Your Preferred CD Player

[jazzbo]

Yes it incorporates an imo very good ADC. I now use the balanced XLR output of the phono preamp, but I used to use it with my DAC as at the time that had the best cabling. . . . The sound when routed to and from the DAC is very very close to the analog output I now use. Anyway it is this device, no longer made by PS Audio:

https://www.stereotimes.com/post/ps-audio-nuwavephono-converter/

https://www.aspera-audio.com/pdf/manuals/NuWave-Phono-Converter-Owners-Manual.pdf

Edited Thursday at 10:53 PM by jazzbo

[jazzbo]

On 4/16/2026 at 5:13 PM, Kevin Bresnahan said:

Lon - what do you mean by "I used to use it with my phono preamp which outputs DSD via HDMI into the DAC"? When you say phono preamp, are you talking about your turntable preamp? That would be an A>D to a D>A conversion.

I could see a phono preamp having a DSD output so that you can needle-drop LPs to a DSD file. I use a standalone CD recorder for my needle drops. I would probably use the DSD format if I had this available to me.

Just to be clear: It's not an A>D to a D>A conversion within the phono preamp, it's an A>D conversion for either PCM or DSD (your choice) within the phono preamp, and then output digitally to the DAC and converted to an analog signal there.

Edited 16 hours ago by jazzbo

[Kevin Bresnahan]

13 hours ago, jazzbo said:

Just to be clear: It's not an A>D to a D>A conversion within the phono preamp, it's an A>D conversion for either PCM or DSD (your choice) within the phono preamp, and then output digitally to the DAC and converted to an analog signal there.

But a turntable is already analog. I wouldn't think there would be any benefit to converting it to digital for playback purposes. I could see using that digital output from my turntable to make a digital file for future playback but not when straight-up playing LPs.

[jazzbo]

Okay, you've no direct experience. In actual practice, there was a reason and a benefit, and I could not detect a real sonic deficit. There was better cabling available to use, and I could then use an EQ component after the DAC for both analog and digital components. I found however that using the balanced output of the phono preamp yielded slightly better sound than either the analog output with single-ended or the identical sounding HDMI I2S digital output and I got a Goldpoint 2 XLR into 1 XLR switcher to switch  betwen phono preamp and DAC into that EQ component and discontinued the digital output.

Edited 2 hours ago by jazzbo