Santa arrived unexpectedly early last night, bringing me the Denafrips Avatar CD transport, a component with mythical - no unicorn status, due to its scarcity/rarity over the past six months. Since selling my Teac P70VU transport eight years ago after acquiring the Aurender W20 music server, I confess I hadn't played a CD "properly", and upon hearing the heavenly music played by this humble-looking (and priced) transport, my auditory senses have been reawakened by the reality that real-time CD playback through a well-designed transport, in this case sporting cutting edge technology from 2019/2020, beats any "full resolution" streamed digital source from TIDAL, as well as the same file ripped via DBpoweramp to ALAC/FLAC and stored on the Aurender's HD.
I'm currently using Stealth's Sextet AES/EBU cable (vintage 2001?) to connect the Avatar with my MSB Select II's matching input module. I have yet to connect the clock link, as I can't seem to find my twin BNC data cable, but the sonic performance is already quite extraordinary.
Denafrips is an increasingly popular and successful Chinese audio company whose products are making huge splashes across the global audiophile community, distinguished for their build, design, execution, and excellent cost/performance ratio. Accordingly, I believe that each one of Denafrip's flagship products deserves its own unique thread because there will be plenty to discuss in coming years, as these products evolve.
I'm currently using Stealth's Sextet AES/EBU cable (vintage 2001?) to connect the Avatar with my MSB Select II's matching input module. I have yet to connect the clock link, as I can't seem to find my twin BNC data cable, but the sonic performance is already quite extraordinary.
Denafrips is an increasingly popular and successful Chinese audio company whose products are making huge splashes across the global audiophile community, distinguished for their build, design, execution, and excellent cost/performance ratio. Accordingly, I believe that each one of Denafrip's flagship products deserves its own unique thread because there will be plenty to discuss in coming years, as these products evolve.
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