Yes, George. I started the thread. The comment I made referred to discussions getting personal. I don't understand that I guess. I asked for differences between the two brands of chips. It is ok that we talk about R2R also. I have learned much in the last couple months about DACs. I bought the D90 for numerous reasons: in stock, good reviews, cost vs benefit. The Denafrips would have been good except it is out of stock for 10 weeks. Most of the DAC mentioned, which I am sure are good, are simply not in my budget. Thanks for the help on me understanding this topic. Not as simple as a turntable, receiver and speakers.
Comparison of latest DAC chips
I own a Bluesound Node 2i which greatly improved sound after I added the Cat 6 cable. I do not own a separate DAC but am told it would be the next step improvement. I have done enough reading that it appears the two latest chips are the Sabre or ESS
ES9038PRO
and the AK4499. The brands I have looked at are Sabaj d5($469) and a Topping D90($699). I saw a great review on Audiocircle of the Sabaj D5 which is now a year old. The Topping D90 is newer and I hear the build quality of the Topping as well as customer service are both better. Other brands cost more and most don't use these new chips.
Is there a difference in how these chips sound? I would appreciate any comments.
Is there a difference in how these chips sound? I would appreciate any comments.
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daledeee1 OP The Denafrips Terminator and the Holo Spring Level 2 or 3 are very close, the Holo can also be switched to NOS (none upsampling) which I preferred, and it can do DSD if you ever need to listen to it. https://www.stereophile.com/content/holoaudio-spring-kitsun%C3%A9-tuned-edition-level-3-da-processor https://kitsunehifi.com/product/holo-audio-spring2-dac-kitsune-tuned-edition/ Holo now have the "even better" May Dac https://kitsunehifi.com/product/holo-audio-may-dac/ This is a good paragraph from the Stereophile review to give an insight to it’s sound.
Cheers George |
Sorry, but this is complete rubbish.. I am really sorry but I would have to say that you might be off on some points. I used to own a metrum onyx and then the Hugo TT2. The TT2 did sound better than the metrum. The metrum is a great dac. I have also hear the mytek and ayre that you were talking about. They are good but they are not some of the beat dacs out there by any means. The MSB line up are R2R based dacs and blow the mytek and ayre out of the water by a good margain. I recently bought the dCS Bartok and imo it is head and shoulders above the dacs that you mention as well. It is not a traditional r2r but a version of on developed by dCS. They call it the ring dac which is fed by FPGAS. |
I've seen the same type of discussions over cartridges and tone arms etc.. in analog. I think the Topping with the AK4499 chip will work well for you. I liked their older chip the 4490 I had in an integrated amp and I like the ESS 9028 Pro I had in a Benchmark DAC3B. If anything the AK chip has a more laid back presentation but to me it's really hard to tell good measuring dacs apart. |
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