I want to submit some food for thought, this may create an opinions storm, but that is part of the fun. Dont forget its just a game.
There is nothing wrong with the SB3 DA converter. It sounds really really good! You DO NOT need an external DAC! These is no problem with SB3 the noise level, blackness of the background, tonal balance, nuances or whatever else. It is true that most cheap DAC are un-listenable (I tried my Philips $70 DVD player analog, ouch!) but the SB3 is not one of those. Stop talking about this DAC vs. that DAC (unless you already got you dedicated stereo listening room with partitioned air conditioning, but this is an extreme case )! Chances are that your amp is under powered and you speakers are really problematic. For normal HIFI listening in a midsize room you need at least 120W ch/8ohm. Yes I mean minimum. And do not even expect 120W to be able to reproduce a single violin or grand piano (without obvious compression/distortion) close to its intended volume. How do I know? I had the grand piano + violin in the same room as the stereo for years! I can tell you that my sister violin is mighty powerful (not to mention the KAWAI KG-5 GRAND PIANO). I would say that 250/300w ch on 8ohm is what you need for a realistic listening experience. Note that I do not expect the sensation of loudness to be any higher than an 80w amp compressing dynamic on a typical >$3000 speaker. Speaking of speakers, where to begin? They are so full of sins that hifi hell must reserve them the greatest (padded) room of all. Dead speakers will be forced to hover in mid air, far from any reflecting surfaces I arguing that the greatest room for improvement / $ ratio may not be in the area that you are currently obsessing over. Chances are that repositioning / upgrading you speakers and a decent powerful amp will unleash some of the hidden 16 bits in a good old CD. -- arge ------------------------------------------------------------------------ arge's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6155 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=28700 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
