True: we're in the age of iPods and compressed audio. But there still remains a healthy market of those who appreciate the ability to hear a song reproduced exactly how the artist intended. That's where devices like the Arcam rDAC digital-to-analog converter come in.

People refer to the ‘70s as the golden age of audio because that's when the goal was to reproduce the original music event as truthfully as possible. For true audiophiles (who were a lot easier to find back then), the only question was, does this cable, component, phono cartridge, or speaker arrangement make the system sound more real? Components were on proudly on display, not hidden away; and if the speakers sounded best where interior decorators were most likely to tear their hair out, that's where they would end up (which helps explain why hats were more fashionable back then). If a manual turntable sounded better than an auto-stacker, the latter would be swapped for a model that had you jumping at the end of every 25-minute LP side to save the $700 stylus on the moving coil cartridge unnecessary wear and tear. We think of the golden age as being behind us not because today's best equipment is sonically inferior, but because today's listeners tend to make decisions based on matters of convenience and aesthetics over absolute sound quality...

Read the full hands-on review at http://www.marketnews.ca/Hands-onReviews/Hands-onReview:ARCAMsrDAC.html

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