A new dac?

I have a Denafrips Pontus 12.  Reasonable used, $2000 new.  The Pontus 15 might be good enough for your new system.  There are new low cost streamers that are get good reviews Eversolo, and others.  

Dena no Denoooooo....now is the time to save the cash for your forever house, dedicated room and better resolving speakers.

Get this FIIO K13 R2R for 320 dollars to quench your R2R desires.. (Denafrips $1200 - $320 = $880 in savings). Moreover, you get a headphone amp and a 10 band peq with the FIIO as well, unlike the Denagips 1 trick r2r pony.

https://apos.audio/products/fiio-k13-r2r-desktop-dac-amp?sca_ref=1448954.julYPU81dF

Next, get these 2 subs for $350 dollars on sale and put them on each sidewall a few ft behind your seat (play more with placement).

https://verafiaudiollc.com/products/caldera-10-duality

That left you with $1000 - ($320 + $350) = $330 to buy some cds for your audiolab cd twister or buy a window for your forever house.

Thanks again, guys. I'm really leaning towards a Denafrips.

Would like to try an R2R ladder dac. 

@audphile1  To perceive definitive improvements in modern dacs (without it getting too subtle, felt like slamming your head on the diminishing returns wall early in the game), it requires some work, setting up a foundation with the room, getting modes knocked out and better speakers for that purpose...

It actually doesn’t have much to do with the price rather than the design ethos.

For example, a cheap Magnepan LRS....can be quite resolving after you set it up correctly and put your head in a vise, of course...and can be a better speaker to assess dacs than a PSB or harbeth or something.

For example, a "relatively" cheap Tekton Polycell 15 (103db sensitive, small driver array taking over pretty low on the band) can be a better speaker to assess dacs than a rockport or whatever...

Otherwise, the OP might keep buying dacs and they might all sound the same...bottlenecked by everything else.

A software from Levinson for 600 dollars (quite cheap by audiophile standards) on a mac mini can make any album sound like "analog" master tape, might make all the vinyl catch dust thereafter. All a guy needs to do is rip his cds or buy some digital albums and let that software process the files on a mac mini "streamer" before it went to whatever dac......Or that angela yeung piece that can start to spread that soundfield around may not just a mindless "tweak" in that context. Or if he spent 5k or whatever, he can get BACCH, much better option than chasing after dacs....in that context.

The best sounding "dac" i have is actually an SACD player (can also be used as a dac)...go figure...... 

@deep_333 room acoustics and subs (in some use cases) I agree with. But the rest of your suggestions are tweaks that can’t compete with a component upgrade. Angela Yeung is Gilbert Yeung of the Blue Circle fame.

@deep_333 the OP uses Audiolab spinner. He’s not streaming. 
I won’t argue the rest of your statements as they are hit or miss 


 

@deep_333 

The Carpathian said he has a nice Mytek DAC. Why would you suggest he replace it with an entry-level FOSI all-in-one headphone amp?

And that's neither here nor there, but Tekton speakers should be shipped loose, with cabinets pre-crushed for easy disposal upon delivery.