Best Bang for your Buck DAC ?

screw the slanted eyed chinks all together and get a Made in America Schiit

we have a real winner here...  exemplary modern day citizen of the world... 💩💩💩

op

$800-1000 is a good cost range to spend for getting very very nice sound from a dac

it is good spot to be on the ’value curve’ for those seeking to maximize performance for $ outlay imho

going up from there further sound improvement certainly exists but becomes rather subtle and nuanced, and would best be appreciated on fairly expensive systems playing its output

don’t forget to get a good streamer too, don’t just run the digital feed out of a computer

it is safe to say this thread has degenerated into the usual random spewing of folks just touting what they have bought or read about, using unfounded superlatives, not having compared a relevant set of legit competing products that would be under consideration if someone really wanted to know

don’t know if op is even reading these replies anymore...

good news is, op is after a relatively cheap dac... so if he/she has the real desire to know, he can try several and see for himself what works well... otherwise we are in the zone of -- ’what is the best bang for buck meal in london?’ ’what is the best bang for buck economy car’? ’what is the best bang for buck espresso grind’? -- leaving aside the idiocy of asking such a subjective question to start with

depends how much you care and how much time effort and $ you are willing to commit to find out - do you want to just be done, or do you have some real ’fomo’?

while all being very good sounding units, the rme adi2 and musical paradise are at opposite ends of the spectrum:

rme is crystal clear, fast sounding, shimmery, slightly mechanical, relatively centralized, flat narrow sound stage -- probably a very honest representation of the digital signal being portrayed

otoh, musical paradise unit is ’enriched’ in the midrange and midbass, slightly rolled on the top and extreme bottom, soundstage ’expanded’ and deepened via tube output stage, more perceived coherence top to bottom

so to use again the very apt analogy by john darko the reviewer -- ’skim milk vs full fat’

schiit gungnir mb is smack in the middle in terms of tonality but with nice imaging (imaging is the rme’s achilles heel imo, not an issue for hp listeners of course)... gungnir issue which led me to move on is there is prominent relay clicking between tracks, if you change source or different bitrates, irritated me

hope this helps those trying to make a choice

@dsper

iirc - last spring when i was playing with the rme (before i sold it to a friend and hp listener), my setup was bluesound node 2i or innuos zen mini 3 as streamers, linestages c-j et5 or carver lightstar passive reference into hegel h20 ss or audio research vt100-2 tube amps driving proac response d30r or harbeth shl5+

on the vinshine page upper right hand corner denotes currency... can be selected... usd or sgd (sing dollars)

I have a Ayre Codex dac. Older and not as current as most mentioned here, but still sounds pretty good.

+1

ayre codex stands up just fine to the latest greatest things in its price range

full bodied, musical, detail presented in a natural way, solid bass foundation and excellent rhythm and timing