Best CD Player for using D200 DAC?

[yabaVR]

I have a DSP based room correction unit with SPDIF and AES/.EBU output , both live
Im using kimber Orchid AES and D60 illuminati for SPDIF

The AES sounds totally different to the SPDIF .. you can just switch inputs to compare

They should sound similar with maybe small differences .. but in this case its huge
the SPDIF is less "airy" , has more impactful bass and the midrange is more prominent , the AES is far more relaxed , has better resolution and deeper bass but loses out on pace..it sounds "slower"
The differences are not subtle and I and others can pick them out instantly
Not sure what I prefer... for pacey music the spdif is better.. but it sounds harsher and harder

Hey Rodney what do you put this down to? The variability of the Devialet inputs? Cables? Or both?

Guillaume

One thing that is different is the symmetry of the contacts. AES is very symmetric but RCA has got much more mass on the (-). We had a discussion here on the binding posts that they are imroving in sound if you get rid of their endparts that are screwed on the post. Actually you can only do this if you use bananas with your speakercables. But the conclusion here was that you loose a lot of mass on the binding posts and that mass actually refered to a lot of eddy currents. Knowing that the binding posts are 3$ cheap crap we can assume that the RCAs are of no better quality.

Next thing that fits to Rodney perceiving the AES being slowly and out of pace is, that the AES physically is sitting on a small circuitboard in company with the binding posts, 90° to the mainboard ( the RCAs are soldered directly on the mainboard near the DSP). So there are some connectors in between the AES-contacts and the DSP where all the inputs lead to in the first place. Connectors are of no good when it comes to signals going through them. They differ strongly in diameter AND material compared to the printed paths on the mainboard, so eddy currents are most likely in this places and that refers to timing-differences in frequencies and let the AES sound off track.

gui