Hi-Fi Quality Digital Jukebox / Stand-alone Music Server
Dear All,
It has been sugested that an Ecient Fireball with seperate DAC would be a good option. Has any one any experience of this unit how would you rate it. What other options are available to me.
I am looking for Medium/High end kit which is going to give me equivalent sound quality to my Sugden CD player.
Thanks in advance
ARCAM have new music server out which might fit the bill..........it is £3K though. ARCAM claim that it has the performance of a £1000 cd player. Cheaper options are as you say is the Fireball, hifidelio, but I think you'd be dissapointed at current models. However Olive (hifidelio in US) have a new player called the OPUS which has a 750GB of memory so you can save music in lossless FLAC files which might be better. The other brand you could look at is Pinnacle Audio & then other home server stuff. It just really depends on how much your willing to spend. Personally I'd save your money and buy a a nice CD rack instead so your friends can come round and admire your immaculate musical taste and thus allow you to look down your nose at there rubbish made in china i-pods and the horror that is MP3 and say proudly my hifi's hand made in Yorkshire and this is what this is what music is supposed to sound like removing the magnetic grills from your ART speakers. Good luck.
It's not going to be easy as your sugden cdp is one of the best out there, but if you really must bring your system to the 21st century then I would try Slim Devices Transporter + Behringer DEQ2496 (room correction unit with build in DAC). You can also upgrade to seperate DAC in the future as Behringer DEQ2496 can be use purely in digital domain. I reckon that the preformance of my suggestion wouldn't be far off you dedicate CD polayer.
TW Raven AC - Soundsmith SG-410 - MSB 202 - Gershman Acoustics Black Swan - Audioquest K9