Chap_cat
I'd add the new Bel Canto digital int with USB DAC to the short list only as an option to the Nu Force entry. I've not heard either BTW... just thought to mention it.
Also Macrojack is offering up solid advice here on that Oppo player. I bought one just as he did, for a video BTW, stop gap, source. I was and still am, amazed at how much improvement has happend in digital gear... and for the $175 tag? It's a no brainer indeed.
it's in my estimation, 75-80% the performance level of my $3K (MSRP) SONY XA777es CDP.
His other points I'd feel are as valid.
Being in sales, I'm pretty sure if your guard is up some, not a lot, you'll feret out the legit from the self serving.
Dcstep said:
“I don't see that variable sound and the opportunity to tube-roll is an advantage.”
I’m pretty sure if additional flexibility is to be had, it must be seen as advantageous. EX. More imputs, both RCA + XLR in’s & outs, remote control, all these features and/or benefits are additive aspects. The ability to interchange tubes, if one wishes to do so, is also an additional feature set, and thus, an advantage.
Dcstep also said:
I personally prefer to buy a designer's best possible work and enjoy it, rather than risk screwing it up with some half-baked scheme to "improve it" with some 60 year old tubes.
Half baked? Screwing it up?
In this instance, the “best” available design isn’t likely to be had for the budget in place. Designers do offer their work in various levels you know?
I suppose one can adhere strickly to a purist notion on all things and be quite happy. However to discount the possibility of improvement upon a given designers effort through aftermarket or optionally offered changes, is shortsighted indeed.
There are plenty of designers which offer upgrades to their equipment as standard operating procedure. BAT, Dodd, AR, Atmosphere, ART, Prima luna, and VAC, just to name a few afford a buyer their wares in varying performance and configuration levels…. And some of these upgrades involve only the change of the tubes being used.
These designers I believe also need to produce a design which can be supplied and supported by currently available parts, including the tubes they employ in their designs. I wonder how many of them, had they an endless supply of NOS tubes, wouldn’t use them in their builds or offer them as options at point of sale?
There is nothing half baked about tailoring or tweaking a system to the tastes of it’s owner/builder. My experience has shown swapping out the OEM tubes is one way to go about it and the results from the doing of it have always been improvement, in varying degrees, and occasionally, entirely.
After all, just how many of these 2008 offerings are 100% new, never been done before designs? They are just variations on much older themes…. Themes which at their time used what we call now, NOS tubes.
