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$5k-$6K DACs w Roon?

Hi Everyone,
I've been a happy user of a Mytek Brooklyn but now that my room is coming together and my room acoustics are on order I'm thinking of a fancier DAC.  My requirements are relatively simple.  Should have USB but preferably Roon player capabilities.

Brands I have been thinking about:
  • Brekeley (Too cool?, no built in USB)
  • Bricasti (never heard it)
  • Mytek Manhattan II (discontinued?)
  • exaSound
Brands I just don't like:  PS, Chord, Benchmark.  No particular reasons to dislike them, just not interested in shopping that way.

Thoughts?
erik_squires

Showing 1 response by yyzsantabarbara

yyzsantabarbara
4,444 posts
 
The new Gustard X26 Pro is a phenomenal performer. I think it is very low cost at $1500 (on sale for $1300) I have it and it replaced my Benchmark DAC3B in the office system. I moved the DAC3B to the living room. I stream into the Gustard with a Sonore OpticalRendu since the Gustard does not do native streaming.

RJ45 streaming and non-fibre optical streaming is second tier for me. I spent some time doing tests with 3 different streaming options, RJ45, microRendu, and fibre. It was so easy to hear the improvement with fibre optical. So that adds another $1200-$1500 for ROON READY fibre streaming.

I was thinking of getting the AudioByte stack (son of Rockna) but I think I like to save my money with the Gustard.
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