Opus 21 CD vs Mac Mini... Opus wins

Thanks for all the help. I will try upgrading my cables and see where I stand with the sound.
One interesting note... I discovered that the M-audio solo has the option to have it plugged in or unplugged (passive). It seems to be a touch cleaner and musical with it unplugged. Imagine that.

The overall quality of the opus 21 is great, you can switch fast between tracks and i love that.

Just another thing to consider...the Opus21 is an excellent stand alone CD player, particularly with the GSNC reference mods. However, it may be that because of the high performance/value ratio, Jeff Kalt did not put alot of money or thought into the digital input? He may have just added a cheap off-the-shelf receiver for convenience.

A friend of mine, who owns a GNSC ref Opus 21, tried running my Wadia Ipod transport into the Opus and it sounded horrible...thin, brittle, just horrible. The same Ipod transport into my PS Audio DAC3 with Cullen mods was quite good, though just a bit shy of the Opus on its own. My Dell desktop with Lynx PCI card into the PS Audio was another matter, though. Into my Berkely Alpha DAC...pure heaven!! ;-) I am a computer convert now!

Good luck...it's worth the experimentation, but I wouldn't spend much money on cables or converters until you can test your current with a dedicated (even inexpensive) dac.

Just got a Mini running into a MHDT Havana up and going and, to be perfectly honest, so far I’ve simply been afraid to critically compare it to the Meridian CDP it sits next to. Just not sure that I want to know, one way or the other. Even without the critical comparison, I'll say that the Mini-MHDT (with a Bendix tube) is pretty great. That said, it's really a whole different animal from the Meridian. Not sure whether it's the tube, or the fact that it's a NOS DAC, but at lower volumes the comparative lack of detail is really noticeable, and I prefer the Meridian. But with some volume behind it, that sucker really opens up and becomes rather magical. Lush, open, great rhythm and soundstaging – really wonderfully engaging. Must admit, somewhat of an apples to oranges comparison, but sure am intrigued by the possibilities. Interesting stuff.