Hi!
I'm going to get rid of my CD player and instead use a computer for playing back digital music, e.g. storing all my CDs as uncompressed audio files on a PC. It's just too comfortable to not consider this nowadays, since hard drives are so cheap..
I'd welcome suggestions on equipment though. First of all I'll need a pro-grade sound card for my PC with a digital output. There seems to be lots of them about.. Anyone have good experience with some particular brand or model? Price isn't important here, only quality. I will not need any features on the card except digital playback, e.g. no MIDI or bundled composing software and such crap. It has to be able to handle at least 24/96 audio however, since I have a lot of sampled vinyl in that format.
Secondly, and most importantly, I'm going to need a DAC that will connect o my Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista M3 amplifier. The cable I have at hand is a 1M Nordost Red Dawn, which is a clear and netural-sounding cable in my ears. The speakers will be a pair of Dynaudio Contour 3.3, also cabled by Red Dawn. Any suggestions here? Please note that I will not go multichannel, so I don't need a full-blown processor here, just a very good 2-channel DAC!. The cheaper the better of course, but up to $4000 is worth considering.
I prefer my sound clear, warm and cozy - always been a tube fan and an analog freak, so I'd rather not use highly analytical and perfectly neutral equpiment! As a reference, one of my fave sounds come from a pair of Sennheiser HD600 connected to Musical Fidelity X-CANS - you may keep that in mind
Cheers,
Peo
I'm going to get rid of my CD player and instead use a computer for playing back digital music, e.g. storing all my CDs as uncompressed audio files on a PC. It's just too comfortable to not consider this nowadays, since hard drives are so cheap..
I'd welcome suggestions on equipment though. First of all I'll need a pro-grade sound card for my PC with a digital output. There seems to be lots of them about.. Anyone have good experience with some particular brand or model? Price isn't important here, only quality. I will not need any features on the card except digital playback, e.g. no MIDI or bundled composing software and such crap. It has to be able to handle at least 24/96 audio however, since I have a lot of sampled vinyl in that format.
Secondly, and most importantly, I'm going to need a DAC that will connect o my Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista M3 amplifier. The cable I have at hand is a 1M Nordost Red Dawn, which is a clear and netural-sounding cable in my ears. The speakers will be a pair of Dynaudio Contour 3.3, also cabled by Red Dawn. Any suggestions here? Please note that I will not go multichannel, so I don't need a full-blown processor here, just a very good 2-channel DAC!. The cheaper the better of course, but up to $4000 is worth considering.
I prefer my sound clear, warm and cozy - always been a tube fan and an analog freak, so I'd rather not use highly analytical and perfectly neutral equpiment! As a reference, one of my fave sounds come from a pair of Sennheiser HD600 connected to Musical Fidelity X-CANS - you may keep that in mind
Cheers,
Peo