[SkiFastBadly]

"SkiFastBadly" wrote in message
...
I came across a reasonably priced Adcom GDA 700 DAC. Would taking the
digital feed out of my consumer grade Sony CD player significantly improve
the sound, or would it be a complete waste of money?

I'm running Adcom GTP 450 as a pre-amp, Adcom GFA 5500 as a power amp,
into Klipsch KLH 20 speakers.




Ok, so I got the GDA 700 hooked up to my Sony CD player. I heard a
difference immediately, but then, since I spent the money, I would, wouldn't
I? I sat my wife down, who's no kind of audiophile, and with the CD player
hooked to the pre-amp via the old RCA and through the GDA, switched back and
forth and asked her which sounded better. Source material included the
Rolling Stones "Can't You Hear Me Knocking?", Jayhawks "Stumbling Through
the Dark", and Grateful Dawg "Grateful Dawg (live)", which is the only HDCD
used in the test. In each case, she immediately picked out a difference and
preferred the sound of the signal routed through the external DAC.

Scientific? Probably not, but I'm not a scientist. In MY case, the money
spent for the DAC ($379 on ebay) was worth every penny.