Need help choosing a new DAC

Hey there @terrapin77.  Am very curious about your thoughts on your new DAC and how much difference the big step up makes.  I'm a fellow SMSL user, though a little beat down the line at the Sanskrit 10th mkII.  It's cheap but it's great, does DSD very well which you should look into for classic rock and jazz, plenty available.  Well, the Tubadour III SE does DSD to PCM conversion "on the fly", so I guess not native.  But your SMSL does!  IMO it spanks PCM up and down the street.

FYI there's only 4 Dead albums on SACD, done by MFSL: Workingman's Dead, American Beauty, Blues For Allah, and From the Mars Hotel.  The first 2 sound incredible like they do in any format. The last 2 not so much, and I much prefer live versions of those songs anyways.  I have the 24-192 versions of some '77-78 Betty Board stuff, love the Get Shown the Light box, but the hi-res is barely distinguishable from redbook.  Maybe I need a better DAC.  This is a great thread, I have my eye on the Denafrips Pontus II for a (far in the) future purchase.

+1  Pontus ll.

@drewdawg999 The DAC is currently in transit.  I will let you know my thoughts on it once I get a chance to listen to it. 

@Terrapin77,

I wrote this before realizing that you had already pulled the trigger. 

My DS2 doesn’t have a balanced in, but you can get balanced to RCA conversion connectors, and that’s what I use on the outputs of my Yggdrasil. If you are not in a big hurry, I have a Yggdrasil Less is More board coming in a few months, the updated Unison USB in a couple of days, and a Holo Audio Spring 3 in 5 weeks give or take. The Holo supposedly spanks the Pontus II, which I was originally thinking of buying. So, if you are not in an awful rush, I should be able to give you my input in a few months. From what I gather though, they lay out this way.

1. Yggdrasil OG

Tied for second are the less is more, and the Spring 3 for detail retrieval.

The less is more is supposed to be more "pleasant" to listen to, which I suspect means that the highs are slightly muted, and the Spring I understand is similar. The better than Yggdrasil OG DACs are supposed to be the Holo Audio May, and the Dumfries Terminator I believe it is called, and I believe that one reviewer claimed that the Dumfries Terminator sounded better than the Holo May.

The Yggdrasil is the first component that I have had in my system that I absolutely needed an isolation transformer due to noise on my AC. I may have been able to benefit from one before, but I thought all of the power conditioning and various power cables were snake oil before out of desperation I tried an isolation transformer on the Yggdrasil. The highs were ear bleeding hot, but to my disbelief the isolation transformer cleared up that issue.

Anyway, having the DS2 I am assuming that you love neutrality, so that we then share the desire for a precise playback. Therefore we may share similar taste in DACs. The Yggdrasil with the older, less capable analog card was reviewed as sounding better than 13K and even an 80K DAC if memory serves. It’s no more perfect than is any piece of equipment, but it is pretty darned good.

 I had an original Bifrost that I used with a Chromecast plugged into my Oppo 105 just to get introduced and familiar with streaming, mainly Spotify. This would be feeding my Rogue Athena, Cary cad-200 and a pair of Totem Forests.It was def smoother than the dac in the 105. Knowing I was about to begin a long journey, eventually upgraded to a Bluesound node 2i, which allowed me to then start with Qobuz. I finally picked up a Yggdrasil and feel like it could really stay for awhile. The definition and quality improvement has really been amazing. I must also give credit to the Forests, as they have revealed every change I have made, thankfully for the better, including cable changes.