I love my Classe' DAC-1. Can be had used for $900-$1000, sold new for $4K, I believe. I agree with Jmc. Its the execution of the design, not the # bits, or upsampling, or whatever, that really makes a difference, IMO.
used high-end DAC or affordable newer model?
I have an old adcom 575 cd player that i will be using as a transport and i was wondering if it would be better to do with a newer dac like the MSB link III or Channel Islands VDA-1- or should i go used high-end such as the EAD dsp 9000 pro now on ebay- it seems that the older high end dac's can be had for the same money as the newer affordable models but what are the sonic differences?