The harshness and compression present on the players by themselves was palatable, but not as good as when played through the Xciter, and the new, remastered CDs were even better. Using the Cary DAC reminded me of the difference between movies that have been shot digitally versus filmed. I started my listening comparisons with some of my original issue 1987 Beatles’ CDs, and with a firm picture of both the OPPO and the Krell, brought the Xciter into play. Initially, I used my vintage Krell KPS 20i player and the more current OPPO BDP-83 player, utilizing the SPDIF outputs of both. I wanted to investigate the Xciter both as a potential upgrade for someone with an existing CD player and the audiophile starting to enter the world of music server or computer playback. The entire system features various cables from MIT. The Xciter spent time in my main reference system, consisting of a McIntosh C2200 preamplifier, MC 275 power amplifier and a pair of MartinLogan CLS speakers. As a photographer, I view the oversampling process as akin to taking an old black-and-white photo, scanning it, processing it in Photoshop, and printing out a copy that is better than the original. Though small in size, the Xciter DAC is a full-featured DAC with RCA and BNC SPDIF inputs, a TOSLINK optical input and a USB input.Īll inputs, regardless of resolution, are upsampled to 32bit/192khz and passed on to the new AKM 4399 32-bit DAC chips along with new output devices from National Semiconductor that were designed specifically for Cary. Part of Cary’s new compact Xciter series of components, consisting of an integrated amplifier (vacuum-tube powered, of course) and a music server, these components are geared towards the desktop user. Around 2000 or so, many high-end CD players started to become single-box components once again, but with the advent of so many people using their computers as a source, the standalone DAC has come full circle. While CD players were single-box components in the beginning, as digital technology ramped up in the ’90s, the transport and DAC became separate components much like the way the phono preamplifier and line stage had become individual parts of your system. According to one of the “inflation calculators” found on the internet, this is equivalent to $2,125 in 2010. This was Sony’s first generation CDP-101 player, which carried an MSRP of $1,000 at its introduction. It seems like only yesterday, I was waiting to get into the Consumer Electronics Show, intent on seeing Sony’s latest development that was going to make my turntable obsolete – the Compact Disc. The true excitement is how far digital has come in almost 30 years. But a quick listen reveals that there is definitely some excitement under the hood. Analog outputs are single-ended RCA only. This polished dial is nicely weighted with a smooth, notchless feel and functions as the input selector. It has a single round dial in the middle of the front panel with a handful of LED indicators for power, input source and digital resolution. It’s a simple, silver or black, 3.5 x 11 x 13 inch box weighing 12 pounds. At first glance, the Cary Xciter doesn’t seem so exciting.
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