Neutral Dac?

@mlsstl  Well said but I'd argue there isn't a single forum discussion that isn't ultimately meaningless. That being said I have experienced some dacs that have a lot more "personality" than others and curious about people's opinions of dacs that are the amp equivalent of "straight wire with gain". I'm trying to stay away from the concept of system synergy.

@2psyop Thanks for weighing in. Ironically one of the 2 of those manufacturers makes a dac that I consider to have very little personality(exactly what I'm asking about). I've not heard the other brand.

Everyone's reference will be different than yours. The system and room you hear a component in provides a different starting point and as @mlsstl points out, it comes down to your ears and preferences. Most shops are happy to let you try / demo a piece in your rig. If you don't have a local shop most manufacturers have demo programs. Even if you have to drop some dough on return shipping it is well worth it to find the piece that works best in your system.

@schw06

Forget measurements. Forget the cost.
What is your definition of neutral and uncolored? How would you possible know that you heard it? What is your reference point that would help you determine that?

How do you know that you just heard a dac that colored the sound or didn’t color it when you literally have every single element starting from power, outlet, cables, source, I can go on and on here, impacting the overall presentation. Unless you can answer these questions and eliminate all of the change factors from the equation, there’s no way to get to the answer. No one could possibly answer this for you.

Don’t burden yourself with getting to ultimate neutrality of components. When you build a system that gives you goosebumps when you sit down to listen, that is a far bigger achievement than soliciting thoughts from others on whats the most neutral DAC. Who cares. 

@audphile1 

I agree about measurements and cost. Apparently asking peoples opinions about what they consider an uncolored dac is unanswerable in your opinion. Thanks for weighing in. 

You completely missed my point but that’s ok.