TOPIC:

Hope the community can help me out. At the moment I have 3 2x4HD's for 5.1. I am considering upgrading the front stereo channels (80% of my listening) to the SHD.

However, I am not going to use any of the streaming features. My main interest is (1) having the additional digital input (coax) because optimally I can use both toslink and SPDIF, (2) convenience - the nice front panel display/control, and (3) better ADC/DAC's and DSP hardware. Secondarily I would of course experiment with Dirac, though I'm quite happy with my result using REW measurements.

I have read that the measured quality of the SHD hardware is significantly superior to that of the 2x4HD; subjective reports of whether this is reflected audibly seem to be ambivalent. Some say yes, some no. I thought now that some time has passed there might be a consensus on that question.

My system is a Puffin phono pre via 96/24 toslink, an Oppo 105D connected to analog (I'd like to connect the Oppo via coax as well for CD playback to skip the ADC), and a computer playing/recording via USB.

Thanks for any thoughts on this.