Advise on DACs ?

tapeshc

I have Sony 555ES cd changer.

I heard the DACs and upsamplers do better job then onboard DACs. Atleast 555ES is not as good as my Denon AVR3300.

I dont want to part with my changer as its a big convnience over changing cds on a single high quality CD players.

If I can get a reasonable priced($500.00) DAC & upsampler then I would prefer going that route then buying a new CD player.

I will use this as a CD reader and DACs will do rest of the jobs.

Although I know High end CD players talk about their reading capability & tube output stage, but I think if DACs are good then possibly 95%+ job is done.

Thanks

Tapesh

organ

If you like the tube sound, try looking for a tube DAC. Danger Boy owns one and he's very happy with it.

Maurice

tapeshc

Yes I do like tubes but am more concerned about price

Reading is a bad habbit and after doing that around I am more confused then resolved.

You have DACs then Jitter filters and then upsampler and may be some more stuff, that I will bump in to.

Why things are so complex and get expensive

I thought I will be able to spend $300-500 and will have a nice system.

Burr-Brown also seem to have so many diff. versions but lloks like they are most popular ones.

Any advice or help ?

paulsturbs

Not familiar with your model of Sony or Dennon but if Sony has S/PDIF outs and Dennon has S/PDIF ins just use those.
If the Dennon has onboard DSP at point in the signal path you're just going to encounter truncation errors in audio.
I would try to stay digital with all the gear until it's final output stage if you believe your receiver has superior DAs.
(I would also avoid Sony disc player products. I'm sure that some of their models have great DAs but Sony does some real weird stuff sometimes and the reliability of their gear is questionable in my experience.)

shack

I heard the DACs and upsamplers do better job then onboard DACs. Atleast 555ES is not as good as my Denon AVR3300.

In my experience, the DACs in the Sony ES SACD/CD players are generally better than the Denon AVR DAC's. New your 555 cost almost twice as much as the 3300 (at least MSRP). I would bet the DACs in the Sony are better. I have the 222ES changer and a Denon AVR and I use the analog by-pass for 2 channel (and of course SACD). The 555es is a stepup and has better DACs than the 222. I know there have been folks that have modded their 222s to bring it up to the redbook perfomance that is compared to the 555. I'm not sure a $300-$500 DAC would be much of an improvement. That said...you never know till you try and if the DAC doesn't offer significant improvement you can sell it.

(I would also avoid Sony disc player products. I'm sure that some of their models have great DAs but Sony does some real weird stuff sometimes and the reliability of their gear is questionable in my experience.)

Sony ES CD players are excellent products and are generally well thought of. They are typically built like a tank in addition to using quality DACs they are very good, solid transports. A very different animal than their low end mass market consumer audio products.