I have been using a Jolida 100 CD player with a pair of Raytheon 12AX7 tubes and been happy with it.  I was going to buy another since it has been discontinued and may be hard to get in the future.  But they came out with the new 6 tube Transport/DAC that peaks my curiosity.  There is only one review (see below link)...I've been waiting for more.  This unit retails for $2300 but I think I could get it for about $1850 vs a used Jolida 100 CDP for $450 to $550 ($900 new).  Has anyone heard the new Jolida Fusion Transport/Dac?  I have also posted an Audiogon ad that has more info on this CDP.  I think I could do better than the Jolida 100....any other players you would suggest?  Mark.

https://app.audiogon.com/listings/da-converters-jolida-fusion-dac-transport-new-...
dual-mono-6-tube-dac-player-2013-10-25-digital-30067

http://www.hifiwigwam.com/jolida-fusion-dac-transport-cd-player/

For that coin I would think there are a lot of contenders ... PS Audio comes to mind, but if you were looking at tube DACs ~ don't forget about the Line Magnetic LM-502CA.

Copied from PitchPerfect's website ...

■Sample rate 32bit, 44.1kHz through 192kHz, displayed on front panel
■Asynchronous technology for ultra-low jitter/distortion
■Top of the line ESS Sabre 9016 DAC
■Tube rectified analog circuits utilizing the 6z4 full wave rectifier tube
■Dual output stages –  Tube (12au7 dual triode) output and Solid-State output stage. Cool!
■Utilizes XMOS USB 2.0 receiving and decoding audio technology for your computer based music source
■Flexible installation with 5 input choices – AES/EBU, BNC, USB, Optical and Coaxial
■Dual transformer design – Toroidal type handles digital circuits and EI for Analogue circuits



Yes ... it's orange

Mark, I'll make two recommendations at two price points.

Want to add this: you and I both listen to a lot of acoustically recorded instrumental music. I have had and heard a number of digital front ends that sounded fantastic with rock and funk and electronica and other non-acoustic material, but sounded not as good with jazz, classical, and other acoustic instrument centric music. This has been the real process for me: finding a digital front end that got these recordings right.

Here are my top recommendations from my own experience.

One: the PS Audio DAC Mk II and Transport. This is such a great unit, transformed my digital listening, I am totally satisfied, have this duo in both of my systems and for the first time don't want to upgrade at all. There is a great deal, half price essentially for both, and I know it's STILL expensive. I really only spend money on equipment and music to pay within the equipment so for me it is totally worth it. Here's the deal page:

http://www.musicdirect.com/p-139699-ps-audio-pwd-perfectwave-dac-mkii-pwt-memory...

The other recommendation is a Denon 100th Anniversary SACD player, the DCD-A100. I really like this player, it excels in both SACD and Redbook, and you can use the excellent DAC within as well with other components such as a DVR or DVD or Blu-ray player. The build quality on this is just incredible for the price. I like it even better than the Sony SCD-XA5400ES I used as my main player for a while (and loved). It has been discontinued, and you just missed out on one that was at a wonderful price from an authorized dealer, I looked and they just sold their last one. But it is worth taking a look about to see if you can find one; they list for 2500 but I got one for 1500 and have seen them at that price over the last year here and there.

Edit to add: Denon also made a 100th anniversary "Universal player" which I also own. It sounds ALMOST as good as the SACD player with SACD and Redbook. Rich detailed sound, the SACD player tops it just slightly. But the Universal Player excels in playing back DVD-A and Blu-ray Audio discs--last night I listened to the new "Pure Audio" Blu-ray Audio disc from Universal of "A Love Supreme" and was floored but he audio quality. On ebay there is one right now at a great price.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Denon-DBP-A100-Blu-ray-player-100th-Anniversary-Edition-...

Mark, with your upcoming equipment, a quality front end is going to be more important than ever.

The PS Audio duo is not at all hard to operate. Connect the transport to the DAC and you have one remote to control them all (and a Power Plant from PS Audio too, which I find quite helpful). There are indeed different filters you can use and different "upsampling" or not to select and different sources you can hook up and that may be rather imposing on paper, but in reality I think like me, with the music we listen to, using the "Auto" for the filters will put you in the best one automatically, and using the "NativeX" setting --- that is no up sampling, it's astonishing how much I prefer this to any of the up sampling settings--- will get you great sound. For the most part you're going to be just hitting play and sitting back and enjoying your music. I don't have mine hooked up to the net, I don't need to see a little picture of what I am listening to or track name etc. And the phase switch comes in handy as well, I have a few recordings that definitely sound better with phase inverted.

I'm as much a Luddite as you if not more. I don't want computers and music to mix. This duo does not present itself as a computer and I don't think of it as one. And the I2S via HDMI connection (with the right HDMI cable) sounds great, better than the coax or optical or the several times I used the USB when a friend tried to get me into computer audio.

Anyway, for Redbook (and in my case my system is an audio / visual one, so for TV and movies and Hi-res PCM digital) the Duo makes great sound, very analog like to my ears, especially when it is well seasoned.

I'd say the DCD-A100 is about as good via SACD, and about 20 percent less good Redbook. (Really hard to assign values like this). The DBP-A100 is about 10 percent less in fidelity than the DCD-A100 in Redbook and SACD, but about 10 percent less in fidelity than the PS Audio Duo in Hi-res PCM (it really shines in that aspect, and since universal players won't output PCM above 48khz due to a copy protection thing, this allows me to get stunning sound from certain DVD, DVD-A and Blu-ray material).

Lon, a 20% improvement with the PS Audio gear seems like a large improvement to me, probably worth the extra dough. I wonder how much longer the half price deal at Music Direct will last...it seems to have been there a long time.  The solution may be to get the PS Audio setup before the deal expires and demo it for the 30 days.  If I don't feel it's worth it, I can get a refund for the cost of shipping the units back.  But I think before I do this I would want the HR-1's in place and broken in....I don't think this will occur until March or April next year.  In the meantime I could try the Denon DCD 100 for $1500 or less, if I could find it...reselling it later if need be.  For me the gear part of audio is a necessary hassle to get to the Music.  Once I get everything in place I'm unlikely to change or upgrade things aside from cabling or isolation tweaks.  Mark.