Topic: high-end Digital on the cheap...

[Nick's Picks]

Hey now...

In the name of progress...i'm looking to better my digital playback. I'm sold on the ability of my 3000ES to put a smile on my face. No need to look at other DACs.  I'm certainly not in a position to buck up for a REAL high-end DAC.  EMM labs or something of that class.  So i'm into working with what I have, which is good.  Now i'm looking at bettering the signal being fed to the Sony.

I'd love to try out one of those Apogee Big Ben units, but it is financialy out of my reach. For those of you who are unaware of what this is, go to their www site and check it out.  I've heard its quite stupendous for all digital playback.
I've tweaked my transport w/vibrapod isolation cones + its all ready dampened chassis that was done in a 3rd party MOD (toshiba 3960 dvd). I feel that I'd  have to spend an aweful lot to better it in terms of transport performance with 24/96 PCM output, so I dont see that (new deck) as a good direction.

Research (and a new audio advisor catalog) led me to this:
http://www.monarchyaudio.com/
which has a number of "black box" devices for bettering a PCM signal by means of jitter reduction, signal boosting and dithering.
In particular, the DIP "upsampler" model, wich re-clocks incoing PCM to 24/96 , stabilizes and then boosts the signal. $300 retail is not a huge investment, and I might give it a try eventualy. Especialy if I can find a used one.
This might be perfect for interfacing a long S/PDIF cable from a PC in another room as well as my transport. It has coax and toslink input, coax and AES output..so it could work very well indeed.
Anyone ever experience one of these?
Poor mans Apogee?

[scb]

what'd the analog side of your system these days? 

[Nick's Picks]

whoa... deja vu man!

uhhh.....
speaker cable?  is that right?

[scb]

just wondering if you want better sound, is "fixing" the digital signal the way?  or should you keep the sony as a dac and get a separate amp like you used to have?

just thinking out loud...i don't know enough about these digital boxes

[Nick's Picks]

i've pondered that route.
but i'm not sure what happens to the signal path at that point.   As I understand the Sony, the actual D/A stage happens after the gain stage and amplification.
I think Doug is working on a MOD for the 3000es that will allow it to be used as a DAC/preamp combo.  If that happens, then i'll probably get a PSA HCA2 amp when I can.

i'm thinking more along the source line right now.

[MattD]

Since PS Audio announced their new line, the HCA-2 and PCA-2 have been turning up regularly on Audiogon. You can probably find each for under $1k now. Don't you have VR-4jrs? I'd be concerned that the 150 WPC HCA-2 isn't quite enough, especially if you have a large room, but it can't hurt to try.

[Nick's Picks]

Since PS Audio announced their new line, the HCA-2 and PCA-2 have been turning up regularly on Audiogon. You can probably find each for under $1k now.

Don't you have VR-4jrs? I'd be concerned that the 150 WPC HCA-2 isn't quite enough, especially if you have a large room, but it can't hurt to try.

thats good to know!  Thanks for that info.
I run straight VR4s, and currently power them with 150wpc.  I do find it a bit underpowered for my occasional tastes, but not usualy lacking.  Its close to perfect, but I have to crank that amp to get the volumes I sometimes need.    Those low level 24bit recordings greatly benenfit from being played loudly, but you need power to do it and my 150watts doesn't cut it all the time. 
I love the sound of my setup, so I would probably just go up the line to a more powerful model if I really considered further upgrades.