I ordered this just over a week ago and just in time it seems. I paid £105 and the latest price has gone up to £126 (dollar/pound exchange taken its toll.)
Luckily the latest shipment to Russ Andrews were all dark grey anodised versions and not the ones with bright red faceplates so I don't need to hide it now
I have had about an hour playing a mixture of lossless iTunes ripped CD files, iTunes+ (256kbps) tracks and BBC internet radio via BBC iPlayer (Suzi Quatro's BBC2 show) and I am bowled over by this little box. It is USB only (16bit 44.1khz - 48khz) but that is OK because my laptop does not have any provision for optical connection.
It is genuinely plug-and-play and I only need to switch on the Fubar for it to know it is the default soundcard. This means the laptop's own soundcard has no bearing on the sound at all. (Thank goodness.)
My only regret is not buying the upgraded Firestone Audio dedicated power supply as well (when they were about £85 last week) but I will bite the bullet and order one of those too.
Never mind. The sound is so good (for £105) with iTunes lossless files that I can now happily continue to rip many more of my favourite CDs and tracks safe in the knowledge that they sound as good as my Solo-Mini CD player. Internet radio sounds fine and iTunes+ tracks sound far better than I ever expected them too.
I have wanted the excuse to (eventually) put my CDs in storage in the loft and now I have it.
The Fubar can (obviously) be bettered but that can wait until my Solo-Mini is eventually upgraded to seperate amp/tuner and my laptop upgraded to something with an optical output to make better use of a higher quality DAC one day. I don't have to buy another CD player ever again which is a lovely thought.
I had my doubts whether the Fubar II would be enough to prove the principle and it is. With a dedicated power-supply box ('The Supplier') it should sound even better.
I am now off out to get a good 5 metre USB and a 0.5 metre Chord Crimson RCA phono cable. (The Fubar came with 2metre USB and 2 metre RCA cables - which was nice but not exactly right for my set-up.)
Luckily the latest shipment to Russ Andrews were all dark grey anodised versions and not the ones with bright red faceplates so I don't need to hide it now
I have had about an hour playing a mixture of lossless iTunes ripped CD files, iTunes+ (256kbps) tracks and BBC internet radio via BBC iPlayer (Suzi Quatro's BBC2 show) and I am bowled over by this little box. It is USB only (16bit 44.1khz - 48khz) but that is OK because my laptop does not have any provision for optical connection.
It is genuinely plug-and-play and I only need to switch on the Fubar for it to know it is the default soundcard. This means the laptop's own soundcard has no bearing on the sound at all. (Thank goodness.)
My only regret is not buying the upgraded Firestone Audio dedicated power supply as well (when they were about £85 last week) but I will bite the bullet and order one of those too.
Never mind. The sound is so good (for £105) with iTunes lossless files that I can now happily continue to rip many more of my favourite CDs and tracks safe in the knowledge that they sound as good as my Solo-Mini CD player. Internet radio sounds fine and iTunes+ tracks sound far better than I ever expected them too.
I have wanted the excuse to (eventually) put my CDs in storage in the loft and now I have it.
The Fubar can (obviously) be bettered but that can wait until my Solo-Mini is eventually upgraded to seperate amp/tuner and my laptop upgraded to something with an optical output to make better use of a higher quality DAC one day. I don't have to buy another CD player ever again which is a lovely thought.
I had my doubts whether the Fubar II would be enough to prove the principle and it is. With a dedicated power-supply box ('The Supplier') it should sound even better.
I am now off out to get a good 5 metre USB and a 0.5 metre Chord Crimson RCA phono cable. (The Fubar came with 2metre USB and 2 metre RCA cables - which was nice but not exactly right for my set-up.)
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