SW1X dacs

Hi granada1;
It is an excellent DAC.
The issue is "is it worth 13K" considering that the DAC II Special is half the price?
The presentation is a bit better. I will even venture to say it is significantly better. But is it worth the price differential? I am still struggling with that. It might be a matter of system synergy. I am still letting it all sink in.
I will report back but I am not ready yet.
I recently spent a fortune for a Lyra Etna Lamda. I am all smiles. It is worth every penny on my Reed 3P and hot-rodded Garrard 301. I am in nirvana.  It took me no time at all to reach that conclusion. 
I hope you can read in between the lines. 

What’s the verdict then? Is this Sw1x DAC 3 balanced worth the money?

also what’s your experience with Audio Note DAC 5?

What’s the verdict then? Is this Sw1x DAC 3 balanced worth the money?

also what’s your experience with Audio Note DAC 5?

There is no answer to such a question. I can only speak for myself. It is an excellent DAC. My take on it seems to change day to day. Some days I am absolutely convinced there is no better digital to be had at any price. Other days it sounds just very good. I am now of the opinion that one "problem" with the DAC III B is that it accentuates the difference between good digital recordings and mediocre ones. I have been listeing to a fair amount of digital streamed with Qobuz lately and the variation in recording quality or perhaps the stream is again very high. The DAC II Special I owned before trading up struck me as being 95% as good and it too seemed to strike me differently on different days. This does not happen with my vinyl rigs. Sure, some days my hearing just sounds off. And crappy pressings do sound crappy. But for the most part my vinyl rigs never fail to please immensely. 
I listened to an Audio Note system at Axpona '19. I came back to that room over and over. I don't recall which DAC they had in the room but whichever model it was sounded amazing as did the entire system. 

How does SW1X DAC compare with Lampizator?

I had a SW1X DAC III + upgrades. Wasn’t impressed with it. I let it break in for 5 days straight. It was very muted and lifeless sounding to me. It sounded NOTHING like good analog.
I’ve also owned the Directstream DAC...also lacking in magic and very digital sounding.

The DAC that most sounded like a vinyl rig running a koetsu black (my preferred cartridge) was the Deja Vu Audio Aldo Dac. This dac was using a Sonos Connect as the Tidal source with a $700 digital coax cable.
The sound blew my mind. It was Psychedelic.