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Please help me find perfect dac for me

Hello,

I am looking for a new dac, and i hope you can give me some suggestions. I find dac world is so competitive, and moving so fast... It is difficult to know where to "start"

Here are my constraints
- Budget : ~2K Euros - 2.5K USD
- No tube
- Pure dac, no preamp 
- Silver color
- Bonus : small form factor, 10" width (25cm) max would be ideal but not mandatory

Now for sonic, i want something that sound live, not too much analytical (i don't like when i heard too many details), large soundstage in width and depth, with neutral tonality
Here is a list of what i have heard / owned and what i did not like. (Unfortunaly each listen was with different system, so my judgment may be biased)

- Audio research DAC 9 : i love this dac, probably my favorite I heard, but way much out of budget. If you have cheaper alternative which sound like it and without tube i would like to know !
- Audio GD (don't remember which one 7) : Sound is too smooth and slow.
- Mytek DSD : sound is too bright and dry. maybe pro stuff is not for me
- McIntosh D100 : sound is flat. I just find it boring
- Lampizator DSD (currently owning): details retrieval is perfect, I really like the sound of this dac, except i find soundstage too narrow. higher model (atlantic, lite 7...) are out of budget. Besides i want to get rid of tube in my dac

I read lot of good thing about yggy, but i am affraid it may be too clinical for me, and seems hard to get. HOLO is black so i have to pass on this one ...

Any suggestions ?

Thanks :)




sphilia

Showing 4 responses by sphilia

sphilia OP
4 posts
 
PCM only is fine (95% of my collection is PCM, and i can convert my 5% DSD to PCM with HQPlayer)

thanks for the list will definitly do some research on each of them tomorrow (quite late here)

sphilia OP
4 posts
 
@rhljazz I think i will give chord a try first. Chord is more easily available in France than other mentionned, i think i can have a listening session at my local dealer for this one.

@david_ten Yeah i know there is no perfect dac, especially at my price range. But there is so many DAC in market that i want to restrict my search.

For others suggestions i will try to listen to them if brand offer return policy

I am really curious about R2R, need to listen to some !

thanks for advice

sphilia OP
4 posts
 
Lot of chord fan !! i will try to have an listening session soonish
More i read about chord, more i am interested !

Luxman i like this brand for their amp, but never heard their dac. There are some authorized dealers arround, it may be worth to give a try too. But I would need to find a used one...

Exogal, will do some research about it :)

sphilia OP
4 posts
 
hi,
was busy these days, i could not check the thread earlier
I think i will go for chord, as it is easily available (and resellable in future) in Europe !

@twoch I am agree, it move so fast... that why i don't like to spend a lot on DAC (it depreciates too much over time)

I do have a question (little bit off topic)
I do have linear power supply for my PC server, but much overpowered (12V - 200w, but pc does not need that much, 100w at the most)
Can i power DAC and PC with juste one power supply ? what type of cable would be needed in this case ?





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