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10-15 year old hi end DACs are still great.

I’ve been looking for a DAC for a while now.  All the usual suspects in the $2500-$8000 range, many are Chinees made these days. Halo Audio, Denifrips, lab 12, etc.

 

I ran into a deal on a used Esoteric D-02 ($23500 new in 2013-2016) played $2400 USD in an estate sale. I must be honest I’m rather shocked at how good this thing sounds. I don’t know if the newer midrange DCs are better. Definitely not as heavy 60lb grr.  I figured these older DACs would be trumped by the newer mid level DAC but it seems no. From what I can see older digital is still very good and deals are out there with all the upgrade craze on new DAC’s flooding the market.

I recommend looking at these older hi-end DAC’s when looking to upgrade from a lower priced DAC, you may find a gem that still outperforms newer DAC’s in the similar price range or less.

glennewdick
frank009's avatar
frank009
311 posts
 

You are mostly right. High-End engineering truly revolves around a different kind of design implementation than simply hearing different types of sound character from electronics like DACs. You should want to hear the performance as closely as possible, not some filtered version of it.

Solid engineering means you get precise output voltage from the DAC so the signal it outputs is unwavering and faithful to the original. 

knock1
372 posts
 

Congratulation for the "steal" of $2500!  Esoteric, the name precedes itself.

"Solid engineering means you get precise output voltage from the DAC so the signal it outputs is unwavering and faithful to the original.' Yes, the voltage is the key. Dear Lord!wink

ghdprentice's avatar
ghdprentice
9,454 posts
 

Congratulations. A demonstration of why one would invest in really high end.... they remain current for a very very long time. 

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