Thanks, Doc B, for the go ahead. The product is a so-called Turbo DAC, made by Paul Porcelli, who has a day job. Previously he put tubed output stages in CD players, and I met him through buying one of these, which had a nice analogue sound. Then he "found a good chip" (meaningless to me) and came out with the Turbo DAC, which he sells for $295. It needs a transport--I use a Sony ES CD player with Digital Out (not optical)--and a digital cable. I compared it head to head with an Electrocompaniet EMC 1UP, mine upgraded to that current model, which retails for $7,290. I couldn't tell them apart--both were the best CD sound I'd heard. (So I'm struggling to sell the EMC 1UP.) Suitable CD players with nonoptical Digital Out are widely available on eBay, and the digital cable needn't be fancy, so an extremely good CD-playing combo can be put together for well under $500. I can't attach pictures to Forum posts, but email me at
tpatton67@gmail.com and I'll be glad to send some of this Turbo DAC.
