CD Player for ARC/B&W 802 Matrix

Tony

these players both sound nice but use old technology.
WIth upsampling done right you can get much better resolution of low level detail, seperation of instruments, etc..

I was looking to buy an Arc C2 and took it home to demo for a long weekend, I later took an ARC DAC3 (highest end tube dac). It was more refining than a Sonic Frontiers but was not as revealing as an EVS Millenium II DAC which I purchased on a 30 day return policy(no longer available, but Ric can mod an existing dac (tweakaudio.com))

Find a new player or dac with upsampling

You can always buy a quality used transport and a good dac now.

Or you can snag an Audio Aero Prima 24/192 version (haven't heard it myself, but it's getting hot press), the little brother of the Capitol ($6000, which everyone seems to be raving about) for a little more than the $1500.

do a search on audio aero for more details (this thread is good ( 1022147810 ) or visit their website
www.audioaero.com

best of luck in this pursuit

tom

I've had both the ARC CD2 and the Meridian 508.24. The ARC is a very sweet sounding, uncolored cd player. It puts the listener around a third or half way in the music hall. The Meridian 508.24 puts the listener very close to the soundstage. Instruments are more detailed with more air around them. It's really a matter of listening preference. I wanted to keep both, but after having the ARC CD2 for a little over a year, I decided to keep the Meridian. You should try to hear all the units you're interested in because all your equipment will contribute to the sound of each cdp.