looking for good DAC with Sennheiser HD800 (up to $700)

PS Audio DLIII. It is slightly warm and balances off the HD800s a bit in the right direction (according to my ears).

Check out some tube dac's I think a tube dac would compliment your HD-800 really well

The Music Hall DAC 25.2 features a 6922 tube single-ended (rca) output plus a solid-state differential balanced output, as well as a "asynchronous reclocking and anti jitter control system"; there is a demo for $425 at Audiogon.

After rather extensively researching the same price bracket for a DAC, I'm left with an Audio-GD DAC-19 DSP set to arrive this week!

I have the music hall dac25.2 and its  a great dac but I would get the xindak dac-5 or dac-8. I got to hear the dac-5 a few weeks ago and it sounded much nicer than my music hall. I think the xindak is probably on par with the Mhdt Havana.

I have the lehmann BCL and found he meier StageDac to be an excellent match with the HD800. If the matrix really does sound comparable to the Lehman I would highly recommend  the StageDAC.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bpj87 

After rather extensively researching the same price bracket for a DAC, I'm left with an Audio-GD DAC-19 DSP set to arrive this week!

I would probably get the same in this price range.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MacedonianHero 

PS Audio DLIII. It is slightly warm and balances off the HD800s a bit in the right direction (according to my ears).

Excellent suggestion.  I just picked one up in brand new condition from Audiogon for $425 shipped.  With your budget, you might even be able to find a modded DL III.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thaddy 

Excellent suggestion.  I just picked one up in brand new condition from Audiogon for $425 shipped.  With your budget, you might even be able to find a modded DL III.

Thanks. Listening to it right now with my HD800s (Tragically Hip) and simply amazing. If you go with a "bright' side of neutral DAC, the HD800s would not sound ideal and a little too bright.

The Benchmark DAC1 USB  is doing it for me....it doesn't add anything to the transported material - no additives needed for my hd800....gives me true bass and lush highs but it's only as good as the transported data and mastered material...it's not going to make 1960 bad mastering sound like a current mastering....garbage in/garbage out...

...or, to stay within your price range, the DAC1 could be a good choice.

Also, the built in amp on the DAC1 really is not that bad at all.
 

That's my 2 cents.

Wish the OP luck.

Now that I own stats...I can truly say that this combo is nearly stat like!

I would definitely get the DAC19 DSP with that budget, anything else  would need the rest of your gear to be extremely high end for decent performance.

Has anybody had a chance to hear this one yet?

Originally Posted by MichealAngelo 

Check out some tube dac's I think a tube dac would compliment your HD-800 really well

I like to use a tube dac with my hd800's I feel that it completes the sound. I use a lite dac60 with them paired with a violectric amp, I like this dac better than the benchmark dac1, the xindak looks interesting I heard its better than the lite dac60 which is better than the dac58

x2 on the tube dac.

I'm using the DAC END 2 with Siemens E88CC tubes with the 3-channel B22 to drive the HD800 and have amazing result so far.