Today I received a quote from Emotiva for the ERC-1. They have quoted 319+110 for courier to Dubai. That is about the same Dillihifi got for transportation to India. I am trying to check if there is customs in Dubai. If not, for roughly 20,000 it looks as if I can lay my hands on a good player.
Today, I read the Stereophile January 2010 review of CA 650C, and I have started thinking again. As per the article, even with nearly identical specs, an external DAC seems to have better implementation, and hence better resolution of sound delivered. If that is true, a simple CD Player, and a good DAC will go a long way in fulfilling my media server plans.
Though Sam Tellig does praise the CD A 650C for being of excellent build quality, he feels CA's own DacMagic trounces the CD Player in all areas. Here is his conclusion:
"When comparing the sound, I used the Cambridge DacMagic in its Minimum Phase setting vs the Azur 650C's slow-rolloff setting. One could go crazy with the combinations. Using the same XLO combinations from the Rogers Skoff era (the 1990s) from both products, I was able to switch from the Azur 650C's own DAC to the DacMagic by changing inputs via the remote. Levels were already matched. I used the matching Azur 650A amp, my Harbets, and my favourite headphones."
"Straining to hear the differences like fellow sharpener Robert Deutsch, PhDm I felt that the Azur 650C, used as a one-box CD source, was less resolving than when used only as a disc transport for the DacMagic. If you own a DacMagic, keep it. If you have a CD Player or transport you love, buy a DacMagic. It is more resolving, more harmonically full than the Azur 650C, but not by much. The sonic signatures were similar; but with the DacMagic there was a touch more there there. Plucked strings were pluckier, I noted greater definition, faster transients, more ambience."
"Open, airy, sweet, civilized - that is the sound of the 650C. I did think the harmonic textures could be richer, fuller. Voices could be more convincing and immediate, the bottom end tighter. I wouldn't call the sound threadbare, but lush the 650C is not."
In the same issue, there is a lengthy test of Asus's Xonar Essence ST and STX by Jihn Atkinson. If his tests are true, both products come out as killer products for reliable delivery of music from a normal PC. The STX, John says, is much better than the Squeezebox that he praised some time ago.
The STX, it seems delivers exceedingly low levels of noise and superbly defined sinewave at both 16 and 24 bit wordlengths. Word-clock jitter in the STX's Toslink S/PDIF output measured diretcly with the AP SYS2722 and 44.1KHz datastream, was low at 1.48 nanoseconds, which is close to the system's resolution limit. Jitter in the analogue output was also very low at 170 picoseconds.
Concluding, John says, 'The Xonar Essence STX and Essence ST soundcards are by far the lest expensive way of turning a PC into a genuine high-resolution audio source I have yet encountered. Neither the Essence's resolution nor their low levels of noise are compromised by having to operate in the electrically unfriendly environment of a computer chassis'
So now it looks as if those who installed the Asus Essence cards have taken the correct decision. With my hard disk nearing 500GB of music, should I also go the same way? If only I can but the card from a genuine audio dealer rather than a small and smelly gullies of Ritchie Street. Sigh ! Are you listening Sridhar, Raghu?
Cheers