My coworker used to manage Dolby Labs sales and rental on the east cost. He has a friend,Renee, who works designing DACs and other things for Mackie. Renee is going to loan me a DAC he built a few years back so I can feed from the digital out through that into my system.

Renee guy worked for Pacific and helped to design the DACs used in high end cd Arcam and other players.

I'm stoked. This DAC sold for $5,000 when new. Today it's yesterday's news - but I'm thinking it is going to rival my vinyl played on a marantz 6300 TT or my B&O 1602.

CDs are kinda funny in their delivery. He's saying that listening to cds is going to be a new experience through this DAC.

I was contemplating sending my Alpha 8 back to Arcam for upgrade to Alpha 9. My gear is racked and I have space and so perhaps I will use the cd player to feed digital to a remote DAC instead.

i think he's right and i cant imagine anyone not being pleased with the sound of a quality separate DAC.