100% USA designed & made DAC


I am curious as to what besides Bricasti is a "good" designed and made in America DAC. I am aware of PS Audio as well. It seems like all the accolades are for either Eastern European of far Eastern pieces. Thanks, Allen

backwash

Well, if you count all of North America, there are several great Canadian manufacturers. Bryson and Simaudio come to mind.

I know you asked for made in USA, but if we want to include Canada I am assuming that EMM Labs Meitner DACs are made there.

Cary. Bricasti, Mytek, Benchmark, Audio Mirror, should I keep going?

Does Made in America apply to all the internal parts or just some? What percent do you think should be American made?

@hilde45 great question as I will bet that many are buying their chips from China, or EU. 

@hilde45 From the Schiit website, The vast majority of our parts, on a total cost basis, come from right here in the USA, from companies manufacturing their products in the USA

 

If I recall correctly, anything they can buy from an American company, they do, but there are some things not made here and they have no choice but to buy elsewhere. It's good Schiit.

Most of my gear was American made, Benchmark, KRELL, and CODA. I sold the KRELL and CODA recently but will be buying another KRELL amp soon. It was a coin flip between the CODA #16 and a KRELL XD amp.

I like my Benchmark DAC3B a lot though it is not my best overall DAC. It works the best on a particular tube headphone amp.

The one we manufacturer Vu Jade Audio - hand made USA - best parts - point-to-point wired - 101D direct heated Triode tubes - R2R.

Happy Listening.

 

I love the sound of Schiit Dacs. They have drive…from the Modi Multibit to the Yggdrasil.

Geshelli Labs. Just bought their J2 DAC for my office and it's absolutely fantastic for what they charge.

A US company that doesn't get much love now but their DACs were once on the Recommended List is Wyred4sound.

Geshelli is really top notch. $250 and it blow my mind. I have an Ares II and I considering selling.

+1 for Wyred 4 Sound.

As was mentioned their DACs have received a lot of love over the years and have been on my list of DACs to try. Recently I was able to pick up a used DAC 2 DSDse for ~$900 and have been absolutely loving it. For another $1k I can have it upgraded to the latest specs but for as well as it is working in my system I’m going to keep enjoying it as is for now and spend the money on other upgrades.

Border Patrol was made in Maryland & now in Virginia. Very reasonably priced & imo, sounds like real music. 

Unfortunately our government standard to be labeled Made in USA is only something like 25% of parts made here. Could even be lower these days

I don't typically take the country of origin into consideration as much as I take the company's focus on on quality products and ethical treatment of others.  I have acquired all of audio gear from a audio retailer - the largest store being Tweeters in the 80s.

Made in America is nice and a local audio store that services warranty and has a trade-in program I value more than country of origin.  That's my approach - and growing up 10 miles from Canada and half the family being Canadian I tend to lump 'North America' companies as American. 

I've owned a variety of manufactures including US (McIntosh, Parasound); Canadian (Bluesound, Mirage, Moon, NAD), UK (Rega), German (Dual), Italy (Sonus faber), Japan (Denon, Yamaha).  And I've bough all my equipment through local audio retailer.  

 

I am surprised that only one mention for MSB. 
 

MSB designed produced in house in the USA. 
 

my system is all made in the USA

Rockport Technologies

Dan D’Agostino 

Transparent

JL Audio

 

 

Carlsbad,

the Wyred4Sound 10th anniversary dac is phenomenal sounding, one of the reviewers put it up against his VPI turntable with a $5,000 Japanese cartridge and he said it was every bit as analog sounding and I bought one and I have to totally agree most analog sounding DAC that I've had in my system and it's only $4,500 US and it beat up on a lot of more expensive dacs in testing.

Mojo Audio. Lots of direction changes the last few years but it looks like that is settled now and the Mystique X emerges. 

@mrskeptic Yes, they're quite the company in this regard. But most other companies are not, and most people are not asking about internal parts. Ideology quickly runs into the brick wall of practicality or is revealed as a surface-level preference.

I doubt there’s any American designed and built DAC that has all American parts in it.  Just like GM is an American company, but it’s vehicles are built from parts from all over the world and they are assembled in several places outside of the US. Ford and Tesla, same story. It’s pretty much the way of the world of business these days.
Check out Airbus sometime. It’s fascinating how their supply line works!

I second the Schiit recommendations.  I just upgraded my Bifrost 2 to the 2/64 version and it made an improvement in clarity and imaging with my Fyne F702 speakers, Rogue Audio RP-7 preamp, and Benchmark AHB2 amp … well worth the $100 increase in price for a new model.  Of course, there are other, more expensive options made in the USA, as others have said, but Schiit does make good Schiit, right here in the USA.

Sorry have to disagree regarding Schitt, it is just ok but compared to many others it is very flat and 2 dimensional sounding IMO. 

Adding to my post yesterday, 10+ years ago I helped a friend build a Harley Knuckle Head from the ground up. All the new parts in HD boxes said MADE IN CHINA

The BorderPatrol DAC SE and SE-I models are 100% hand built in USA by an Englishman Gary Dews with the latest models built with Jupiter caps. I use one for streaming but an Audio Note Dac for my main system.

@rsf507 +1

My experience as well.  "very flat" it never caused me to become "part of the music" just my 2 cents, but that's it.

Regards,

barts

This thread is a good reminder that no matter how widely well-regarded a brand is there will always be those who have a dissenting opinion.