teufelshunde

It's good to stick to one's knitting. If Oppo were to take on the task of enabling incoming USB 2.0 audio for the BDP-95, then they'd also have to provide Oppo H/W drivers for Windows and Mac O/S. If I'm Oppo, what's in it for me to go there? Clearly not my core competency, not my target market, and not part of my support model. However, would be great if they did go there.

Based on the recommendation of our local Godfather of DACses (Dinny) - I'm going w the NAD M51. If it sucks, I'll send it back. Plus Audio Advisor is recommending the Cardas Clear Light Balanced XLR interconnects - also going back if they don't deliver the sonic goodness.

^ - This Let us all hope that we are remembered not for what we did worst, or what we did last; but what we did best.

Mike - I've already got an Oppo BDP-95, but it's firmly ensconced in the family room as part of the Home Theatre setup. I need something for the office where my desktop and NAS are located. I think Dinny's on to something here. Just wondering how much of the M51 price tag is a premium being paid to the HDCP police for HDMI support.

I don't have to have 24/192, but have you noticed how strongly correlated it is with the presence of a particularly pleasing psycho-acoustic placebo effect?

Thanks for the suggestions John. The Perfect Wave DAC reviews well and is currently available new at Music Direct for $1995 --> http://www.musicdirect.com/p-2456-ps-audio-perfectwave-dac.aspx Issue is the USB input being limited to 24/96. T.

If you've got a recommend on a DAC that'll take a USB 24/192 feed, I'd love to hear your thoughts. I like the sound of Sabre, but Wolfson chips would be OK too. I'm willing to spend up to $2K. Should have the new amp sometime next week, but won't have a DAC to feed it. T.

John - the short answer to your question "What did I think" is: I think I needs to get me some ECP Audio goodness. The LCD-2r1 sounded exceptional being driven by either the L-2 or the DSHA-1. The Grados sounded great. Even the Ultrasone Pro900s sounded good. Both the L-2 and DSHA-1 displayed taut bass, unbelieveably creamy midrange, and crisp treble without any hint of harshness. Tubes are nice, but my personal preference is the sound of solid state. Especially considering that most of my head-time will be with LCD-3s. So, I'll likely end up asking Doug for a DSHA-1.

Many thanks to Doug for hauling a ton of hardware over to his office, and setting-up a proper audition of his exceptional DSHA-1 and L-2 amps. And thanks to jvlgato for the loan of his LCD-2r1 to supplement the Grados and Ultrasones for comparo purposes. Also thanks to Doug for recommending one of the best and most authentic pizza experiences this side of Napoli.

Pretentious name, to be sure; but Sandy Gross co-founded Polk, then Def Tech, and now GoldenEar. Perhaps a bit of chutzpah on Sandy's part is understandable. I've owned a pair of Golden Ear Triton Two's for about 5 months now, and I'm very satisified with them. Most everything in life involves trade-offs. My trade-off was needing a pair of L-R Mains that would function as audiophile grade stereo speakers AND anchor a robust Home Theatre sound system. Not an easy requirement to satisfy; but the Triton Two's seem to straddle that need with some competency. They're surprisingly musical. The High-Velocity Folded Ribbon tweeter is as good a tweeter as I've heard anywhere. And with each tower sporting its own 1200W Class D amp powering a two driver/two radiator sub-woofer section, they produce plenty of impact when a screenplay demands that something go Boom! I auditioned them in a room with a pair of B&W 800 Diamonds running off the same source and amp. The Tritons surprised me. They're not Magico's or Wilson's; but for $3K you'll get your money's worth and then some. There's more than a little hype surrounding these speakers (do they really go down to 18Hz...really?) so you should judge for yourself. I can't say for sure that you'll like these; but if you audition a pair I'm pretty sure you won't walk away thinking you've wasted your time.

The Leap's a good choice, and being from Grand Rapids I can afirm that the Steelcase folks are still serious about product quality. On a side note; for some unkown reason the government built my sister's six-o'clock fairly close to the sidewalk. If you're similarly configured, you might consider the "Steelcase Leap 462 Stool" which supplements the standard Leap with a height adjustable foot rest.

Doug - got through just fine. Thanks, T.

After an original by Chris Lott

Doug, I'm gonna be in Chicago next week on business but have a free day on 2/8 and would love to listen to an L-2. Sent you a ping from the ecp contact page. T.

Tyll - Perhaps an ecp audio L-2 or an Anedio D2. Didn't see either of these listed over at IF - maybe you could kill two birds with one stone.

Ed - Bacon for dinner is never a bad choice. Ken - Claremont ain't Santa Barbara; but it doesn't suck. Shelly - yep I'm just a stone's throw from Rancho Alta-Wanda where you grew up. And to stay on topic - since the Packers are out of it I think I'll console myself with a sip of Wisconsin Cheddar...hmmm, do I detect the taste of bacon?

PB&B for breakfast at SomeCrust Bakery in Claremont,CA this morning. Sorry about the crappy corporate cellphone photo.

^ Nice, thanks for the heads-up. BTW - did I mention the use-case I'm pursuing is a desktop headphone amp for my home office. Gonna spin some FLACs from HDTracks. T.

Twenty for the cause - you can vote repeatedly but you have to hit the back key from the big blue screen and get a new Captcha pair each time.

Steve, I have to agree that the NAD M2 is gorgeous; but it doesn't accept USB so I'd be in another $1400 to $1800 for something NAD worthy like an Empirical Off Ramp-4 or a Berkeley Audio Alpha USB to drive the AES/EBU on the M2. That's pushin' the $7500 envelope - I could almost buy into a decent pair of Stax for that money (OK, now I'm just pandering). Anything else with native USB input that would be a fit close to the $5K price point?

Anyone get a chance to listen to the Peachtree Grand pieces at RMAF (or elsewhere)? I'm looking for a dac/amp that'll do 24/192 over USB and this appears to be a contender. The design intrigues me because it permits user selectable signal routing via tubes or SS. I'm open to other hardware suggestions for a solution to 24/192 over USB. Trying to hold the line at $5K USD Peachtree Grand Integrated High resolution DAC ESS Sabre32 9018 - supports 24/192 asynchronous USB input Hybrid tube preamplifier - uses two 12AU7s High efficiency amplifier - 400 wpc stereo Galvanic Isolation State of the art headphone amp - signal is run through the tube stage [no mW specs listed] A tube bypass button allows for solid state or hybrid tube listening modes Details here: --> http://signalpathint.com/index.php/Grand-Integrated/grand-integrated.html

Not sure how many of us are musicians, or fomer musicians; but I found this humorously ironic. I used to play professionally and my rationales for use of the past tense are too legion to enumerate.

These are solid, middle of the road interpretations; but not the best Beethoven to be bought. These are the EMI recordings done shortly before Kempe's passing in 1976. And the Munich Philharmonic is not the best orchestra Germany has to offer; but this is arguably one of Kempe's best efforts with them during his ten year tenure as their conductor. This Estoeric release is produced by Motoaki Ohmachi, and engineered by Kazuie Sugimoto at the JVC Mastering Center in Yokohama, so the AQ won't suck. But considering that these cost 3 bills American, you can probably do better. That is, unless you have a fetish for Japenese imports.

Perhaps Tito. The name of the first ever Viszla pup here in the U.S. (Oct 7, 1950). Although I like your pick of the name Koda. One of the most frequent commands you'll use with any dog is "Come" and with a name like Koda he'd be highly responsive to any word that begins with a "k" sound.

Audeze FR plot for the LCD-3 I purchased - for comparison purposes w what others have received. There are no data like empirical data.