Laurence Payne wrote:
On Sat, 30 Apr 2005 02:13:18 GMT, "Mark D. Zacharias"
wrote:

Let me put it this way:

1. Wouldn't you rather have a nice CD player than a piece of crap?
2. Don't you suppose there's at least a chance the better built CD
player might sound better?
3. Don't you suppose a high-quality external DAC might possibly
sound better than the cheapest possible 1-chip DAC section of of the
cheapest built CD players in the world (which is exactly what this
Chinese stuff is, for the most part) ?


Let me put it this way:

You feel that expensive MUST be better.

You have forgotten that CD players, from the cheapest to the most
esoteric, tend to use the same basic mechanism, bought in from the
same supplier.


All ANY D/A converter, built in or otherwise, requires is a reasonably
unsteady unclocked data steam. This thread is about other stuff.
I do not feel that expensive is necessarily better, I never said that. My
antagonist hear feels that the cheapest stuff is as good as the most
expensive stuff. Can you support that viewpoint - that an el cheapo CD
player like the cheapest Chinese stuff would not benefit from a high-quality
external DAC. This is really stretching credulity, and this is not coming
from a "golden ears" type, either. I'm very much of the Arny Krueger mold in
these areas.

Mark Z.