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Well, I finally found and implemented a digital front end that I can live with.  I have been so cynical about digital up to now that I have kept and used an old, cheap Sony player (albeit one actually made in Japan...) because up to now it seemed like anything "better" was also lots worse.  Let me explain.

Where to begin with the faults of digital playback?  It has long seemed to me that digital was the worst SS had to offer, with a near lack of harmonics, a disjointed sound spectrum and a time sense that is straight out of the Twilight Zone, not to mention The Devil's own noise.  So far any attempts to get more detail, more extension. better harmonics, etc., have always been accompanied by less sense that I was listening to music.

I heard and liked the Cal Audio 1-box players years ago, but they did not hold up in my esteem, too fuzzy, and all the new stuff that keeps coming out in the way of upsampling, SACD, etc., just seems worse at worst or at best no better. I had heard the Meitner/Museatex Bidat DAC a couple of times and liked it/them, and then I heard an IDAT in a friend's studio, and I felt like I was on to something.

Years passed.  I found and began talking with John Wright, a former associate of Ed Meitner, the original "slippery algorithm", IDAT/Bidat guy who was instrumental in the early going of DAC then eventually moved on and came up with SACD for Sony, etc.   John Wright preferred the original IDAT/Bidat as a platform and he wound up doing maintenance, repair and upgrades on old Meitner Cos. stuff, including Mielor and Museatex.  After some discussion with John I wound up getting an iDAT-44+ off Audiogon. The iDAT-44+ is +/- a very stripped down IDAT that John has worked his magic on.  Many of his "upgrades" include ripping parts out of the original gear (and NOT repalcing them...).

I got a German made Accustic Arts Drive 1 transpot because I don't need upsampling, just something stable that is in sync with the iDAT44+'s 16/44 sampling rate.  The Drive 1 is very simple and built like a tank, and it seems to be a nice transport based on the Philips Pro drive unit.  It also has a very nice remote.  The Drive 1 simply leaves my old bypassed Sony player in the dust; it does everything better-better, meaning it does more parts and also the whole better.  IMO it compares very well with analog.  It's nice to get all the "fidelity" without losing the performance or getting a headache for a change.  I hope I can ignore the Drive 1 the same way I've ignored my Sota TT for almost 20 years.

The "Big Deal" with the iDAT, as I understand it, is the smart algorithm and a totally system-synchronised power supply.  I think that's about it.

The Drive 1/iDAT-44+ combination, along with the old Belkin Synopsis digital cable, gives me what I wanted, namely more and better cues with no downside.  There is more ambience and better "harmonics" (it's still digital...), and perfect pitch, lots of nice little details that organically sugest the performance is right.  Timing is not the same as my TT but it has plenty of motivation and it is credible in its own right; most important, it serves the music very well.  It does a great job with the Music and Arts Furtwangler 1942 Beethoven's 9th, and pretty much everything else, too.

IMO, high-speed reel-to-reel master tape is the Holy Grail of sources, and this is what I used to set up my analog.  Now I have used my analog to set up this digital and it is good; not a "perfect match", but very nice.  In fact, I am presently using the digital bass to help re-dial my tonearm damping and VTA since I messed with them in misguided attempts to compensate for then-undiagnosed effects of bad electricity and bad 6N6P tubes!

The iDAT44+ unit takes a while to break in initially and it also takes 20 minutes to over an hour to get correct each session, at least it does as I use it.  The difference/improvement in the quality of the sound once it is warmed up is astounding, so bear that in mind if you audition one.

John Wright asked me specifically to try the iDAT-44+ with the wall wart PS for a while before I used a battery.  Soon I will post about results with battery powered DAC.

Best regards,
Paul S

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