I wonder over the merits of adding an outboard DAC to my 5 year-old
Rega player
or just buying a new player.....the Rega was $700, and a decent DAC is
at least $350-$400.....is that money well spent or am I better off
with a current generation one-box player?

The Rega is a fine unit, but I am looking for better resolution now
that I have a Rogue 99 preamp.

I wonder over the merits of adding an outboard DAC to my 5 year-old
Rega player
or just buying a new player.....the Rega was $700, and a decent DAC is
at least $350-$400.....is that money well spent or am I better off
with a current generation one-box player?

The Rega is a fine unit, but I am looking for better resolution now
that I have a Rogue 99 preamp.

An audible difference among CD transports has rarely, if ever, been
shown, so if it is there it is pretty darn small. I don't see anything
wrong with your Rega as a transport.

On the other hand let's not kid ourselves, the audible differences
between any pair of new CD players and/or DACs is vanishingly small and
extremely difficult to prove even exists, because the degree of
standardization in the technology has pushed its reproduction quality to
a performance ceiling. Some would argue (especially in this bunch) that
all properly constructed modern CD players sound effectively identical.
So the scientific consensus says, if you really want to save your
money for something important, buy a $200 Sony CD player. You will
likely find it either sounds the same as the Rega (meaning that the Rega
was already operating at ceiling) or that it is better. My brand new
Sony definitely beats my Marantz CD-67SE, which dates from 1997, for
example. But you will have to try yourself. I don't know if you will
be able to beat the Rega, unless it has some kind of circuit to
purposely degrade the sound to make it warmer (this is commonly done to
please audiophiles).

-Sean

From: Sean Fulop

dentical.
So the scientific consensus says, if you really want to save your
money for something important, buy a $200 Sony CD player. You will
likely find it either sounds the same as the Rega (meaning that the Rega
was already operating at ceiling) or that it is better. My brand new
Sony definitely beats my Marantz CD-67SE, which dates from 1997, for
example.

What $200 Sony player do you have? Does it play SACD?