What cable? Memory fades this time of night.
Getting back on topic, my experience is the PST with well recorded discs out performs my Auralic Aries G2 but the Auralic is very close IMO. Factor in the I don’t have to leave my seat factor and I chose the Auralic! BTW what @aangen says about the Gryphon Ethos is not just fanboy talk. The Ethos has to be the best digital source on the planet! I don’t know the Gryphon secret but at its price it’s a bargain. Yea I said a $39k CD/DAC is a bargain. It would be worth that for the DAC alone IMO.
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I use the Audioquest Hurricane. Not the highest of high end power cables but for the money (via Nick’s discount) it’s the sweet spot of the Audioquest line.
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Would you mind being a little more specific, w/r/t impact and your eventual PC of choice?
TIA.
I was using the Audioquest Hurricane on my P10. Originally I was using AQ Thunder. When I went from Thunder to Hurricane everything connected to the P10 improved as far as greater soundstage presence, vocals are clearer. If I had $1500 now to upgrade again I’d go with @Duncan_Taylor Whisper cable. From what I’ve heard and read it will be a game changer for the P10. I no longer have the P10 so I will soon post about that in the “my next upgrade thread”
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Figure red book CDs at 750Mb,
I’ll leave the math to you😉
I am always surprised how good red book sounds and I would love to hear the highly praised Gryphon Ethos. I currently bought a Project rs2t with it’s linear power supply. This transport of course is much more affordable but specially in combination with the Tambaqui it might be a nice combo to compare against the Ethos. Sound like great fun to me…
After the munich show I will start something with roon, but till now CD has raised the bar very high.
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Did you try different positions for the Pink Faun isolator? Plugging it at the start (wall RJ45 or computer or where possible) vs plugging it (as you do) at the end (DS DAC) of the path.
Are there recommendations or suggestions from other experienced user?
Good suggestions… I have not. So far, it has only been plugged into the Bridge II Ethernet card. Since I have the TPLink media converters and GigaFOIL upstream of the Bridge already I figured having it be the last defensive moat made the most sense. 
Trying it in other locations is on my list, as is buying one or two more if I find it makes a difference at different junctures of the digital stream. (By the way, my computer is separated from the Hi-Fi rig, in that it serves as my renderer over Wi-Fi.)
Ciao.
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I would like to add that my speakers are Focal Kanta 2s so obviously keeping in the 10/90 and 90/10 rule of diminishing returns I am focusing on a streamer close to the Zen Mk3 or an entry level Lumin. I have considered upgrading the SGCD to a DirectStream or comparable DAC keeping the M700s powering the Focals if a better DAC will get my streamer on par with the beloved silver discs. Hope the additional color helps till I reach @aangen status!
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I have mentioned this on more than one occasion: Save your pennies and buy a used DS Sr. DAC at your earliest convenience. If you are in the market for a DAC anywhere near this price range, I think they are truly hard to beat and represent a tremendous bang for the buck.
The DS Sr. is one of the two or three most important additions I have ever made to my system. It really is that good of a source.
One man’s opinion/experience…
FWIW.
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And I appreciate your opinion, that’s some of the benefits of a forum when like minded well intentioned people share theirs experiences and recommendations.
I, too, use the M700 & Kanta 2 combination. Super enjoyable and comfortably demonstrated the difference between Qutest/Allergi+ preamp and TT2 performing both duties, all fed from the Zen MK3. I dare say you’d enjoy either streamer from the sound perspective. Either are comfortably superior to the Bluesound, it just depends on how important UI is to you, and any chances you get to compare the units. They both look the goods, too. Innuos arty, Lumin space age.
Have fun deciding!
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Great to hear that! Sounds like we are (or might be) running parallel systems.
On considering the streaming vs cd issue, it’s worthwhile to consider the quality of the recordings. To quote Kevin from Musica Pristina ( maker of the A Capella III streamer ):
“There are tons of bad recordings. In fact, I’m pretty sure most recordings I’ve ever heard fall in this category. Compression / loudness is a huge culprit. Bad mic’ing / miking. Poor quality analog recording equipment. An overzealous recording engineer. The list goes on and on.”
That goes for LPs, Cds and streaming. I have SACDs that are terrible and of course, CDs and LPs too. The great advantage to streaming is that I can determine the quality of the recording without having to buy it, and there are excellent streamed recordings out there.
So this long term analog bigot is building a nice collection of streamed albums that I was able to hear before saving. Plus, the amount of material out there is simply staggering! (I use Qobuz and Roon)
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I viewed this question as if I rip a red book CD and save to local storage and “stream” to my system, is that better/worse/same as playing CD in a really good CD player?
I dont really have a top end CD player. Oppo is best I got. I would not say its a streamer killer. I am not sure how a quality Streamer would be much different if diff at all, from a good CD player. But I dont have both to compare.
Recordings are what they are. And I know the streaming doubters always say you doint know what version is in the cloud etc… compressed etc… MQA does not help the discussion either for Tidal.
With my Gryphon Ethos playing the CD sounds noticeably better than playing the correctly ripped file. It should not as the both output to the same DAC. But I am convinced it does sound better spinning the disc.
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What’s different about the device chain?
I find your experience and comment quite interesting, and would like to understand some of the details.
Srajan cracks me up. It’s as if he’s writing about mythical creatures in a mystical universe. I’m not always informed, but nearly always amused.
The Gryphon Ethos is a very high end CD Transport and DAC. The CD transport has a very high end CD reader while the DAC portion is just as good as it gets IMHO. The CD Transport connects internally to the DAC and finds a way to dig out much better sound than any other transport I have experienced. My Streamer is a Grimm MU1 and also bests any other server or streamer I have encountered. What Gryphon has done to get so much more out of a Redbook CD is a mystery to me. But listening to a CD is way better than it has ever been before. I trust my ears.
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