Best DACs under $10k?
Mar 9, 2010 at 2:20 PM Post #31 of 46
A lot of the new CDP have digital inputs. Plus others like Wadia, and Cary have USB, inputs. I would think it would be nice to have both. I just bought a Meridian 808.2i I can't wait to compair a CD to a digital source.

Quote:

Originally Posted by morphsci /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Am I the only one a little PO'ed that digital inputs aren't more common on mid-to-high level one-box CDP's. It seems like a real waste to not be able to use the very nice DAC's in these players for outboard sources. I am thinking about players like the Esoteric SA-60 and EMM Labs CDSA se. I myself find the digital inputs on my Cambridge Audio Azur 840c very, very useful.

------------------------------
CDP's with Digital Inputs
------------------------------
Accuphase (all!)
Audio Aero Capitole / Prestige SE
Burmester 061 / 001
Cambridge Audio Azur 740c, 840c
Cary 306 SACD, 306/200, 303/200 (but not the 303/300
frown.gif
)
Harman/Kardon HD970
Lindemann 820S
Mark Levinson 390S
Meridian 808.2i
Quad CDP-2
Resolution Audio Opus 21
Sim Audio Moon Evolution Series
Wadia (301 and newer)



 
Mar 9, 2010 at 10:51 PM Post #32 of 46
Quote:

Originally Posted by c3p0 /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Post your experiences of the best dacs you have heard under $10k please.


New or used??? Makes a huge differance. If you buy used you can get much higher on the audio ladder.
 
Mar 9, 2010 at 11:46 PM Post #33 of 46
Quote:

Originally Posted by markmaxx /img/forum/go_quote.gif
...I just bought a Meridian 808.2i. I can't wait to compair a CD to a digital source.


Congrats on the Meridian!!! A great source!!!
biggrin.gif
 
Mar 10, 2010 at 12:48 AM Post #34 of 46
Quote:

Originally Posted by 4N6 /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Congrats on the Meridian!!! A great source!!!
biggrin.gif



You do know it's your fault!!!! Your rig is one of the best sounding I have ever had the pleasure of listening to. Next "call TTVJ for an amp...
 
Apr 23, 2015 at 9:08 PM Post #35 of 46
What would be the short list today? 4 years after the last post...
 
Apr 23, 2015 at 11:23 PM Post #36 of 46
i was recently in the market for a new cd player. my needs were balanced, sacd, digitial input and no more than 4k. after looking around some, i narrowed my choice to:
 
 * yamaha cd-s2100 (new)
 * marantz sa-11s3 (new)
 * mcintosh mcd500 (used)
 * esoteric k07 (used)
 * luxman d-05 (used)
 * cary 306 pro (used)
 
i purchased the yamaha and absolutely love it. but i would be curious what people think are good buys in this range.
 
Apr 24, 2015 at 1:58 AM Post #37 of 46
^ I know this doesn't answer your question, but are you open to separating the CD transport from the DAC? I'm a big CD listener as well and used to be totally against a separated transport/DAC setup, but now I'm planning on eventually moving my setup towards that direction, mostly for two reasons in particular: (1) the high-end CD player market is rapidly diminishing and future resale values will drop like a rock at some point, and (2) it'd be much easier to find a DAC with the sound & features that I'd want than an all-in-one CDP (already went through that trouble once with CDPs and don't want to do it again, particularly when they're more difficult to re-sell compared to DACs which are much more popular today).
 
That said, if I were to buy a new disc player today, my personal pick would likely be the Oppo BDP-105 (if I had the cash), since I never again want to spend more than $2K on an optical disc player (particularly when they get devalued so quickly). Lots of people rave about the Oppo players for home theater and audio.
 
Have to admit that Yamaha player does look really nice btw.
 
I previously owned that Cary model btw, was very unimpressed by it. Couldn't understand at all how it got so much praise by high-end audio reviewers. I had it with my OII & BHSE at the time btw so you'd think I would've gotten great sound, but I didn't. My non-SACD Plinius CD-101 totally blew it away.
 
Apr 24, 2015 at 9:58 AM Post #38 of 46
  i was recently in the market for a new cd player. my needs were balanced, sacd, digitial input and no more than 4k. after looking around some, i narrowed my choice to:
 
 * yamaha cd-s2100 (new)
 * marantz sa-11s3 (new)
 * mcintosh mcd500 (used)
 * esoteric k07 (used)
 * luxman d-05 (used)
 * cary 306 pro (used)
 
i purchased the yamaha and absolutely love it. but i would be curious what people think are good buys in this range.


I was in the same situation a while ago, also eying used esoteric and cary.
I finally went for the SA11S3 when one showed up as demo with full waranty at 1k under MSRP.
I am absolutely happy with it.
Only annoying thing: it shuts down digital output completely if you load a SACD i.e. although you can select the CD layer of a hybrid disc, there is still no digital output signal. But other than that sound is just music to enjoy. Nothing harsh or brittle, I can listen for hours either via speakers or my HD800 - powered by First Watt M2 - not the headphone output of the player itself !
 
Apr 24, 2015 at 3:23 PM Post #39 of 46
  Quote:

Originally Posted by DaveBSC /img/forum/go_quote.gif
It's data provided by Cambridge in their response to the Stereophile review of the DAC Magic. Obviously the Cambridge's 16/48 max USB input isn't as good as the 24/96 inputs on more expensive DACs, and this problem may not be an issue if a true asynch USB DAC can slave the computer's clock. I don't know.

The point is though that jitter from the source via USB is a significant problem, one that almost all of the USB DACs like the Bel Canto converter can't solve.



Thus I said your point is flawed.
That Cambridge is using the lowest chip PCM27XX, plus its a real lowend DAC. And a laptop??

1. I'm talking about all silence PC with a overbuilt power supply. BTW, computer power supplies are some of the MOST high spec "transformer" because they're supplying juice for sensitive components. Get a high spec one, and all these graphs would be diff.Just a laptop w/ a poor equip doing bad can prove only that setup is bad. Real logical flaw/over generalization.

2. Not all implementation are alike, transport and DAC are so implementation-dependent. There are 3 ways of doing USB, PCM27xx/29XX 16/44. The TI chip for 24/96, and async. Among these 3, there are so many implementation. PLUS modern DAC has jitter rejection in SPDIF, read the last page of the bel canto USB review, using benchmark and Bel canto DAC, the measured charts are identical because the newer DAC can easier resolve those jitters.

3. Async is probably the best, a rather holy grail of USB. But I got the Bel canto w/ TI chip 24/96 coz its the currently best method that let me try out the other spdif DAC. Another even better one would be empirical offramp going into northstar using I2C. But price is high.

4. goto HDtracks, try some 24/96 samples.The ease of use pay itself in no time.

5. unless u do all vinyl, computer is the ONLY way to go moving forward. USB 3 is coming with 10x more bandwidth + backward compatible. It'd be even better.

Five year old post. Nice predictions. I've gone the "computer as a transport" + USB 3 DAC route recently.
 
If you are not computer savvy the new McIntosh MCT450 CD/SACD transport + D150 DSD DAC looks like a nice option.
 
Apr 26, 2015 at 3:29 AM Post #40 of 46
vcoheda: totally mis-read your post #36 when I wrote my previous post, oops. I definitely stick by the Oppo BDP-105 as a possibility for others who are looking for a disc player though (not that I've tried it myself yet, but the general raving for Oppo's DVD & Blu-Ray players is unlike anything I've ever seen before). The Marantz SA players have a devoted following as well.
 
What would be the short list today? 4 years after the last post...

 
I don't know about "best" per se but these are definitely some of the most popular on Head-Fi and other online sites:
- Auralic Vega
- Chord Hugo (in its various incarnations) (THE most popular DAC on Head-Fi right now, and I have no idea why)
- Lynx Hilo
- Mytek Stereo 192
- NAD M51
- Oppo HA-1
- PS Audio PWD
- the Schiit DACs in general (Yggdrasil is slated to be released soon)
- standard pro-audio offerings from brands like Benchmark (DAC2), Lavry (DA11), etc
- various Audio-GD products (none of which I've paid attention to, their line-up is way too confusing to me)
 
Apr 29, 2015 at 3:20 PM Post #41 of 46
Wow, this is an oldie.  I still have the Meridian 808.2i. I wish I had the ability to use my computer as a digital source.. Since I have a MacBook Air. I can't burn my own CDs anymore. (Unless I get a seperate CD writer) I also think I lost a lot of money LOL. betting on the CD. My Meridian sure hasn't  held its value.
 
Apr 30, 2015 at 12:46 PM Post #42 of 46
Is there any DAC that offer these two options?
 
1)  Dual headphone ports for balanced out (like the PONO) or just having SE and balanced headphone ports?
2)  Will disable/bypass the line out when a headphone is connected?
 
 
I was looking at the Chord Hugo TT and Mytek Manhattan.  Currently, I have the iDSD micro.  Neither the Chord nor the iDSD have the above features and I am unsure about the Mytek.
 
Any suggestions?
 
Thanks in advance.
 
-Hedwig
 
May 2, 2015 at 7:53 AM Post #43 of 46
  Is there any DAC that offer these two options?
 
1)  Dual headphone ports for balanced out (like the PONO) or just having SE and balanced headphone ports?
2)  Will disable/bypass the line out when a headphone is connected?
 

 
Resonessence Invicta -- http://www.resonessencelabs.com
 

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