Thread: Standalone DACs under $10k?

Originally Posted by Randy Myers

Mike you and this forum are very special and very much appreciated. This is by far the best forum I have ever encountered. Yes I admit I get my dander up sometimes, but I do try to put both logic and thought behind what I post. I also try extremely hard to always have respect and consideration in my posts (and for the most part I have been successful in this endeavor). I do apologies for the times I have been derailed but that has never ever been to have any negative affect on this amazing forum you run (pretty dam good audio seller also ).

Thank you. I get a little irked when someone calls my baby ugly. I’ve tried to stay out a little of the conversations because I’m far more interested in learning what YOU guys think. For example, I learned a lot on the public pricing thread that I can take to the manufacturers.


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Originally Posted by mep

I thought your computer power supply is a SMPS.

MEP, if you know of something better that would work properly with my computer I am open for suggestions. I am never closed off to at least hearing suggestions. Weather they will be something I am interested in, for whatever reason, does not mean I would not be appreciative of hearing about it. What I meant by that statement is I bought the best that I am aware of that would work properly with my computer. A gold standard power supply has always been considered a very good thing in a high end computer.

Thank you for any good information that you may have.

Originally Posted by Mike

I get a little irked when someone calls my baby ugly.

Your baby is not ugly... she is cute as a button .

Originally Posted by Mike

Seriously? I work hard to build and promote my forum.

Unfucking believable.

I think you misunderstood my post. Turn it around 180 degrees please, and realize that my post was strongly supportive of this forum

Originally Posted by Randy Myers

MEP, if you know of something better that would work properly with my computer I am open for suggestions. I am never closed off to at least hearing suggestions. Weather they will be something I am interested in, for whatever reason, does not mean I would not be appreciative of hearing about it. What I meant by that statement is I bought the best that I am aware of that would work properly with my computer. A gold standard power supply has always been considered a very good thing in a high end computer.

Thank you for any good information that you may have.

Is your current SMPS a standard ATX type and by standard I mean it has all of the regular voltages an ATX SMPS does? If the answer is yes, there are numerous linear power supplies available. I have no experience with any of them so I can't tell you how good or bad they are.

Originally Posted by rbbert

I think you misunderstood my post. Turn it around 180 degrees please, and realize that my post was strongly supportive of this forum

Ok, my apologies. All good.


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Gosh, a guy gets busy with work for a couple of days, and the thread blows up!

I do appreciate the discussion and options presented. Agree that the T+A is a special piece in that it requires "other" equipment to perform at its absolute best. An excellent choice for some, but just not the path I want to go down for now - sort of like I don't think I want to move towards a tube DAC. Doesn't make them bad or wrong; I'm just one of those folks that tends to prefer a slightly analytic DAC (I hesitate to say "accurate" for fear of starting another war) over one with a more euphoric sound. Maybe it's the engineer in me, who knows?

At any rate, I've take plenty of notes from this thread and the few others that were mentioned along the way, and will start doing some more in depth research. Hopefully I'll be able to find a way to actually hear some of these pieces in person...the last component I bought without an audition is the one I'm currently thinking about replacing!

Hey Jeff,

One that might be worth considering, and it is about a third of your stated budget, would be Benchmark. I have owned a couple of theirs including the current top model. Also my friend who writes for Stereophile swears by them. They are very analytic sounding. All of their gear definitely leans this way. They are also rather popular in the professional end of the business. They are built in Syracuse, NY, if that matters at all to you.

I thought they were excellent units just not my personal cup of tea. I always referred to the sound as more clinical, others refers to as them extremely "accurate".

Just another food for thought for you. I am also sorry if any of my posts derailed this thread you started in any way.

and with this way there will be no good recommendation at all. Everyone likes his own dac. But that is also very reasonable, there are so many dacs. I cannot imagine that anyone have all these modern dacs in his house. For instance, the Denafrips Terminator earlier mentioned is available from a webshop in Singapore, that is one dac, nobody has so many different dacs like these in his shop, house or whereever. And to make it more complicated, those dacs have multiple settings. Then you can have 2 dacs A & B, A is better then B, but what happends if A and B are changed with a great LPS? Is A still better then B? Who did listened to all those dacs with all different settings and different power supplies?

About that T+A dac, works great with Dsd, take that for granted, but I listen to Tidal and Qobuz, which are PCM and for that reason I will prefer a dac which does PCM well, not DSD

Originally Posted by Alkyogre

I listen to Tidal and Qobuz, which are PCM and for that reason I will prefer a dac which does PCM well, not DSD

One is not mutually exclusive to the other of course, and while some really specialize in one others do both well. The Yaggy and Benchmark for example really do only PCM (yes I know Benchmark can do DSD, but only 64 and they state they really do not care about it). I believe Berkeley does only PCM?

Yes T+A created their own very special DSD circuit. That does not mean they do not do PCM well. The same holds true with Lampi for example. One funny story as a follow up. One of the best reviews done on the DAC was by a reviewer who only runs PCM. I know this because he is a friend of mine and he does not do DSD (he uses a Meridian server that is not capable of DSD). He did mention in the review that he understands that the company has a very special DSD circuit. With PCM alone he gave it an A+ rating and it remains on their very very short list of A+ DACs to this day.

The thing is there is no easy way to find out what products are even available in a given price range, much less which might be worth considering further. A dealer can certainly help, but most dealers, like posters here, are likely to push their own products.

Originally Posted by rbbert

The thing is there is no easy way to find out what products are even available in a given price range, much less which might be worth considering further.

There's some truth to that statement. I learn not just of new pieces, but entire audio product brands that I didn't know existed almost every week. The proliferation of boutique brands has really taken off lately. It's times like this that the old Audio magazine phonebook-style annual product guide was useful, even if you did have to be careful to avoid the offerings from Lirpa Labs. I'm showing my age here, aren't I?

Jeff

While I am happy with my Aqua La Voce S3, which is a different sound than the tube included La Scala, if I was looking in the range you are looking in I would look first at the Denafrips Terminator Plus or the Holo May. If I were willing to go to the top of your range then the new MA-3 might be worth a look but it also includes the streamer which uses the same software as the Bridge in your DS Jr.