DAC for multiple CD players?

It sounds like your wife likes the multi disc player. I use an inexpensive Sony DVD changer with a Bel Canto DAC 1.1 and am very satisfied. John Stronczer of Bel Canto even recommends using his dacs with a dvd player. You could also just use separate inputs on your Plinius for each player.

I'm using an old but wonderful California Audio Labs Alpha DAC connected to a CAL Delta transport via a balanced connection and to a CAL CL-10 5-CD carousel player via digital coax. The Alpha also has a toslink input which I've used periodically to connect to an otherwise lousy sounding dual-drawer CD recorder. I'm sure there are many other DACs with similar flexibility. With the Alpha, you can easily switch between inputs via a button on the front panel, which is convenient, and they can be found used on Audiogon now and then.

That is what I hope to do, use a DAC for both the single CD player and the multiple CD player. I'm not sure how a find the DACs that can be used for two players. I will take a look at the Alpha DAC.

Check out the back of the MF and the Pioneer to see what kind of digital out each offers. Do you need a dac with two optical inputs or one that has an optical and an rca type input? One that has two rca inputs? Most dacs feature both optical and rca digital inputs. It's harder to find one that has two optical ins or two rca ins. I recently picked up a used EAD 7000 dac. It has three inputs. I'm using one to convert the signal from my dvd player and another to convert the signal from my cable box. I plan on using the third to convert the digital signal from my computer. Like the Alpha Zinfan mentions, the EAD allows you to select which input you want via front panel buttons.

The Pioneer only has RCA outputs but the MF has Two digital outputs; 1 x coaxial and 1 x optical. I was think about replacing the MF with a used Music Hall CD-25. How do you like the sound of your EAD 7000 DAC?

Northstar Model 192 DAC has four digital in's. Line 1 has a coax jack and toslink jack; your choice which to use. Line 2 is coax. Line 3 is AES/EBU. Line 4 is IS2.

Davef,

I really like the EAD. My dvd player is the Philips963A. I still like the Philips for SACD, but on redbook cd, what first sounded like detailed and extended treble, soon became irritating (regardless of what level of upsampling I chose). Adding the EAD put a lot of "flesh" on the music--sounds more robust and three dimensional without while still retaining good detail (movie dialogue, for example is clearer). I think I paid 450 for it. I would work with the rca from your pioneer and the optical from the MF. I don't know what your budget is, but if it's under 500, I think the EAD would be a good choice (as would the CAL Alpha mentioned above), but I'm sure there are other good choices as well. Plenty of info. in the archives.

Davef,
Try the Bel Canto Dac 2 it has both a optical and a Coaxial input with a push button switch to toggle between the two inputs. I just got mine and I love it.

I also have the Bel Canto DAC2 and like Koiman says with the push of a button you can switch between the two inputs. One caveat though, in your case you will have to use the toslink connection for your MF CDP since the Pioneer only has RCA's. I have found that the coax on the DAC2 sounds much better than the toslink. Therefore you may want to think about getting a changer with toslink so you can use the coax connection with your MF.