Ok, this one's going to get the purists turning purple, but here goes...

Have just plugged my now-retired Arcam Black Box 50 into the PC
(Creative MP3 Blaster USB external sound card set to digital only mode,
hence no resampling) and compared between MP3, CDs played straight
through the internal DAC of a Technics SL-PG390 and CDs played through
the BB50.

MP3 played through the Black Box sounds considerably better than
straight through the Technics player. Using the CD player as a transport
results in a barely noticeable increase in detail through the current
setup (Chord Cobra II interconnects, Technics SU-VX500 amp on power-amp
direct input, Eltax Symphony 6 speakers, bi-wired with Gale XL-189
cable). So I'm guessing that a lot of the "MP3 sounds crap" opinions are
based on the generally dire analogue sections on most PC sound cards.

MP3s encoded at 160-320 VBR with latest version of LAME, on anal quality
settings.

At some point I'm going to plug the laptop into the Arcam AVR-250
upstairs (its internal DAC is noticably better than the BB50, probably
due to several years advance in technology) and have a listen through
that (Mordaunt-Short Avant 908/905C speakers, Audio Innovations Silver
bi-wire cable) and see how it sounds compared to CD on that system.

And deviating slightly, I've also noticed on the main system (the one
with the AVR-250) that the DVD player sounds better than the CD player
when used as a transport (both using Toslink at present until I get
around to making up a 75ohm MIL-spec digital interconnect). I'm guessing
this is due to the jitter reduction in the DVD player (Toshiba SD-530),
but still quite surprising given the fairly dire performance of DVD
players on CDs in general. Anyone have any comments?

--
Glenn Richards Tel: (01453) 845735
Squirrel Solutions http://www.squirrelsolutions.co.uk/

IT consultancy, hardware and software support, broadband installation