Mutec MC-3+ USB

[Antoine]

And BTW while the Mutec beats anything in my setup heard thus far, it is quite ruthless to lesser recordings, I could use a bit of smoothness back (like you described) of course preferably without delivering in on it's positives.

I perfectly agree with you. My purpose was not to criticize the Mutec which I am perfectly happy with, but to elaborate on a competitor, which still is very unknown as he is not ready for export and has no international distribution network.

Furthermore, Acousence could comply with the audiophiles' requests (less industrial look, with only one knob, see picture here (http://www.artistic-fidelity.de/index.php/en/)) and a 'reasonable' price, for someone like me, who is not willing to give-up the flexibility of a computer for a music server. 

I am probably less skilled than you are in DIY matters, and less adventurous too. So I will probably not go the Mutec's 'tuning' way on my own :-)

And I agree with your observations, my computer also isn't going anywhere soon though it might be complemented with a Microrendu.

There's a lot more information on his website since the last time I checked so that's great. If only he would hurry with the German to English translations. Even though I'm Dutch and the Germans are direct neighbours, the German language is too hard for me to understand fully especially when the subject is of a technical nature. I'll keep an eye on it though and try to make the best of it using Google translate for now.

Not in a hurry too and still want to test the Intona in front of the Mutec first, even though 'one and a half' of CA isn't exactly enthousiastic about the combination.

Replacing the PSU of the Mutec is very straightforward (http://www.tirnahifi.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=3653) using an external PSU but of course I understand not for everyone. I might not even go there myself due to the risk, losing warranty and lower resale value.

Did you make up your mind yet on your next step, as in will you buy the AFI/AFIS? Also do you know if the AFIS would hold any advantage over the AFI, except of course the number of inputs?