Bel Canto DAC3 vs ARC DAC 7 ? Anyone

I have had both in my system, and many others.

Bryston BDA-1 is the best I have tried, including; Berkeley Alpha Dac, Tube Audio Design Predac, Benchmark Dac1 usb, MHDT Labs Havana (this is very nice btw), PS Audio III, the Bel Canto and the ARC. I have tried some others not worth mentioning too, and I jumped on the Bryston once it was in my system. Best all around DAC I have used.

Macdadtexas

Would you mind saying 'why' or in what areas the Bryston excells over the DAC3? or how it surpasses the rest on that list?

I'm most surprised the Berkley unit found no favor in that group... which BTW has some definite desparities given just their pricing structure, let alone their feature sets differ as well.

I'm certain your thoughts here would be well received and most enlightening, were you to provide them to us and those others who might be speculating on DACs, now or later on.

THX

Berkeley was great, very detailed, full sound, not bright at all, and the ARC sounded very much like the Berkeley. A buddy of mine took the Berkeley, and he couldn't be happier, and it does sound stellar in his set up.

But with my gear the Bryston had a bigger soundstage, and was warmer than either. A more coherent sound.

Bel Canto was extremely detailed, with a big soundstage, but was a bit on the bright side. Tube Audio Design PreDac, well I didn't like it. Benchmark and PS Audio were VERY bright in my rig.

MHDT Havana was great, warm, nice soundstage (great price), but I wanted just a bit more detail. I would go back to the Havana before any of the others if I decided to get rid of the Bryston, but I am not going to do that.

That said, it really does depend on your gear. I always look for a little extra warmth since I have Maggies and powerful SS amps. I guess that's why I really like vinyl better than digital, and any digital I use I look for warmth.

I replaced a Bel Canto DAC3 with the Bryston BDA-1.

Macdadtexas
Just out of curiosity how did you have your Berkeley connected to your system? Were you able to try the lynx aes16 sound card via xlr aes cable in your comparrisons?