I have had my Audio Alchemy DDSIII for approximately 5 months. I have been very satisfied with the sound quality. Before this, I owned a Denon 5 disc changer, and an old Mission CD player. When coupled with the Ultra-Dac, it produces great sound. I use it with Theil CS 1.2 speakers, a Krell KAV 300i integrated amp,Audioquest quartz interconects, and VanDenHul speaker wire. The only problem that I have encountered is that I had to have the flat cable replaced, and it was in a local repair shop for one month (as AA is no longer doing repair work). Other than this, I feel that they have delivered a fine piece of eqipment at a very reasonable price. The rating which I have given it is independent of the dependability issue.

I have owned a DDSIII for a year now and even though the sound of this unit is great for the money, it has a reilability problem. The first unit I had ran for a month before flashing "No Disk" at me, and refusing to play, whenever I fed it a disk. The second unit lasted exactly one year befor developing the same problem. Aparently the way they have routed the flat signal cable causes it to be puled whenever the drawer is opened, causing stress to the wire.
So....If you find one in good working order, great! It's a nice sounding product, slightly laid back when used as a transport as well as a stand alone CD player. I have since replaced my transport with the Rotel RDD 980 transport. The Rotel is more open, detailed, and punchy than the DDSIIII, but at times can be a touch bright.
I give the DDSIII 4 stars for sound but 2 stars for reliability.

System:
Adcom 5800 Amp
Audio Research LS15 Pre-amp
Thorens 125 turntable with Sure SME tonearn (I don't know which cartridge)
Audio Alchemy DTI 2.0
Audio Alchemy DDE 3.0
Audio Alchemy DDS III
Klipsch CP1 speakers
Monter Cable Interconnects

As a stand-alone, I believe the AA DDS III sounds very good, especially considering the price. It has "laid back" sound which does not get fatiguing even after extended listening periods. The detail is also pretty damn good (and actually better than 50% of the drives I originally auditioned costing around twice as much).

After adding the DTI 2.0 and DDE 3.0 however, I was shocked at the quality of sound!!!!! I highly, highly recommend this upgrade for anyone who is looking to add a seperate processor to this drive (especially if you do not have un-limited cash flow)!

BT

Associated Equipment:Martin Logan CLS (speakers)
Mark Levinson No. 27 (power amplifier)
Audio Alchemy DDS III (digital transport)
Cardas Golden Hexlink 5c (speaker cable)
Straightwire Maestro II (analog interconnect)

When I had to find something that would provide the signal to my amp so that my speakers could make sound, I was hard
pressed for cash. I could not really buy stuff that was in the same market sector. So, I considered the company that
consistently provided items that had high price to performance ratios. I was pleasantly surprised. It isn't anywhere near the level
of the Levinson gear or the Krell stuff, but there is no such thing as a free lunch! For what I paid for this D/A convertor, I got
far more than I was expecting. I was also able to get a volume control, and remote control and so did not need to spend
money on a pre-amp.

For the price, this is a serious performer. It can perhaps even rival stuff that costs twice to two and a half times as much. Then
there is the path to upgrading by using the I2S bus to connect it to a DDS Pro and a DTI Pro32! I have heard that setup and it
is sheer audio heaven for the monetary outlay. Nothing should sound that good for the money that one needs to invest. AA has
also given customers choices of power supply upgrade and all that. So, if you choose to buy this convertor, you have many,
many upgrade paths to explore.