Thank you everyone for the feedback on this thread. For me it seems to come down to how do I maximize my enjoyment from my system? Central to this is listening to more music and spending less time and energy on what equipment I have and how to tweak out the extra couple percent.
During the past 50+ years I have cycled back and forth between focusing on the music and the equipment. I have always eventually come to the same conclusion, the music is much more important than the system. I have heard a number of very simple inexpensive systems recently that produce almost as much joy for me as my most recent elaborate system. My repeated shifting from listening to music back to what is best theoretically has probably occurred because I have many stresses in my daily life and the pursuit of the best system I can manage has been such a powerful diversion from the stresses of my daily life, that I drift into “acquisition mode” and searching for audio nirvana, only to burn out on buying and obsessing another time, not mention missing listening to music.
So now that I have gone through this cycle once again and am trying to find the proper balance, hopefully for the last time, it seems that the core question is, is streaming digital sound "good enough" for my digital listening or do I try to make my current CD library sound as good as possible and continue to buy CD’s instead of shifting to streaming and vinyl. SACD's are a non-issue for me because I have none and do not plan to buy any even though they can sound incredible. Besides, if I do want some SACD's I can play them on the Oppo BDP 103 connected to an excellent DAC like my Meitner if I buy the Spectral SDR 4000SV, to a tube DAC if do not buy the Spectral.
Unfortunately, my hearing is not what is used to be and has declined considerably since I started my buying spree during the past several years. During the past 6 months, when I started my shift back to Spectral SV products, my hearing has declined so much that at times I cannot hear the left channel, even with the balance is totally to the left. This hearing problem is forcing me to evaluate what is “reasonable” for me to expect at this time in my life from my audio system.
I think that I am quite a seasoned and educated listener, who has repeatedly fallen prey to “audiophilitis” and should go back to basics instead of pursuit of the ideal theoretical system. My recent major rebuild of my analog section has once again reminded that I need a "tube" in my digital signal path because somehow I moved away from what I have valued for years, the analog sound from records and the mixture of SS and tubes. The Spectral SV circuitry is amazing and I am thrilled to have it in both my Spectral DMC 30SV preamp and the Spectral DMC 300RS power amp, but I love, colored or not, the slight tube/analog influence that I had to sacrifice when I sold my tube preamp because it was not compatible with the Spectral DMC 300RS. While adding the Spectral SDR 4000SV would make a full SV signal path from the CD to speaker that would undoubtedly be incredible with the lowest possible noise floor, I fear that I would miss the slight influence of having some tubes in the digital signal path.
The Spectral SDR 4000SV is an incredible piece, possibly the best CD player on the market. I understand that the purist approach at Spectral and with Keith Johnson in particular necessitated designing only for Red Book and that having digital inputs would take away from the design and performance. I just do not want to need two high quality DAC’s to cover my total digital needs. Therefore, in my post-divorce retirement depleted life I will probably go with a combination of improving my core digital signal path by adding a "tube" so that I can get the best of SS (Spectral SV topology) and a bit of the sweetness that I love with tubes. For this reason and my hearing problems, the Spectral SDR 4000SV is a no go for me, although a part of me will always regret this decision.
So now the question is where to put the tubes in the digital chain. It seems that I have only two choices for a reasonable tube addition, a Lampizator or Ayon DAC. I am totally confused about which way to go, but feel a fair amount of internal resistance to going with a Lampizator because I just do not think that the company has found its stride yet and I do not want to deal with tweaking and continually upgrading any more. The only time I have heard a Lampie was quite good, but I was not so overwhelmed that I am willing to continually shift as the product advances. Whereas, the only time I have heard an Ayon product, the Spirit III amp I was so impressed that it burned a spot in my mind.
I have once again made the most basic mistake in audio and gotten too into the equipment and technology and drifted away from the music. I think that this mistake and the combination my current hearing problems this is why I have not been listening as much lately. I should probably just buy an Ayon DAC and try to decide if the Stealth DAC is good enough at $8100 or should I spend an extra $1700 and buy the Stratos, which has a few more features, but is mostly a better version with all hand-picked and matched parts. The other question is should I just keep the Oppo BDP 103 or spend and additional $4700 and buy the tube equipped Ayon CD-T transport? Our should I buy an Ayon CD-3SX (essentially a Stealth DAC and CD-T transport in a player) for $8500, bank the money and be happy with just having "excellent" and not the best?
Probably what I should do is put the Meinter DAC up for sale and see what I get and then decide on the tube CD player, DAC and transport front, although I think that I will probably go with the Ayon Stratos and possibly the $4,500 tubed Ayon CD-T transport because the extra $1700 for their best DAC is not that big a deal and I want to stop buying equipment, listen and focus on increasing my joy from music. The question now is, will my residual tweaky needs will lead me to buy the better DAC transport, although at this time I do not know how much better. Fortunately, USA Tubes a premier Ayon dealer, has a 30 day money back guarantee on all Ayon products
Once again, I would love and value any suggestions.
