Have an opportunity to pick up either a used Aries II or a Topping Centaurus…
Thoughts ?
Recommendations on a Warm Sounding DAC under $1100.00
Currently I have a Black Ice Glass FX Tube DAC that sounds great, it’s just that I purchased a Matrix TT-1 Streamer Transport, that sounds amazing and appears is not compatible with the Black Ice via USB due to the clocking circuitry in the TT-1.It works great via Coaxial but I’m really interested in trying the I2S input as well as USB.
My set up tends to be on the forward side and not looking for “The DAC of The Week” that so often is promoted on Youtube, so any thoughts on a warm sounding DAC that anyone has experience with in my price range would be greatly appreciated.
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- 34 posts total
If you had paid 50 dollars extra for the forkbeard module on the Bifrost, you would have gotten access to PEQ..... EQ away to warmth, whilst retaining the "purity". Otherwise, it will be just another case of ...is it warm? is it cold? oh, that recording’s too warm?? that recording’s too cold??...it feels warm for 2 recordings???...it feels cold on another 3 recordings??? and so on... I am sure the holo spring could feel a li’l cold too one day, depending on what you played on it (back on to the dac merry-go-round, it shall be). Or one could always get an amp with some tone controls in it too....better than the audiophile genius process of "tone controls cable changes for every other recording", etc @hilde45 wrote
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$400 above your budget. Used DAC MK5 – Audio by Van Alstine, mentioned above somewhere. |
@tyray +1 on the uDac. I was able to get a less than MSP price and I am very close to getting to the burn in time others have commented on. I like it. It is a significant improvement over my prior Cambridge DacMagic 200 (which was perfect for me at the time I bought it, and will be perfect for someone else now). Scrolling through the menus were a tad difficult for me - but (1) that's because I am not always awesome with technology, not the device itself, (2) now that I have it set up - and I played around with settings and cables for a couple of weeks - it is totally set and forget. I tried out the Ares II for a few weeks and loved it - I would also recommend that. I would love to have a Pontus 15, but right now, its a bit out of my price range. Good luck! PS I have heard very positive things about the Dac you do have now. I'd love to hear one some day!
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Save the money and look toward a more expensive DAC. The thing about Budget DACs is you may get to the point of looking for better sound than what you currently have. My suggestion is to look above the $2000 range, Those DACs, up the chain, usually have more detail, and so on. You may reach a threshold where you would not be spending more, often, just to upgrade your sound. |
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