@david_ten Benchmark HPA4 and AHB2 are going back. The HPA4 was very good, but I've been running source direct out of a Benchmark DAC for 20 years and for me I feel like putting a preamp in between the dac and amp just robs me of resolution that I end up missing. The HPA4 has immaculate specifications that should make it virtually transparent which is what is what I wanted, but instead the music sounds homogenous with slightly less transient response and this while using both the Benchmark DAC2 HGC or the Dangerous convert 2 pro audio dac I auditioned.
Once they were both gain adjusted to the same volume, both DACs sounded identical to my ears and I was able to switch between them effortlessly using roon feeding them both simultaneously and switching instaneously with the HPA4. I'm starting to get the impression that all competent DACs sound pretty much alike. I refuse to spend a lot more money for some uber DAC that only adds a tone control of flavoring and ridiculous price tag.
I've heard esoteric and dcs in the past and I wasn't impressed at all. Sounded thin and airy to me. I couldn't afford it anyway so the point is moot.
I'm kind of stuck at the moment and just listening through the DAC2. I may get the DAC3, but I doubt it would be audibly better at all, or I may consider something fron Auralic, maybe a Vega Dac/Streamer. Honestly though, I've heard the Vega in my system already and it sounded the same as the Benchmark to my ears. I returned it to the ebay seller because it had a broken toslink jack. My dac2 hgc is getting old so I'd like to replace it soon, but I doubt I'll gain much improvement even if I do.
I'm not much for using tubes on top of tubes on top of tubes....tube dac, tube preamp, tube amp. Too much of good thing (tubes) again seems to just rob me of resolution and dynamics. I love what set amps do, but I don't ascribe to using tubes everywhere else in a system because you're stacking a lot of 2nd/3rd order distortion to the point of losing purity you'd gain from using a simple direct path from source to amplifier. I'm not saying people who do this are wrong, it's just not my cup of tea, sonically speaking.
All that being said, (and just to contradict myself) I'm still mildly curious of the Lampizator tube DAC, but its a bit out of my league price wise and I have no easy way to audition it.
