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What DAC upgrade made you say “DAMN, that sounds SO MUCH better than my last DAC”?

As the title suggests, what was your overall system and DAC at the point where you bought only a new DAC and said “DAMN, that sounds SO MUCH better than my last DAC”?

I’m a novice and so many people talk about improvements from new equipment as if they were only listening to varying degrees of static until they bought more and more new equipment which added up to them finally being presented with music. It’s like Salome and the seven veils. But when does the last veil get peeled away? 

So what system did you have and what DAC did you swap in that made you say “DAMN!!!!”?

I guess I’m looking for night and day differences, not gradual progressions……


pip_helix
lalitk's avatar
lalitk
6,180 posts
 
“I guess I’m looking for night and day differences, not gradual progressions……”

OP, it would be helpful to know your current system and budget for DAC. Every system is different, you’re probably not going to buy Berkely Audio Design, Alpha V2 DAC to pair with Node 2i :-)
calvinandhobbes
327 posts
 
One suggestion is to focus on all parts of the digital signal path instead of just the DAC. You can get audible improvements from each of these changes that adds up. I’ve heard clear and immediate improvements from:

1. Switching to a streamer from a PC laptop or iPhone
2. Switching from WiFi to an Ethernet connection to the streamer
3. Going to a Supra Cat 8 Ethernet cable from an AmazonBasics Cat 6 cable
4. Listening to local files versus streamed files via Qobuz

Other changes that made a noticeable difference though smaller than the effect from the changes listed above:

5. Power cable on my DAC
6. USB cable between my streamer and DAC
7. Audioquest Jitterbug noise filter between my streamer and the USB cable

These are the DACs I’ve listened to in the past year in my system unless otherwise noted:

  • Audioquest Dragonfly Red
  • Rega DAC
  • Denafrips Ares II
  • Simaudio Moon 280D (at a dealer)
  • Chord Qutest
  • Denafrips Pontus II
  • Chord Hugo TT / MScaler (at a dealer)

They all sound different. The ones I would not want in my system are the Rega DAC, Simaudio Moon 280D and the Chord Hugo TT / MScaler. The Pontus II sounds best to me in my system.

patrickdowns's avatar
patrickdowns
558 posts
 
Review of the Burl B2 Bomber: https://tapeop.com/reviews/gear/79/b2-bomber-adc-dac/
I confess that this seems really geared to mastering/recording engineers, and I have little idea what they are talking about on a technical level. Seems good though!

Post removed 
chilehed's avatar
chilehed
206 posts
 
I recently upgraded from a Benchmark DAC3 HGC to a Lampizator Baltic 3. Given the Baltic 3 is 3X the price I expected an uptick in performance but I will say it way exceeded my expectations. First off, the B3 provides a very different presentation. I don't have the colorful adjectives to describe it but somehow there is more music and seemingly a dimension that allows you to see into the music. Being a tube based DAC I was concerned that pairing it with my tube based preamp that it might sound slow or syrupy. But that simply isn't the case, the B3 is extremely well balanced and sounds beautiful at low volume but it can jump, rock and boogie if you are up for some excitement.
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