Hello,
this is my first posting so please excuse my ignorance on this subject. I really appreciate your advice. Thank you in advance.
I am a huge music fan and listen to my system virtually every day.
I am very happy with my system and it has taken a lot of time and effort to put together. It consists of a pair of Avantgarde Duo Omega speakers and custom made valve pre & power amps. The pre-amp is specifically designed for my speakers with a separate line out to the speaker's subwoofers so that the power amps only drive the mid & high freq horns. The power amps are single ended with parallel KT88 output valves similar to the Audiopax Model 88. Output power is 18W.
Recently, I sold my CD player with the intention of replacing it. In the meantime, I became aware of the rapidly developing practice of using a computer server system as a digital source and have become convinced that the CD player has a very limited life span.
I have assembled a music library of around 23,000 songs, most of them 1141kbps/44.1 kHz ripped off my CD collection.This is on my Apple laptop computer via itunes.
I really want to find a solution that matches the performance of a high quality CD player. I appreciate an organic, realistic sound and my system is particularly revealing of a poor source, especially a very 'digitised' sound. I also do not have a lot of spare time to 'tinker' and experiment.
I have a Benchmark DAC1 that I decided to use. It has had some modifications and was always a great value for money performer.
I connected the computer to the DAC1 via an apple wireless router & an optical cable. The sound was terrible. I then connected the computer directly to the DAC via an optical cable and the sound was much better. Despite this, it's no way near the quality that I have experienced with a good CD player.
From what I have read, the Berkeley Audio Alpha DAC sounds like a great DAC and I have found a dealer (in another city) that I can audition. Having said that, over the years I have learned not to totally trust what I read in audiophile publications.
My questions are as follows:
1. What are the reasons that I have been unable to get a good sound with what I have done so far?
2. If I purchase the Alpha DAC, can I use my Apple laptop & itunes? I know I can, but will it produce a great sound? Or do I need a different computer and different software?
3. What do I look for when evaluating music management software?
4. One of the Alpha DAC's apparent advantages are that it can play higher resolution files. Are higher resolution music files available to purchase these days or is it more relevant to the future?
Once again, I appreciate and value your opinion.
Warm regards, George Moraitis.
