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Hi,Alan. I guess your RME soundcard sounds good because I remember RME DIGI 96/8PST worked very good and in my old PC audio system. It's very interesting you got better result with RME PCIe sound card than with the Fire Wire interface. Do you use Windows 8 consumer preview version? Is it working stable? I installed Jplay 4.3 and stunned with more clarity, details and information coming from even from 44.1Khz sources. Of course I had no fatigue during long time listening. By the way I uploaded a song performed by Mari Amachi in 96/24 wav format here. mari_amachi.wav Please DL and enjoy legendary falsetto vocal if you don't mind.

Alan,your friend in Hong kong is right. I think there's no problem he didn't go to SSD. As far as I know, there's no experimental data or evidence how HDD's movement damages the accuracy of digital signal or sound quality itself. ( because of high frequency noises etc.) I actually feel no difference in sound quality between SSD and HDD. My concerns were reducing physical noises and heat came from my 2.5" HDD. Other benefits from SSD are quicker system boot and shut down, and faster reading out. I think I need to check sound environment of Windows 8. Thanks.

Hi,Alan. Never mind because I also have been busy at work since April. Congrats you finished setting up the DCS trio and Apogee Big Ben. It's easy to imagine they are sounding so great! I guess PSB Synchrony One's 3 bass units are very effective especially in mid-low range. Attached pic shows my new Windows7 music PC. I built it with Intel DH77DF desktop board,Core i5 2500T,8GB DDR3,500GB 2.5"HDD,90W AC power adapter. The PC doesn't have any cooling fans. It has CPU heat sink,heat pipes and radiating fins instead. I'm going to replace the HDD with SSD to achieve 0db(completely quiet) machine. I know some PC audio guys in Japan are already running Voyage MPD. I have no skills of Linux, but I think I should learn about it some day. Anyway, I am happy with bit perfect playback coming from Jplay and Jriver MC17 even in 16/44.1 so far:).

Hi,Alan. I imagine your Elgar plus also works very well. My rubidium master clock was built by a private manufacturer with SYMMETRICOM LPRO unit. I eventually bought it via Yahoo auction in Japan 10 month ago. SYMMETRICOM LPRO 10Mhz unit gives almost the same information,clarity as Trimple Thunderbolt. I feel a little advantage of SYMMETRICOM LPRO at the smoothness in treble,but actually both of them are almost equal. BTW I must say thank you for your suggestion about JPLAY software. I got it and finished setup with Jriver MC17 yesterday.As a trial I played a song by Mari Amachi, a female Japanese singer who dominated hit charts in the early 70's.(You don't know probably, lol) I was shocked and awed because I felt as if she appeared in front of me. Amazing reality especially in vocals and acoustic instruments. Thank you so much again !

Hi,Alan. I am running Trimple Thunderbolt only with DCD-8 and having no problem with clock termination.I'm not sure if I should put terminator on my DCD-8. I believe your dCS Delius sounds so great.Elgar is known as an ideal DAC in Japanese audiophiles. Have a good day!

Hi,Alan. Congrats you have achieved huge improvement with 10MHz input from T.T. I'm very happy to hear that. I think you have realized 10MHz input allows more 3-D like sound stage. As you say, I believe I never feel such a reality from my system without 10MHz input.

alan, I must say thank you for your info about high definition music downloading stores. You have awesome analogue components.I know some Japanese audiophiles rate AR Limited model2 pre amp very highly.But unfortunately AR products are quite rare in Japanese market.So I've never had an opportunity to listen to AR's amps. I guess whichever phono amps you choose,you will not fail to upgrade your analogue system.Currently I am using Audio Technica MC cartridge.I think I should go to DENON's MC next time. By the way when I play 96KHz files from JRiver MC16,the display of Alpha DAC sometimes indicates "88.2".It seems strange because DCD-8 can send up to 96KHz signal with single wired AES connection.Playback is normal whether the display shows 88.2 or 96.

Hi,alan. My cousin belongs to an amateur orchestra as a violinist. I attended to concert of her orchestra yesterday and enjoyed their outstanding performance.They played Mozart Symphony No.41 "Jupiter" and Brahms Serenade No.1, Op.11 very well.The audio environment of the old hall was pretty good.So it was also an interesting experience for me to check how the real instruments sound like. I downloaded 24bit/96KHz files of Mozart Symphony No.41 from itrax.com 1 hour ago.Now I'm listening to them and just amazed at the feeling as if the real instruments I listened yesterday are sounding so strong and smooth right in front of me!

Hi,Alan. As far as I know,no tube DACs have word clock input in Japanese market. All music files in my library are 44.1/16 and I re-sample them to 88.2/24 with JRiver MC16.Because unfortunately, my favorite artists have released no high definition sources.(except The Alan Parsons Project) I have another PC equipped with Lynx AES16.I connected AES16 and Alpha DAC directly to check 192/24 files in "HRx Sampler1" disk came with Alpha DAC.Then I was really amazed at the quality of high definition sources. I don't consider resampling 44.1KHz files to 192KHz so far because 88.2/24 sounds good enough.But I will face the same problem as yours in the future, when high resolution sources are distributed widely in Japan. By the way my ultimate goal is to hear high end analogue(vinyl) sound from digital sources and systems. Thanks.

Hi,alan. Now I'm enjoying playback from 64bit Windows7 PC with JRiver MC16. DCD-8 is working with no problem.Thank you so much for your information! I hope you finish the setting up of Trimple Thunderbolt successfully.

Hi,alan_un. Yes,I have Trimple Thunderbolt. I´m not an electric guy,but setting up was easy because the item I won came with suitable GPS antenna and power suplly. By the way I will be happy if you let me know the version No. of the DCD-8 driver you are running on 64bit Windows 7. My current driver version No. is 3.5.3.8786 and I´m planning to replace my PC´s 32bit with 64bit. Thanks.

Hi,Elysian. I'm using DCD-8 as a firewire audio interface and reclocker for more than 1 year. Recently I replaced CHORD DAC 64Mk2 with Alpha DAC.Now I have similar setup to yours. At first I compared clock accuracy of DCD-8 internal with Lynx L-22's internal. Then I could notice almost no difference between them. As long as using DCD-8 with internal clock,it doesn't work more than a firewire audio interface or a DD converter. 8 month ago,I eventually got Thunderbolt GPS Satellite Master Atomic Clock Receiver from eBay.I connected to put 10MHz clock signal from Thunderbolt to DCD-8. Then I was really amazed at huge improvement in sound stage,and transient. When I change the clock reference on DCD-8 between internal and 10MHz,I can notice the difference clearly. So in my case, my conclusion is DCD-8 proves its merit with 10MHz external clock. Undoubtedly,Alpha DAC has excellent internal clock.But I believe the cleanness(accuracy) of digital signals in the upper stream must have an effect in total sound quality.

Hello everyone! I'm a new member from Tokyo. Right away,let me ask you about following issues. Last week I switched my audio PC's OS from Windows XP to Windows 7. My Lynx L22 worked properly for 3 days with build 17 RC3e beta driver. But 2days ago,after Windows update executed,despite Lynx L22 was detected, it didn't work as a sound device at all. In device manager window,I noticed "!" at left side of the device's name. Besides, I couldn't launch Lynx mixer with the message saying "The device can not be found". Anyone has the same or similar problem on Windows 7?