Thank you all for your input. In the end, I went with the Bifrost with USB. Sounds great out of the box and I look forward to see how it breaks in over time.
sub $600 DACs: MF vs Music Hall vs Schiit
OVERVIEW
I'm comparing sub $600 DACs and need opinions on my top three contenders.
LISTENING STYLE
My listening tastes are across the board: jazz, classic rock, classical, bluegrass. Pretty much everything but black metal and hot country hits. I favor balance over bass. I listen to mostly vinyl and 320k mp3s/FLAC digital from my computer. Looking into lossless options for converting and playing the files currently on my CDs. They're starting to gather dust.
THE CHALLENGE
I've pretty much maxed out my current system in terms of budget and the room itself. The room is pretty small (12'x14'). The one area I see for improvement is converting the digital signal to my pre. I'm currently using a cheap TurtleBeach USB sound card and think I could improve overall music depth and soundstage with a proper DAC.
THE SYSTEM
NAD 1700 pre
NAD 214 amp
Audes Blues floorstanding speakers
Music Hall MMF5 turntable
Nakamichi CD4 CD player
Tara Labs Prism 55i interconnects
Monster Cable M2.2 speaker wire
Turtle Beach AudioAdvantage Micro sound card
THE QUESTION
The three DACs I'm looking at are
- Music Hall DAC25.3 $550
- Schiit Bifrost $449
- Musical Fidelity VDAC $350
Do you feel one of these might suit my system more than another? Are there others I should consider? Or, should scrap that plan and put my $ into a new pre? a completely new integrated? Any advice would be appreciated.
I'm comparing sub $600 DACs and need opinions on my top three contenders.
LISTENING STYLE
My listening tastes are across the board: jazz, classic rock, classical, bluegrass. Pretty much everything but black metal and hot country hits. I favor balance over bass. I listen to mostly vinyl and 320k mp3s/FLAC digital from my computer. Looking into lossless options for converting and playing the files currently on my CDs. They're starting to gather dust.
THE CHALLENGE
I've pretty much maxed out my current system in terms of budget and the room itself. The room is pretty small (12'x14'). The one area I see for improvement is converting the digital signal to my pre. I'm currently using a cheap TurtleBeach USB sound card and think I could improve overall music depth and soundstage with a proper DAC.
THE SYSTEM
NAD 1700 pre
NAD 214 amp
Audes Blues floorstanding speakers
Music Hall MMF5 turntable
Nakamichi CD4 CD player
Tara Labs Prism 55i interconnects
Monster Cable M2.2 speaker wire
Turtle Beach AudioAdvantage Micro sound card
THE QUESTION
The three DACs I'm looking at are
- Music Hall DAC25.3 $550
- Schiit Bifrost $449
- Musical Fidelity VDAC $350
Do you feel one of these might suit my system more than another? Are there others I should consider? Or, should scrap that plan and put my $ into a new pre? a completely new integrated? Any advice would be appreciated.
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