Audio Note DACs... Are They Great or overpriced?

There are several British DACs, but most are way overpriced and not much (if at all) better than a decent CD player. The most popular British DAC is now the Beresford T-7510, which uses far more modern technology and is far cheaper. It is also one of the hottest DACs on the planet right now.

I'd say the reviews for the Cambridge Audio Azur 840c are pretty damn glowing -- more like nuclear -- and they're British.

Audio Note are an overpriced company in general. There is a lot better out there for less money.

Which Audio Note DACs have you owned or auditioned and what (cheaper) DACS did you compare them to that you found a lot better? Thanks.

Ok, DAC's, none. But other equipment, quite a lot (hence the 'in general'). I just don't feel their price is justified. Of course there is a certain amount of personal preference involved.

Dependable Audio Video- Home Theater, Speakers, Receivers, Plasma had them not to long ago for 1196.00. Might be able to hunt down a demo or used off audiogon.com cheaper.

Its fine that you think they are overpriced, thats your opinion. But maybe you should mention in the future that you never heard the products being covered in the thread when you post about them. Makes it easier for us to seperate the facts from fiction.

That's my beef with Audio Note. Their 3.3uF silver in oil capacitor is >$1900 *each.*
http://www.partsconnexion.com/catalo...itorsFilm.html
If you are the type of person who believes any capacitor can be worth that, then you are likely the type who will happily pay the gazillion dollars for AN gear that uses these parts inside.

Well, IMO "far more modern technology" does not necceceraly equals better sound quality...

Have to say that I'm more than a little bemused that a good (but still BUDGET) DAC has been mentioned in a thread that is clearly talking about fairly high end gear. That is unless you've actually compared an Audio Note DAC against a 7510 mk6.3?

1) Pretty sure you'd find it cheaper to buy from here, they can build the kits for you on request: Audio Note Kits - Welcome

2) I bought and built a Dac 2.1 Level B last year and was thoroughly unimpressed for the following reasons:
WRT the product as a kit:
- The circuit diagrams were out of date and the baggies contents were all jumbled (made life harder than it had to be).
WRT the product if you bought it constructed for you:
- I had terrible hum from my DAC when it was completed. None of my other hifi gear hums at all (including some cheap & $$$ stuff). I showed my work to a friend whose been an electronics and audio engineer for the past 30 years, and he said the design was pretty poor. Transformers lined up with their winding parallel to each other (instead of perpendicular), the tubes were microphonic and needed replacing (one to a lesser degree than the other so they weren't even matched), the REPLACEMENT tubes were also faulty (so the person who picked them was an idiot). My friend said I built it as good as it could be built according to the design, and even made a few hacks of his own which decreased the hum, but it was still more than ZERO which is what I expected from a product costing that much.

In the end I got a refund (but it took a long time of phone calls and me repeatedly stating that it was the design at fault), and parts of my DAC were sent onto someone else to use (hope they had better luck than me, I never heard back), but the fact remains that nothing else I have made the complete racket that DAC 2.1 did. I know ppl say tubes aren't as quiet as solid state, but this was a whole other level of noise it should't have made. It turned me off tubes completely.

It really made me wonder what the reviewers who love AN gear are listening to. From all the comments my engineering friend made, and the fact that he said all the parts were operating properly, combined with the horrible hum we heard, I wouldn't touch them with a 10 foot pole - especially considering the price! m2c

LOL

Likely the same thing reviewers of Shindo gear listen to Another stratospherically overpriced gear that sound not that special IMO IME to my ears, all that..