Under $1k Chinese DACs are hard to beat.
Even the American made DACs are using Chinese parts.
Once you get up to $5k or so critical listeners will find the Chinese DACs have some competition.
What about all those Chinese DACs?
It seems like everywhere I look, there are DACs from China that have these amazing specs on paper. SNR: >133 dB; THD: 0.000004%;
Dynamic Range: 124dB. If you really think about it, these were specs that almost didn't exist outside of pro-audio gear. A lot of these units have chips from ESS, Cirrus Logic, Texas Instruments and very sophisticated conversion circuitry.
So, my question is, what do you all think?
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I've had the Denafrips Terminator-Plus for nearly 5 years now and it's been terrific. Now that Denafrips has a repair facility in TX., I won't be concerned about getting it repaired if for some reason down the line, it fails. I also have a WiiM Ultra, which is a streamer/DAC and it sounds really good, but can't sonically beat the Terminator-Plus. The Terminator-Plus was more than 10X the price of the WiiM Ultra and IMHO, isn't 10X the better, sonically. The differences while noticeable are subtle. Chi-Fi has come a long way in the last 5 years... |
@helomech I recently purchased a nice conrad-johnson tube amp and Vandersteen speakers. I didn't have an extra dac or streamer, so I ordered a Wiim Ultra for $279 instead of robbing from my main system to test the amp. I'm pretty amazed at the sound quality. I have it connected directly to the amp and I'm using the volume control on the Wiim. The preamps that I have in storage are old and I doubt they'd sound good. I haven't compared the Wiim directly with anything, but on its own, it sounds really good. I told my wife that an inexpensive piece of gear like the Wiim probably doesn't often get paired with a high quality amp like my conrad-johnson. |
I read about the Wiim ultra... Interesting.... I dont need an upgrade.... But it seems the audiophile is not dead in me completely...
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