Sometimes we take this hobby way to serious...

steveinaz

I'm sitting here this afternoon, a little nervous about my transition from dedicated CDP to a universal DVD Player wondering if I've made a mistake. So, I decide to pull the CDP out early, move my 4yr old cheap panasonic where the new denon will go, hook her up to the DAC via $7 toslink cable and listen...you know...in an attempt to "train" myself down so that the change won't seem so bad, let myself down easy so to speak.

All of a sudden I realize I'm enjoying the music. I'm not picking it apart, suffering buyers remorse, or anything. Soon I realize that (maybe given my DAC, I don't know for sure) I can't tell any difference. This mass-produced all plastic, captured 18awg power cord, 4yr old, 1.5lb, cookie-cutter POS DVD player sounds great--via toslink no less...

Now I'm really excited about the Denon. Life is good.

George Grand

It is refreshing when we pull our heads out of our asses and remember why we bought nice rigs to begin with no?

organ

Awesome! We can get too serious about this but that's all part of the fun. The journey that never ends. Well, there are times when you just want to knock yourself on the head because you're spent the last 4 hours playing with speaker placement but the reward is always worth the effort.

Hell, my 40+ year old amp sounds better than anything I've heard.

steveinaz

I'm just really digging the flexibility this DAC gives me. Hell I bet I could hook a CD walkman up to this thing and you'd never know. After owning the Benchmark for a year now, I can't recommend it enough if redbook CD's are your primary source--amazing.

Sitting here this afternoon, I wished I could have had a room full of Polkies listening to the music, then swing that rack door open to expose the $129 beat-up panasonic making that music---just to see the looks on the faces.

organ

Steve,
Have you tried a jitter reducer in your rig? Goes between the transport and DAC.

I had two back when I had my Audio Alchemy stuff.

TroyD

The day that I listen to my gear and think more about what it doesn't do than what it does do......that's the day I'm selling all of it.

BDT

heiney9

steveinaz wrote:

I'm just really digging the flexibility this DAC gives me. Hell I bet I could hook a CD walkman up to this thing and you'd never know. After owning the Benchmark for a year now, I can't recommend it enough if redbook CD's are your primary source--amazing.

Sitting here this afternoon, I wished I could have had a room full of Polkies listening to the music, then swing that rack door open to expose the $129 beat-up panasonic making that music---just to see the looks on the faces.

Since getting my outboard DAC, I've stopped worrying about transport issues. My DAC is amazing as well. Hell, I even have one on the computer rig and what a difference. Best damn money I ever spent on a single component.

That is one reason I'm seriously thinking about getting a Squeezebox II wireless music server and eliminating the transport all together. The wireless digital signal can be routed thru a DAC and get the same results. My brother has one hooked to his main system and we A/B his regular transport and the Squeezbox thru his Monarchy DAC and can't tell a difference.

Just an idea I'm kicking around....haven't found a down side to it yet other than the extra HD space needed to rip lossless music to feed the Squeezbox II from my computer.

H9

billbillw

Agreed...
Since I set up my "budget 2-channel system", which is ever changing, I've enjoyed more music that I have in the last several years combined. My "budget" system does not contain any component that is worth more than $100 or so. Its amazing when you just clear you mind and listen to the music.

danger boy

billbillw wrote:

Agreed...
Since I set up my "budget 2-channel system", which is ever changing, I've enjoyed more music that I have in the last several years combined. My "budget" system does not contain any component that is worth more than $100 or so. Its amazing when you just clear you mind and listen to the music.

I Like that..... a 2 ch budget system can sound very good.... the right marriage of gear can prove some pretty good results. I've found that out of the past 9 months that i've had the SRS's. Different pre's, amps, CDP's, and cables have all improved the sound. Is it complete? Not by a long stretch...but i'm quite happy where it's at currently.

Early B.

steveinaz wrote:

All of a sudden I realize I'm enjoying the music. I'm not picking it apart, suffering buyers remorse, or anything. Soon I realize that (maybe given my DAC, I don't know for sure) I can't tell any difference. This mass-produced all plastic, captured 18awg power cord, 4yr old, 1.5lb, cookie-cutter POS DVD player sounds great--via toslink no less...

It's temporary, Steve. Soon you'll be back to a better source and wonder why you ever bothered hooking up the POS DVD player.

steveinaz

Early B. wrote:

It's temporary, Steve. Soon you'll be back to a better source and wonder why you ever bothered hooking up the POS DVD player.

Yep, a Denon 2910, EDD: 16 March!

steveinaz

organ wrote:

Steve,
Have you tried a jitter reducer in your rig? Goes between the transport and DAC.

I had two back when I had my Audio Alchemy stuff.

The Benchmark DAC1 has built in jitter reduction; it doesnt need any help, trust me.