Our upcoming new product called the NuWave Phone Converter, or NPC, is really two products in one box: an analog phono preamp and an ADC (Analog to Digital Converter). Recently on the PS Community Forums there's been a lot of talk about which ADC is the best to go with - and there are a few good choices out there - most coming from the pro audio market.
But here's the thing: they have little to no interest in what we sometimes take for granted, high-end audio qualities - qualities that focus on bringing out the life and emotion buried in each recording.
Companies like TASCAM make exceptionally good ADC products packed with plenty of features and options - but I am pretty sure no one on their staff is in to high-end audio - as a consequence they really never pay any attention to what's important to most of us. Lots of technical accomplishments, no one paying attention to the musical end result. In a nutshell, "they got no soul".
On the other hand, companies like Meitner and PS are immersed in both the technical and the high end - so you get the benefit of what the engineers and the Audiophile's strive for - a kit with a soul to it, a piece of gear that conveys the essence of the musical performance - an essence only our ears can attest to.
What's interesting to me about this is not so much that well regarded high-end companies manage to achieve this through hours of commutating back and forth between the listening room and the test bench - but that in the end we make technical changes to give the equipment the ability to convey emotion; emotion embedded in the music itself.
One approach keeps the meters and test equipment happy while the other balances meters and emotions to great advantage.
