esalway

Thanks to everyone for the responses I have received so far. Given that input, I sense expanding further may be helpful. To which end: 1) I had anticipated needing to buy a computer for the purpose of doing this. Given I could spec that variously to take advantage of the optimal configuration for my partnering equipment, is it worth spending money here initially? Clearly from the purposes of getting started my laptop will work adequately. 2) I am currently using a firewire link between the Purcell and Elgar +, upsampling to DSD. I am not sure how relevant that is, but the assumption seems to have been that I would be using dual AES. This means that the dual AES input on the Elgar+ is currently unutilised. Is it practical to look for a way to output 24/192 over two cables (from a computer); or is this route both old hat and lacking sufficient recorded material to be worthwhile? 3) If indeed a word-clock is still desirable even with async USB, would something like an Apogee Big Ben and a Logitech Transporter (or something current with a clock input) work better than a USB to S/PDIF converter straight from a PC in the near-term? I accept that using more up to date dCS gear may well be the longer-term solution, but I'd like to get my hands dirty tinkering first as I find it the best way to learn. Again, all guidance gratefully received.

I am trying to embrace computer audio in my main system and can get little clarity on the various options from dealers other than to ‘start again’. Hopefully there is someone knowledgeable here who can help. I have a Wadia 7 transport, with late model Elgar plus & Purcell. My main goal is to make my music collection more accessible, rather than seek an improvement in sound per se. I would like not to make it worse however. Initial dealer advice was either buy a full stack dCS Scarlatti, or to replace the whole shooting match with a dedicated streamer. I listened in September of last year to the latest streaming offerings from Linn/Naim. While Linn's Klimax was close to the quality of the Wadia/DCS the rest of the pack were substantially less transparent to the original music. Where equipped with digital outputs (lesser Linn and Naim), these were easily outperformed by the Wadia transport. I cannot afford to buy an entire Scarlatti set-up. David Steven at dCS was helpful but (naturally) inclined to recommend another flavour of dCS product. Still substantial expense, when I believe (hopefully not incorrectly) I have many of the ingredients already in place. Nonetheless, having come to the conclusion that the best interim step is to find a quality digital source to feed the current dCS in parallel to the Wadia, most dealers are unable to help. I had previously considered a Squeezebox Transporter as it had a word-clock input which would give me the ability to enhance the signal with an external word-clock. However, should I deduce asychronous USB made word-clocking redundant for computer audio? I am just after the best way to get music off a computer and into current my dCS dac? I’m really keen to explore the two wire 24/192 route, which has to offer the potential for an improvement in sound. I imagine. All and any advice greatly appreciated. Thanks, Evan.