Defender

Actually this discussion is soo much informative - as much it made me register for computeraudiophile (only to find out I registered years before) It is impressive to have Charles share his ideas and thoughts so open - I already saw him writing at the Hi-Rez Highway discussing with Alex Peychev which I respect as much as him. But Charles brings High End more to the "normal" user. I had a small affaire with computer audio about 3 years ago - bought NAS, ethernet switch and LINN Majik as it was said and "tested" to beat even the best CD/SACD Players out there. Since than I dont buy audio "blind" anymore just because of good tests in newspapers or because people say it sounds good - you have to hear it in your own home/room, in your system with your music. It could not even beat a 10 year old Marantz CD16. Since than I have some resistance to computer audio. But I still like the idea of NAS-Streamer-Stereo System - not so much Computer-USBDAC - Stereo System. I might be just old school but computer and audio shouldnt be in the same room and computer should not directly connected to audio. If you do over usb you have to invest in better power supplies and you might also have to buy a dedicated computer for audio - that adds up to the initial costs. I agree with Charles on the advantages and disadvantages of both systems - but for me the LINN system was easy to set up - it just sounded not as perfect as I hoped. Charles I was looking at the QB9 at that time too but the LINN experience made me not further evaluate it because it was USB and no DSD and I really like the sound of the small bunch of SACD´s I have. Since you seem to think about something streaming - I am really interesting to see/hear that soon because I like your analog audio concepts and your filter approach. One thing makes me wonder with all that PCM vs. DSD discussion. Ed Meitner is a strong believer in 1bit and converts everything to DSD - his MA-1 is a perfect example for a nice sounding product. There is something he must do right. Charles if you get close to the performance of the MA-1 with the new QB9 I will be stupid again and buy it blind - because you have the better output stages ))