How much should I spend on a new DAC


Hello Gents. What would be reasonable sum to spend on a new DAC relative to my current audio rig.

Speakers: Sonus Faber Olympica II

Integrated Amp: Pass Labs INT-25

DAC: Pro-Ject Dac Box S2+

Speaker Cables: Kimber 8VS Bi-Wire

Power cable: Kimber PK10 Base

Interconnects: Audioquest Tower

I must say I'm very happy with the music coming out of my speakers but It's obvious that the DAC is not the same league as the rest of the equipment.

celestial__sound

Sorry to go off topic, but would anyone explain if using a toslink cable between the streamer and DAC eliminates or reduces unwanted artifacts from the power supply (switching in my streamer’s case) and other network induced noise?

What are the downsides to using a toslink versus SPDIF coaxial cable? I ask because a poster indicated that a toslink connection is inferior to SPDIF. My older modded Museatex Meitner DAC only has inputs for SPDIF and toslink so no need to get into other connections.

A plus if someone has actual experience in this area.

Thanks

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@jetter My new PEachtree GAN1 amp only has 1 input, it is a SPDIF. To get my Fibre stream into that amp I bought a $499 Sonore UltraDigital. I also bought a WyWire SPDIF cable with BNC on one end and SPDIF on the other. The UltraDigital comes with a BNC adapter so if your cable is RCA on both ends the adapter can be used. I connected 1 of my Sonore OpticalRendu's with the UltraDigital and had beautiful, streamed music. The UltraDigital gets its power from the USB out of the opticalRendu. 

I may not use the UltraDigital if I sell 1 or my OpticalRendu's because my new Livingroom DAC has SPDIF streaming output, which can go directly into my PeachTree GAN1.

The GAN1 will be used only for headphones. A switch on the DAC allows to change the streaming outputs.

 

 

 

 

@yyzsantabarbara Thanks for the information, very helpful. I just put in an order for a Wireworld acrylic toslink cable to see for myself and assuming I like it will move up to the Wireworld glass toslink.

Hi jetter, We literally have buildings miles apart with fiber between them. Fiber is great when working well, but it's a pain when it's not. I don't know if they sell tools to clean Toslink connections, but we use tools that look like they have dental floss in them to clean fiber. The quality of the glass, the method used to polish the ends, all come into play. I use coax at home, I don't need to send 100 gigabytes a second, or to deal with the issues that accompany fiber, I get enough of that at work. I am not a fiber expert, we use specific cables based upon the amount of data we expect it to handle and the associated switches and associated equipment. We don't use Toslink, I don't know if it was ever used in networking, I haven't been working with networks for that long. This opinion is worth everything you paid for it.

 

Lou