Scott Nixon USBTD vs Wavelength Brick

Wow! I didn't think this thread would yield this much information. Morris, your right about us being in the same boat, as I did not want to spend too much on a usb dac if the hi-rez formats would out perform it. Nice to know that the Crimson can compare to sacd/dvda.

Guys, I was in the same exact boat as you both, not wanting to spend a mint on this stuff and just simply not knowing how the pricier stuff would sound. I have to say I am glad I went with Wavelength for more than just the sound. Gordon is awesome, his products are simply incredible. It's up to you what you do, and whatever that is it won't be a 'bad' decision. But I can tell you with the utmost of confidence that you will not be disappointed with ANY of Gordon's products set up to proper spec. They are ground-breaking and sound perfect.

Jc51373, I hope you didn't sell your Brick yet, I am very interested in your impressions on how it compares to the Cosecant.

Steve, you say you prefer the Crimson to hi-rez, was this also the case when you had the Cosecant? I have a few albums in both redbook and sacd/dvda and the hi-rez discs win hands down in everything, so it's hard for me to fathom that redbook could sound as good, thanks.

I will let you know how it compares...What is the rest of your system like? If you like upsampling, which can sound good, then you should look into something that can play those. I personally think those formats are a waste of time. Not to mention the proper presentation of any music performance is not in surround sound like DVD-A. Most music I have listened to comes from the front, maybe not out of two channels but from the front, and if you have a system dynamic enough to image you will hear what you should.

The Crimson has really changed the playback landscape for me. The tridoe tubes present the most beautiful midrange I have ever heard in digital. SACD and DVD-A for me are just not as musically statisfying as listening to CDs ripped to my MacBook Pro hard drive. And yes, I preferred the Crimson to high-rez on my system. Naturally, this could be more of a comment on my hardware than the formats.

I have given up on SACD and DVD-A given the lack of support of the big labels. This is a personal thing and not a comment on high-rez.

For now, the quality of the sound, and the ability to access hundreds of CDs on the computer has sold me on computer server audio.