About the Matrix Audio ND-1 DAC


I’ve been looking to upgrade my Denafrips Pontus ll for a while now and I just watched a review of the Matrix Audio ND-1 DAC on the Pursuit Perfect Sound YouTube channel and Terry seemed to like it and it’s AKM chips. I don’t need another preamp. I don’t need another streamer. I don’t need another headphone amplifier.  I just want a better ( to my ears ) DAC and this one looks interesting to me.

Does anyone here have any experience with the ND-1?
 

Thanks in advance.

curiousjim

@audphile1 

Logic suggests they must be selling gear at such prices or else they’d be charging less but I know nothing about business so there may very well be factors involved of which I’m unaware. 

@curiousjim 

So which direction are you thinking of going at this point? 

@stuartk 

not much has changed other than adding the Mystique Z to my short list. I haven’t had time to find out more about the Burr-Brown's legendary PCM58P DAC chip, like why the call is vintage and legendary. Just how old is this chip anyway? 🙂

I’m also really curious about what the differences are between the chip verses the whole resistor ladder. My wife has me booked through Saturday, so I won’t have a lot of reading time until at least Sunday.

The Burr-Brown PCM58P DAC chip was introduced in 1988. I joined Burr-Brown in 1987 working as assistant to the president. I worked for Burr-Brown for nearly twenty years. 

I remember... reading a Luxman (?) advertisement... I think they used four of these chips instead of the normal two and raised their price by something like $500 for the CD Player. Which I found amusing since we were selling the chips for ~$5 each. I understood the real reason high end stuff cost a lot and it wasn't the sub-component cost... but still I found it amusing.