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NAD C565bee/Rega Apollo vs. DAC MHDT Paradisea 3

After years of primarily playing vinyl, I'd like to add a digital source to my system; McIntosh MA-230, Thorens 320, Focal 807v. The idea here is that I can play CDs as well as mp3s from my Apple computer. Doing some research and checking my wife's approval rate (WAR), it boils down to the following two options:
1) A NAD C565bee or maybe a Rega Apollo.
2) A cheap cd player in combination with a MHDT Paradisea 3 or a Cambridge DAC Magic.
I would appreciate to hear on how a decent cd player (e.g., NAD/Rega) compares to the DACs (e.g., MHDT/Cambridge)?
Thanks
kossi

Showing 2 responses by trackernc

trackernc
8 posts
 
Not sure if this is useful information to you or not... but I have a NAD565BEE connected to my computer via the optical IN on the CD player thus playing my computer through the CD player dac. I also have a Asus Xonar Essence sound card which is supposedly pretty good. The asus has regular RCA analog outputs. The sound from both is almost the same, but the sound through the NAD is definitely better. I did A/B testing to confirm this.

Also the USB reader on the NAD does a great job. Mp3s played off of a flash drive sound as good as those same mp3s burned to an Audio CD (not data).

I have been very happy with my NAD565BEE. It was a refurb from Spirit Sound.. Hard to beat the price...
trackernc
8 posts
 
Hieule5,

If you are using the analog outs (headphone jack) on the ipod, then there is your problem.. The DAC on the ipod isn't as good as the ones in the cd player.
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