Greetings!

I just received two of my players with the digital output board, installed by Stuart directly. I have not had time to really do anything with them yet - I am in the office and I do not have the time or power connectors to hook them up, or anything with digital inputs to test with. But some initial thoughts...

The physical installation, the only thing I can comment on at the moment, is superb! The finish and fitting is better than I could have hoped for. A very clean installation, and secure / solid connectors. Nice and sturdy. I can't wait to try it out, and give more detailed input.

Watch this space (or my install page) for further updates as I get time to play.

Day 2:

Well, I was able to play around with the player.

WOW.

I do not have any equipment that has a digital input at home. (I wanted the digital out for expansion capability as I grow my home system.) At least, nothing that would showcase the power of the unit. So I tested out the analog side on one player, while a friend from work (who is also on the board and has a player of his own) tried out the digital side of another on his (far superior) system.

On the analog side, I did not notice anything. This is a good thing - no noise, no problems, no static. Clean. Not a problem at all.

On the digital side, I was told that the performance was spectacular! The signal strength was much stronger than the analog side (I would kind of expect that, since his digital amp is doing the boosting), but he said that the clarity and quality of the audio was, to quote, "almost like listening to the difference between tape and CD". He especially liked the tightness of the bass compared to the analog side.

This is the same person who recommended the parts I used for the car install. (This was my first, non-stock car stereo installation.) I trust his judgement with audio and he was extremely impressed with the digital out card. Stuart: you might be seeing an order from him in the near future...

I hope to get some photos soon.

With initial opinions like that... anyone know of a good quality in-dash CD receiver with digital inputs?

I don't know of any, but I'm also not sure you would really want it. Those headunits are so crammed with components, I don't think there's room to do a proper DAC stage. The Empeg's is probably as good as you'll get in a built in DAC circuit. Your best bet is to go with an external DAC and run it's analog outputs into an external amplifier. Zapco makes a converter, theDAII-SL, priced at about $700. It's design is a bit dated, but hopefully somebody will take care of that...

Stu

In reply to:

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anyone know of a good quality in-dash CD receiver with digital inputs?

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Well, you've got to find one with a better DAC than the empeg, and car speakers that let you hear the difference. The people who are really going to get milage out of the digital output board are people who have dropped a lot of money on a very good home sterep amp with digital inputs, and a set of very expensive speakers. Some compaines (Alpine?) were coming out with car audio amps with digital inputs, and that might help in car SQ, especially if you have ground loop issues.

Matthew