DAC Suggestions Please

T
We are in the Golden Age of used audio, you have so many choices of top quality gear ....

I say this b/c I ended up selling my Oppo 95 b/c it really was the jack of all trades, doing many things well, but nothing great. And when I tested the transport quality of the Oppo vs my SimAudio CD Player (Equinox SE) .... the Sim completely outshone it in every way. In other words, not all digital transports are created equal. It was night and day.

I think you should keep the Oppo 205, and if you are going to keep it, invest in a good digital transport cable, like a SPDIF RCA. Try to stay away from USB, they have inherently too much noise. the only reason we use them now is b/c the audio industry pushed it on us.

I like the Schitt recs above, but you should know that you do not need to get the Multibit options. If you are spinning redbook CDs like me, then you dont need the Multibit - it is a different chip and requires more support circtuitry for DSD than the regular PCM DACs.

Last, I started using the Bel Canto DAC 2.5 in about 2012.
I lost my job and my apartment and went broke, so had to sell the Bel Canto. Got back on my feet and bought the DAC 2.5 again and still use it daily today. there is one for a $measly $850 on Agon or USAudioMart or AudioCircle. the SQ is admirable: clean, clear, dynamic, and mildly warm but highly resolving. Not warm in a tube way, but warm in a musical but unforced kind of way. It is also a preamplifier with volume control and also has speed and slam. Highly rec’ed.

... and heck, you can get a current production NAIM amp for $1300 on the used market. New ones, the same product, are $4000.

It does not have USB in. This is a good thing for me, b/c NAIM did not include USB due to how dirty the signal is, or was back when they began manufacturing in 2009. Honestly, they have been in production since 2009. Now, it is 9 years later, and it is still their "go to" DAC, b/c the internal circuitry is so good and the sound is still right on with PRAT and very clean, resolving, and musical in its own right.

And "old" doesn't mean bad. Remember, in order for Mike Moffat of Schiit to spend 5 years developing the flagship Schiit Yggy DAC, he went back to the 1917 Western Electric research/white papers to get info to make a praiseworthy modern DAC (Yggy).