampler (about $900). The Njoe Tjoeb was noticeably better.

I just added a Genesis Digital Lens to my system and WOW! My transport is just a cheapie Sony DVD player a'la Good Guys ($175.00). My DAC is the one onboard my Rotel integrated PRE/PRO. My system went from nearly unlistenable to incredibly detailed and involving. Speakers are Thiel CS2.4's. Our next move is going to be a Musical Fidelity Tri-Vista 21 Tube DAC. From there we are going to trade up pre/pros and a new amp. Definately check out a Digital Lens, made a world of difference for us.

Are you using a good digital cable from transport to DAC? That would be the other all new component in your system besides the DAC, going from a one-box player. Just a thought. A new cable getting some press is the Stereovox HDVX.

Don't ask me, tho, I still use a Meridian one-box player.

Good luck!

I dunno, I've just beeen through a raft of digital upgrades in the last 8 months. I started with old Arcam Alpha / Assemblage 2.6 / D2D-1 lashup, bought a SimAudio Nova, then switched to Audio Note gear - ending up with an insanely expensive CDT-2 / 4.1x Balanced Signature combo. There is no way on God's green earth that I'd have followed that kind of bank-account-draining path if I hadn't heard a difference at each step of the way that was worth the cost - to me.

A lot depends on the rest of the system and (even more important, IMO) your values, preferences and goals for reproduction. I can understand that the perceived differences, both objective and subjective, may not be significant enough to justify the expenditure.

I have to say that the biggest jump in quality I heard was going from the Nova to the Audio Note transport with a 3.1x Balanced DAC. The change wasn't so much in the objective audiophile performance parameters, as in the amount of sheer music that seemed to be released. But keep in mind that this change involved moving to a totally different design philosophy and technical implementation, as well as a 3x jump in price.

Wow, judging from all the interest in this subject I guess there's a lot of us who are questioning the claims made by manufacturer's and reviewers alike.
First, a couple of things I neglected in the first post. I don't use any AC filtering or regeneration. I do use decent cables, synergistic research X series (approx. $200 per pair). Digital is not as good, the best monster cable and a custom AES/EBU on one end and RCA the other. I had a lond talk with an engineer on the subject of digital cable and he agreed with me that, in theory, it should really make a difference and that the hype was just that, markering hype.
I've taken apart my Celestion's and, as a speaker builder with decent knowledge of what is good and why, I think it's doubtful that the speakers are the culprit. The crossover use Solen caps and good parts all around.
I must say I was suprised to see so many of you questioning the sonic differences in digital gear. I also own a Sony SCD 777ES. Soon I'll be reorganising my system using different speaker placement in the room and different speakers, a DIY pair using the very best part I could find. I also plan to place the X-overs outside the enclosure so I can easily change parts throughout the voicing process. For speaker I'll be using E-speakers G3 ribbons and Scan Speak 5" mid, the revelators, and Scan 10" in a sealed WMTMW. This is my attempt at using what I've learned about speaker technology and computer analysis to build the best speaker I can. Maybe these will be able to reveal some more subtle differences.
Thanks for all the feedback.