Audio synthesis dax 1994


Good morning
i would like to know of any opinions from owners of this dac , i am able to purchase one second hand but unable to audition as it is located in another state, i have a very limited budget but was led to believe it was a very expensive dac in its day, i know its quite old but have heard mid 90s dacs before that sound very good. Any opinions. i have a audio synthesis passion pre amp thats very nice so what about the dax?
Thanks.
steam3642
I am currently using one, it is better than almost all current ones. See "Colloms Ratings" on the HIFICRITIC web site for his opinion of its current placing. Mine has phase reversal switch which is very handy. The writers at this magazine are of the opinion that design of DACs peaked in the early 90s and that current ones use parts that are designed for other purposes and measure well but sound bad. They prefer NOS [non oversampling] DACs, which are only currently available at the top of the market. It was designed to work without an active preamp and your passion will work well with it, I have one also. Email with any questions. Stan
Does it have the UltraAnalog 20 bits DAC? I owned such unit many years ago and it sounded excellent. Later I went into a Forsell combo that sounded more musical in my system and currently own an ARC CD8.
Hi Stan
This unit also has the phase reversal switch and 3 gold knobs , not sure what dac chip it has UltraAnalog or other?. A Burr brown chip perhaps? i'm really not sure as i cannot have a look inside the unit but i have no doubt it would be quite high class.
Thanks so much for the responses.
Have used one since I built it in kit form in 1994. Recently went through and replaced a lot of the power supply caps and rectifier diodes.
Still sounds good to my ears.
Mine has the Ultra-Analog 20400a dac but the dax was also availlable as a cheaper version with Burr-Brown chips(pcm63 I think).
Mine also has the Ultra -Analog chip and was built from a kit in 1993 but someone else did it for me. Going to get mine updated eventually. Mine has black knobs so it is probably earlier.
Thanks again for all your input.
Was just informed that this unit unit does indeed have the Ultra-analog chip set.
I will also be purchasing a Roksan Attessa Belt drive cd transport with it as this seems to be a quality transport. Any one know or heard the Roksan Attessa transport circa 1994 ? it comes complete with brand new (nos)laser unit as a spare cdm4 i believe.
Cheers.