ChrisAZ

Important undoubtedly for what he invented, including some guitar techniques, but top 10 best guitarist?

I've been listening to my new system (see below - Audioquest Carbon USB and Firewire interconnects used) for about 10 days now and it's still breaking in. Haven't tried other USB or Firewire interconnects, and since this is a completely new system that is not broken in I can't give you a meaningful comparison. Plus, I'm still working on speaker placement. While the system sounds great, and improves as time / break-in goes on, I'm guessing that the next step (in the future as cash allows) would be to upgrade the DAC and then the interconnects if necessary (i.e., for example, to Diamonds as discussed above, if there will be a significant sonic upgrade). Otherwise, I'll wait with interest to hear about your results. Chris

Thanks for the thoughts Ed, and that's exactly where I was trying to plug in the XLR's, the balanced analog bypass mode (for music in stereo - both the DAC and the Oppo had stereo XLR outputs for this purpose). You're right, the Classe generally sounds fantastic and I have no problem with the multichannel connections or the XLR connections to the Classe amp - I'm hugely impressed with both and if I want to listen to music in multichannel mode (in addition to movies), I'm covered. Except for this one quirk, which just requires some planning (which I'd apparently neglected), I'd recommend Classe to anyone. It was only in the balanced analog bypass mode that I had this problem and I wanted to use that mode to get the cleanest sound for music playback. After the fact, I did look at the maximum input level specifications for the Classe in balanced analog bypass mode and the maximum output level specification for the Oppo and the DAC, and there was a mismatch (with the maximum output slightly higher than the maximum input). I'm sure that this was the source of the problem - too much gain from the sources - but I thought it odd that there would be this kind of problem with this level of equipment (I also thought it odd that I had to figure this out myself, as opposed to Classe or my dealer). But in the end, it gave me an excuse (perhaps a lame one) to set up a dedicated music system in the family room - so I ended up with the best of both worlds. Chris

Pete: Well that's apparently good news - I may be 75% of the way there without upgrading to Diamond : ) If and when I take the next plunge to the Ayre DAC (my wallet is still recovering from prior credit card meltdowns by purchasing the Ayre Integrated Amp) I'll think about upgrading the interconnects as well.

I also am using the AQ Carbon, but in a much shorter length than you did. I've read about USB cables needing to be used in short lengths - wonder if that could be part of the difference you hear between the Carbon and the Diamond (since you shortened up by quite a bit).

First of all, I've been lurking here for several months and want to thank you all for everything I've learned from this forum and site in setting up my new computer based audio system (outlined in my signature block). I'm in the process of setting it up in my family room now and look forward to getting through the break-in period to really hear it sing! In the process of setting up the new system, I had originally attempted to connect the server/DAC to an older Classe SSP-600 processor (which I had bought used) as part of my home theater set up but ran into some problems with the XLR connections (this happened with both an Oppo BDP95 and the Mac Mini/Musical Fidelity M1DAC on the front end). The sound with both was extremely harsh and distorted. I tried swapping cables, substituting another SSP-600 on loan, calling Classe, working with my dealer, etc., all to no avail. I can only conclude that both sources put out too much gain for the SSP-600 to handle through its balanced XLR inputs. The expensive but ultimately more satisfying solution - move the whole computer music server to a dedicated music setup where I have no such problems (Ayre is built for XLR it seems). Any one else ever have similar problems - I sure couldn't find anything on the internet?