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Worlds best DAC

Went to CES this year to work on my transition to high Rez digital. I've heard many of the highly regarded players in my room or in others systems in the past. I'm actually very happy with my current cd based sound. As I listened to various DACS playing CD then high Rez, I was not bowled over. High rez was better, but only slightly so. The best (and most different) sound I heard happened to have one similarity. They were 2 non oversampling DACS with tube analog stages(Zanden and Ypsilon). These were without question the most natural sounding digital systems I heard at the show. They made CDsound miles ahead of high Rez. What gives?

PS: I understand the limitations of show auditions.
bflowers
lloydelee21
1,202 posts
 
Mike,

Thanks for that...good to know.
chadeffect
586 posts
 
Hi Mrtennis,

I agree. Personally I only ever used the medea in FireWire mode with Amarra direct into various amps. The zanden adds to digital what my Yamamoto adds to the Medeas über clean untouched approach IMHO.

Personally I want my audio untouched. But obviously this means the synergy between the system needs to be finely tuned.

Argyro,

I felt the Vekian had nowhere near the openness in the treble or anywhere near the transparency & lack of grain of the Medea.

Again I agree with you that each of the above mentioned products balance is completely differently if used with preamps or without, or with transports or computers etc.

As always set up is everything. I found the Medea plus to be utterly true to the source (with FireWire). That's why I find it the best DAC I know. If you want editorialized signal then you need to look elsewhere.
vicks7
182 posts
 
Has anyone auditioned the TotalDac and if so is it considered among one of the best?
dallasjustice's avatar
dallasjustice
27 posts
 
Has anyone auditioned the TotalDac and if so is it considered among one of the best?

I have it. It's the best I've had by far. (eg. Mpd-5, BMC DAC1, Empirical Audio (top upgrades).
stanwal's avatar
stanwal
3,147 posts
 
The Zanden gets a very good rating on the HIFICRITIC performance scale, 105. However the new Audio Note gets a rating of over 400 on the same scale; let us all buy one. What was the price again? Oh, 192,000 pounds. Left my loose change in my other pants. All joking aside perhaps the question should be rephrased as "what is the world's best dac that anyone short of Bill Gates can buy"? I still like the Metrum Octave and it is around $1000. Their new model should be really good at 3-4x the price [ or possibly more, haven't seen the final price.]
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