The MOON Neo 280D and the MiND of （月亮Neo 280 d和心灵的）.pdf

The MOON Neo 280D and the MiND of Simaudio Shine on you crazy diamond - by Pink Floyd First of all, I should say that I like the Simaudio MOON Neo 280D ($2200) very much and that, with the optional MiND module, it provides for a one-box media server solution, WiFi support, DSD256- capable DAC, and all. Having said that, I did run into a few bumps that I never encountered with the Aurender N100H, and I do think that the USB input on the Ayre DX-5 DSD A/V engine sounds a bit more open even in the context of a lesser system. However, to be fair to the 280D, it costs about the same as the Aurender N100H alone, pretty much even with the MiND module that connects to your LAN, and the DX-5 DSD adds an additional $10,000 to the original retail price, not mention about $1000 for the Stealth USB cable I put between the N100H and the DX-5 DSD. I did run in the 280D with an 11 MacBook Air, putting iTunes on repeat for about two weeks, and using the much less costly (and no longer made) Locus Design Polestar USB cable, because I knew the Polestar would add little coloration of its own. I need to make it very clear that the 280D always performed very admirably and, if not for the existence of the Aurender N10—which could contain my entire CD library and then some as well as provide TIDAL support via S/PDIF for my Audio Note DAC 4.1x Balanced Signature—I probably would have asked to keep the 280D and made it part of my main system. It sounded that musical. However, I can only put so many things on my supplemental Quadraspire SVT stand, I was already using a very long DH Labs Silver Sonic Power Plus AC cable and a second-hand Chang Lightspeed CLS-505 to supply power to the SVT stand (bypassing my main Equi=Tech balanced transformer in the process), and I had a Nakamichi CR-3A three-head cassette deck on the way because I am kind of into tape, which is another story. Because my cable modem is very far from my main system and I wanted gigabit Ethernet goin