Well after a few days, I decided to return my DSPre and get a cd6. I might be the first person here to have one, they just started shipping them this week.
My goal is an all audio research system and the main components will be the ref5 and ref75. That's why I shouldn't have ever bought the DSPre. For a source/dac I figured I could save money and get the cd6. I'm using it with my mcintosh c2300 and mc452 and Sasha's.
I definitely like it, but when you look at its features I'm wondering why it costs so much. And wondering if I could have gotten more for the money.
The cd6 is based on the cd9. The only difference is that it has a solid state output vs tubes for the cd9. When I play CDs they sound very, very good. It up samples them to 176.4. But the main reason I wanted this was for its dac. After setting it up, I was surprised to learn that over USB it only upsamples x2. So my ripped CDs only get converted to 88.2 vs 176.4 for physical media. Makes no sense to me, and physical CDs sound superior!
But how much of this difference is in my head, and how much is due to break in? They claim 600(!) hours...I've had it playing for about 6. I am not a big believer in break in, but I hope I'm wrong. It sounds kind of brittle and piercing at times.
Sometimes playing 24/192 files, I get a momentary dropout, too. Might be my Mac mini or network causing that, though. It's intermittent.
Love the build quality, looks, and cd performance though.
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