End Game Dac reccomendations

@mitch2 - Not to derail the thread, but I'd welcome your comparison of the Mola Mola Tambaqui Dac to the Merason Dac 1 MKii. 

I have the Merason Dac 1 MKii in my office system paired with a Gryphon integrated and Buchardt S400 Mkii speakers. I'd had the Merason paired with other components and felt it was a little subdued with a somewhat polite speaker and tube amp. But now, paired with different components, I find my office system to be absolutely enjoyable, with a nice balance of dynamics and musicality. 

I briefly demoed the Mola Mola Dac in my living room system and can't quite shake what I heard. I remember feeling like the Mola Mola seemed to deliver an incredibly spacious feeling, but also somehow intuited it could be fatiguing over time. 

But I can't shake the impression the Mola Mola made on me. 

Would appreciate your evaluation of the Mola Mola vs. the Merason, if possible Thanks in advance! 

I own the Tubadour DAC and I love it, but I would recommend the Audio Mirror Wave DAC more so. The Wave DAC is totally different from the Tubadour, in the sense that it does not have the lovely but somewhat “old fashioned” signature sound of Analog Devices AD1865 chip.

I had a chance to listen to Wave DAC extensively in my system and also in a full Audio Mirror system including AM speakers and the new Audio Mirror streamer at Vlad’s place (disclaimer: Vlad, the owner of Audio Mirror is my long time friend and fellow audiophile).

The Wave DAC is extremely transparent, fast and it throws a huge expansive and detailed soundstage. The perceived presence of music in the room is uncanny, beautiful and solid. You can concentrate on the whole presentation or just on the details, whatever you prefer. The DAC keeps its characteristics, despite being move to different system. It does extremely well with all kinds music, it doesn’t favor any genre of music.

I think Wave DAC is quite amazing, and if it is your price range I would at least try to audition it.

I have tried a few DAC’s and for now, settled on a Linear Tube Audio DAC. ITS AIRY, clear with good low end. It came with Sylvania 6SN7 NOS tubes, as well as a new set of RAY tubes. Both sound warm, but clear and clean. The literature says it can be left on 24/7 with virtually no tube degradation for 10,000 hours. It produces very low heat even when left on. 

I have owned the Lumin D1, U2, X1, and then stepped up to Lampi Pacific and Hrozon, and now I own the Aries Cerat Kassandra Reference 2 DAC.  The neat thing about Lampis is the ability to tube roll and tailor the sound to your liking.  Between Lampis and Aries Cerat, it is really a hard choice.  I would find a used Kassandra for $15-17k or a Helene for $12.  That is the best value play period.  You can get a Pacific for $15-17k, also.   I ran the Pacific and Horizon without a preamp, which saved me a lot of money with no real degradation of SQ.....at least in my system at the time.