DAC with volume control

[dallasjustice]

The demo i heard today was with the new Classe Monoblocks and 802 diamonds in a great listening room. Having heard the many excellent reviews of the CP800 I was expecting a state of the art dac. I was disappointed in the sound I heard. It sounded good, but not in league with some of the top DACs I have previously heard. That's why I am questioning whether the CP800 could have benefited from top notch playback software.

 

[rom661]

I would try it. I have to admit that, at home, I'm using an ARC DAC8. When I had the CP-800 at home it was a pre production model and had an issue with the DAC that is now resolved (pun intended). I haven't compared the DAC with my DAC8. The preamp is, I believe, a super solid state pre. I kind of regard the DAC as free since I would pay more than this for the preamp. I really need to use it with Amarra and compare. I can tell you that it seems to prefer native rate; there is a noticeable improvement. When we run the Ayre we set iTunes at 96k. The Classe seemed underwhelming at that setting. We backed off to 44 for the Classe and it was more natural sounding.

 

Rick