I've greatly enjoyed persuing people's Virtual Systems and looking at their cool pictures. I've had a system posted for about a year that has changed considerbaly since then, and never had any attached images. There's a good reason for that. I'm ashamed of my listening room. It's messy beyond belief, and some would consider unfit for high end audio.
Incredibly, I'm very happy with the results of my efforts. The room is approximately 12 x 14 feet, but has tons and tons of cabinets, desks and equipment. My 2-channel set up shares space with an HT seup, two computer stations, wall mounted bookcases, dressers and a bed.
I decided to post photos because some of you may want to see what that goofy Gunbei guy has at home. Well, if you look carefully you might notice a bathroom behind the left ProAc and a walk-in closet behing the right one. I have photos that better illustrate this, but I'm too shy to show them.
I promise, one day I will get this room together and pictures of a real system like the rest of you. But I've spent buying equipment and tuning my system to work in this bedroom/storage space, so I'm afraid if I clean it up the sonics will change completely.
I too had AZ SC (Satori) and switched to Au24. I agree that the Au24 IC's are very good, but not quite the home run the SC seems to be - funny, since it's the same damn stuff!. (FWIW, on the IC front I left HT PSII and settled on vdH The First and The Second.) Other similarities: I still have my Pearl, I got a Porter Port, and my listening room is alas also messy :-)
The various outputs beyond RCA on the Pearl seem to have been extra-cost options (the most expensive one being the ATT glass optical, which mine doesn't have, nor does my Basic) - if the AES/EBU out is covered with a plastic plug, than I guess Theta would have to convert the unit. You might ask them what it costs, but it also may not be worth the bother unless your DAC, like the Basic, employs balanced dual-differential decoding architecture. I also can't be sure what part of the improvement I heard switching to XLR was due strictly to the balanced connection, because the RCA cable I had been running was a Cardas Lightning, not the same cable I'm using now. But the difference *was* greater than I had experienced before, switching among a few single-ended types. I would broadly characterize the improvement in my case as having been a more natural, easeful presentation across the board, with less 'electronic' texturing, fuller bass, freer dynamics, and rounder, more tactile images - clearly superior to any single-ended connection I had tried.
BTW, adding a DIP allows you to obtain a balanced digital signal as well, which is actually how I'm actually running things now (current '24/96' version). The DIP only accepts RCA or Toslink inputs, but reclocks the signal (as well as electrically decoupling it via transformer-coupled I/O) and provides XLR (and RCA) outputs, along with jitter-reduction of course. This might be just as cheap a way to go, but not everyone likes the sound of the DIP. I do, but it's a different kind of change on top of the AES/EBU change - it increases clarity and transient precision, which some have found to be akin to adding brightness, though to me it just sounds cleaner and a bit more extended and present.
"Gunbei Damn It!" - funny! :-) Can't get the pix either...are you sure you really overcame your embarrassment? ;^)
Besides my also having a messy listening room, I've got the Pearl transport in common with you. Mine has the balanced XLR output though - if your DAC can accept it, this does sound better in my experience (it took me over a year to get around to trying this, then I wondered why I ever resisted). For the record, I've preferred it plugged in with a Harmonic Tech Pro AC 11 (it's feeding a DSPro Basic IIIa, through HT CyberLink Platinum and a Monarchy DIP, as well as getting balanced AC from a Power Wedge Ultra, which does make a difference). I've gotten so used to this Stable Platter transport that now I frequently try to load CD's upside-down no matter where I am (and it's also the only piece of gear I've owned where the display-off switch has had a bit of discernable benefit). Have you done any experiments with supports for yours?
