Outboard D/A converters - advice requested!

If you can find a relatively new (design wise) used DAC at a good price you should be able to improve you're redbook playback substantially.

There is no question that in computer technology such as data conversion, there will always be rapid advances, its just the nature of the beast but, that doesn't mean that if you are happy with what you get now you're going to dislike it tomorrow.

Unless you have a hell of a lot of money staying on the "leading edge of the curve" so to speak us rather unrealistic. Having said that, the quality of DAC chips that are only a few years old are great and, if you by used the depreciation shouldn't really effect you to that great a degree. Just check the price of a brand new MSB with a used one a couple of years old and you'll see how reasonable a price you can pick one up for.

IMHO if you grab a DAC like the MSB with the upsampling board and if possible the upgraded power supply, you should in combo with one of your players very noticeably improve your redbook playback at a sensible cost.

I know that by having a much better DAC in the machine that I have now than the one I used to have has opened up a whole new "Redbook" world for me and stuff that I used to think didn't sound so great in many cases "really shines" now. You'll be able to discover your music all over again and ain't that half the fun?