My digital collection is a fraction of my LP's. Even with a nice tubed universal player digital was simply a convenience for casual listening with an annoying quality.
After ripping my digital collection I auditioned the W4S and a few other well reviewed conventional DAC's at home but I was unable to audition the Metrum Acoustics Octave side by side. The W4S has impressive connectivity and it did improve the sound quality.
Bhobba is an excellent digital component resource as is Elberoth2. Between them they made a very good case for me to purchase the Metrum Octave without audition. They were spot on, thanks guys. IMO the Octave kills the W4S because it's simply way more analog like in its presentation to my ears in my system.
I don't doubt for a minute that the Octaves performance could be improved to some degree by adding an Empirical Off Ramp or a Synchromesh in front of the Octave but it's not required to get a very good presentation from the unconventional designed Octave.
For me the issue was simply getting past that horrible digital presentation without spending thousands of dollars. The Octaves unique NOS design partnered with a Squeezebox Touch being fed wirelessly from an Apple Airport Extreme upsampled Channel Ds reasonably priced Pure Music Audio Engine does just that.
After ripping my digital collection I auditioned the W4S and a few other well reviewed conventional DAC's at home but I was unable to audition the Metrum Acoustics Octave side by side. The W4S has impressive connectivity and it did improve the sound quality.
Bhobba is an excellent digital component resource as is Elberoth2. Between them they made a very good case for me to purchase the Metrum Octave without audition. They were spot on, thanks guys. IMO the Octave kills the W4S because it's simply way more analog like in its presentation to my ears in my system.
I don't doubt for a minute that the Octaves performance could be improved to some degree by adding an Empirical Off Ramp or a Synchromesh in front of the Octave but it's not required to get a very good presentation from the unconventional designed Octave.
For me the issue was simply getting past that horrible digital presentation without spending thousands of dollars. The Octaves unique NOS design partnered with a Squeezebox Touch being fed wirelessly from an Apple Airport Extreme upsampled Channel Ds reasonably priced Pure Music Audio Engine does just that.