If you don't need USB in:
I purchased a MSB "Full Nelson" Link-DAC III from sound4sale dot com for $500. The Full Nelson has an upgraded analog section, the upsampling board and MSB Net connections (also accepts AES/EBU digital in).
This box was a Stereophile Class A component in the day, for what that's worth.
I'm not affiliated with MSB or sound4sale, but I am a customer...
I'm quite impressed with the quality. Source device is a Roku SoundBridge M1000 via coaxial digital. The S/PDIF coax goes into a GW Labs DSP reclocker (upsampling turned off). I am feeding the Link-DAC via AES/EBU digital from the DSP. The Link-DAC does upsampling internally via an option card. Analog outs from the Link-DAC go to a Musical Fidelity X10^3 tube buffer, into the preamp.
Source files are coming from a wired ethernet connection to a Firefly server, as 320k MP3 or on-the-fly transcoded FLAC -> WAV. You can guess which sounds better. :-) I'm amazed at the quality of even 128k internet radio streams (Radio Paradise, SOMA FM). Very smooth, very open sound at low to moderate volume levels.
Other source components are a Musical Fidelity A308 CD (I'm using the internal DAC on the MF CD). Amp is a McIntosh MA6100, recently refurbed by Audio Classics Ltd. in NY.
Speakers vary, but in the current "background music" role for this rig, I'm using a set of Paradigm Atom v.3s. I also have Studio 100 v.3s and a set of Studio 20 v.3s. Wife acceptance factor for the Studio 100s in the family room is low, so they generally live in the basement in another system.
Anyway, nice access to a classic DAC, "brand new" for a quarter of the original price.
Cheers,
-don
I purchased a MSB "Full Nelson" Link-DAC III from sound4sale dot com for $500. The Full Nelson has an upgraded analog section, the upsampling board and MSB Net connections (also accepts AES/EBU digital in).
This box was a Stereophile Class A component in the day, for what that's worth.
I'm not affiliated with MSB or sound4sale, but I am a customer...
I'm quite impressed with the quality. Source device is a Roku SoundBridge M1000 via coaxial digital. The S/PDIF coax goes into a GW Labs DSP reclocker (upsampling turned off). I am feeding the Link-DAC via AES/EBU digital from the DSP. The Link-DAC does upsampling internally via an option card. Analog outs from the Link-DAC go to a Musical Fidelity X10^3 tube buffer, into the preamp.
Source files are coming from a wired ethernet connection to a Firefly server, as 320k MP3 or on-the-fly transcoded FLAC -> WAV. You can guess which sounds better. :-) I'm amazed at the quality of even 128k internet radio streams (Radio Paradise, SOMA FM). Very smooth, very open sound at low to moderate volume levels.
Other source components are a Musical Fidelity A308 CD (I'm using the internal DAC on the MF CD). Amp is a McIntosh MA6100, recently refurbed by Audio Classics Ltd. in NY.
Speakers vary, but in the current "background music" role for this rig, I'm using a set of Paradigm Atom v.3s. I also have Studio 100 v.3s and a set of Studio 20 v.3s. Wife acceptance factor for the Studio 100s in the family room is low, so they generally live in the basement in another system.
Anyway, nice access to a classic DAC, "brand new" for a quarter of the original price.
Cheers,
-don