Onix CD-3 stopped working

[JLM]

I bought this as "B" stock from AV123 a few years back (MSRP $1000 USD, paid way less) to use strictly as a transport in my main rig.  A couple of weeks ago it took the CD, but wouldn't play (just displayed "no disc").  Ribbon connections all tight, blew compressed air all around the transport, no good.

Onix has pulled out of the U.S. and remaining dealers are selling off their stock, thanks to the AV123 debacle.  I've made a couple of inquiries, but not much hope of fixing it at a reasonable price.  Any ideas?

So I pulled an old Oppo out of storage for now and debating going PC (and exactly how) versus another Oppo so that I'd have a 3D option in the house (currently the main rig is audio only).  I'm nearing retirement, had a bad PC audio experience years ago, so again - any advice?

TIA

[rollo]

  The Oppo is a VG transport. The new Oppo is even better and Will give you your3D for video.
   Computer audio IMO is not there yet compared to a good DAC and transport. I am not saying it is bad just one would have to spend a lot more money on computer audio right now to equal our CDP or CDP/DAC combo.
  If you want to investigate computer audio check out the Purist HDR mini and HDR mini DAC at www.ami-hifi.de So far this setup and Steve Nugents line Empirical Audio were the only ones I could live with, maybe.
  Our Aussie Mate Bill has been fooling with the Nugents stuff maybe he will chime in.


charles
SMA

[topround]

I thought the Wavelength Brick Dac sounded great! Very analogue, I heard it twice at two different systems and it was very very good, digital I could live with. (If I had to.)

[richidoo]

Now that you're thinking out loud about using PC for source, I will remind you of the EQ, linear phase, bass boost and room correction possibilities at your fingertips! Still nice to have a drawer though, but you can feed the CD into the PC for processing.

Sorry about your Onix. Tim from East Street Audio brought one to my house last summer, it sounded really nice. The Oppo 95 has the ESS DAC chip in it, my fav.  Might even have remote digital volume control, I think I read something about that recently, but couldn't verify it on the Oppo site.
Rich

[JLM]

rollo,

Couldn't get the ami.hifi.de site to switch to english.  I had tried a modded Squeeze Box 3, but it routinely "glitched" that took days/weeks of fumbling to restore.  The Bolder Cable modded Logitech servers are well respected.

I've yet to find a PC/Mac solution that includes video (let alone 3D), so the Oppo 93/95 look very appealing.  I don't mind feeding discs, and it makes life so much simplier.

rich,

Yes, I feed my single driver speakers directly from the monoblocks, so I need EQ (for baffle step, but also provide a bit of bass boost/room correction).  So the Behringer DEQ2496 is married to my speakers. 

BTW, I had an EE DAC for most of this year and it didn't do any better than my modded Behringer.

[Face]

http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ami-hifi.de%2Findex.php%3Flang%3Den

[bhobba]

Our Aussie Mate Bill has been fooling with the Nugents stuff maybe he will chime in.

Hi Charles and guys.  Steve's USB converter easily bests any other thing I have tried against it - Audiophilleo, Wavelength, Stello, M2tech, Modified M2tech.  A tech out our way has recently come up with a new M2Tech mod and I will pit that against my Off-Ramp using a new PDX I am having built but he is really busy with other stuff and may take a little time.

But overall a group of Audiophiles out my way have investigated computer audio and it easily bests any transport we have been able to get.

Just by way of example myself and a friend was at a comparison of a Wadia transport, a Stello I2S, and a modified M2Tech into a PDX.  We carefully listened to Dianna Krall - A Case Of You.  Via the Wadia the piano was distorted and lacked detail.  The Stello was even worse.  Via the M2Tech the piano was natural and you could easily hear the foot pedals.

Similar comparisons have been done with exactly the same result.  I just had a guy over last night who knew Dianna Krall really well and could not believe how much better she sounded using the M2Tech built into my DAC.

But I also have to say in all fairness there are a few holdouts who prefer a heavily modified Wadia transport.  The vast majority prefer the computer audio though.

Thanks
Bill  

[tmazz]

Time to get rid of this spammer.

[Nick B]

Time to get rid of this spammer.

Yes, another email sent to Jeremy.