instead of eliciting advice, why not listen to as many dacs as you can ??
best DAC' choice between $1K-$2K?
Its time for me to plan my annual upgrade splurge and this year the target area is DAC replacement. The DAC I use now is the PS Audio DLink III, its powerfull, detailed, but computer audio is showing the DAC's weaknesses with a design based on 2006 digital technology.
Looking for a musical sounding DAC...I can deal with tonal balance variances and dynamics that aren't spot on but a piece of gear that distorts overtones, doesn't have correct time decay and struggles with digital defects will have me moving on within 5 minutes of listening.
I've seen good things on the Metrum Octave but its lacking in design features like a headphone section and 192khz support. Bel Canto seemed popular at the DC Audio show and is recent enough in design to have longevity.
Wondering what in the new purchase market folks think is the class champ between $1K-$2K for a DAC with 192K support, headphone output, volume control for direct to amp and the most natural sound. I have a quality asynch to USB converter so that feature is of minimal importance to me.
The new Oppo 105 looks like an interesting alternative but I doubt its competitive against a DAC in this range and I've seen no serious reviews yet to compare against other known good gear.
Looking for a musical sounding DAC...I can deal with tonal balance variances and dynamics that aren't spot on but a piece of gear that distorts overtones, doesn't have correct time decay and struggles with digital defects will have me moving on within 5 minutes of listening.
I've seen good things on the Metrum Octave but its lacking in design features like a headphone section and 192khz support. Bel Canto seemed popular at the DC Audio show and is recent enough in design to have longevity.
Wondering what in the new purchase market folks think is the class champ between $1K-$2K for a DAC with 192K support, headphone output, volume control for direct to amp and the most natural sound. I have a quality asynch to USB converter so that feature is of minimal importance to me.
The new Oppo 105 looks like an interesting alternative but I doubt its competitive against a DAC in this range and I've seen no serious reviews yet to compare against other known good gear.
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- 23 posts total
"volume control for direct to amp and the most natural sound" depending on the gain structure of your system, this may or may not work for you. i tried going amp direct with two highly regarded DACs and found the required level of attenuation was simply too much. in my system, an analog preamp was a substantial improvement. no support for 192k and no headphone output were not requirements for me, so i went with the metrum octave. it's the best dac i've ever owned - and i've been through a few, up to 6x the cost of the metrum. |
Have you checked the Burson conductor? it comes with the ESS 9018 Reference DAC chip/preamp and a very good headphone amp section. http://bursonaudio.com/Summary_Conductor_6Moon.html |
Appreciate the suggestion of the Burson Conductor, will followup on that. I see also that Benchmark has decided to knock the dust off its line with the Benchmark Media DAC2 HGC, so will be looking at both of these vs the Metrum. The DSD functionality looks interesting, has me wondering if that will become more prevalent. Will look at the Mytek also but they are a bit of an unknown to me in pedigree |
- 23 posts total