This is one of those very difficult to answer in the general sense. I have a $1200 CD player that does not sound as good as the Touch, but a $4000 one which is a lot better. Non of my less than $1000 players are better than the Touch, but that does not mean it is universally true. I certainly have not compared it to every player out there.
Then there is what you are looking for. I have been in a listening session with several people where different people ranked equipment differently and we were all in the same room listening to the exact same setup. So YOU may like the Touch better and someone else may like the CD player better etc. The same thing goes for external DACs, there are a LOT of inexpensive DACs out there right now, some people think some of them sound better than the Touch analog outs and others think the Touch sounds better. I have a system in my listening room (It's all DIY, so don't ask what equipment it is) that is very resolving. I also have built many DACs, some of which are about as good as it gets today. These DACs DO sound significantly better than the Touch, but the Touch on it's own still sounds quite good in this system. Last night I was doing a little comparison with the Touch, a $300 DAC and a $1200 DAC. The Touch easily beat the $300 DAC and was neck and neck with the $1200 DAC. Of course someone else might have heard it differently. But then there is a $150 DAC (HRT music streamerII) which when used with EDO and parts of TT3.0 is better than that $1200 DAC! (again that is for ME, someone else may think differently) John S. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ JohnSwenson's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=5974 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=97483 _______________________________________________ Touch mailing list Touch@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/touch
