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budget R2R DAC - Page 2

post #16 of 23
7/31/10 at 8:53pm

THD is only a measurement of THD under a particular set of circumstances.  There is plenty of gear with low THD that unpleasant to listen to music with.  I would suggest that, while taking measurements into some consideration (as knowing what they actually mean is more important than the measurements themselves) that one consider the advice from people who have listened to quite a bit of gear. 

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post #17 of 23
8/1/10 at 2:54am

Well said!

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post #18 of 23
8/1/10 at 8:28am
Quote:
Originally Posted by virushaus View Post

 

 

@digger945

Could you give me more details on your PCM63 dac please ?

 



Enlightened Audio Designs DSP 7000mkIII would be the one with the PCM63 x 2.

I listen to a modded Valab also.

All my stuff is in my profile.

 

If you shop around on Agon/AudioCircle/Canuck/Craigslist you will eventually find something to try out that will not break the bank.

Not too long ago I had here, all at the same time in one stack,

 EAD DSP7000mkIII(PCM63 x 2 + PMD100 filter) 

Adcom GDA700(PCM1702 x 2 + PMD100) 

Parasound 1600(PCM63 x 2 + PMD100)

Parasound 2000 Ultra(UltraAnalog 20400A x 1 + AES21 digital receiver)

 

I sold them all, and got the EAD 7k back from the nice gent I sold it to. It is my pick only because it was a skosh better at the 3D image with my current setup. None of them are super expensive if you shop around, except maybe the Parasound 2k, which I think I got for something like $632 + shipping and ppal fees.

 

They all sound good for the money, to me and my ears.

 

 


 

Edited by digger945 - 8/1/10 at 8:36am
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post #19 of 23
8/1/10 at 9:48am
Thread Starter 

Quote:
Originally Posted by Currawong View Post

THD is only a measurement of THD under a particular set of circumstances.  There is plenty of gear with low THD that unpleasant to listen to music with.  I would suggest that, while taking measurements into some consideration (as knowing what they actually mean is more important than the measurements themselves) that one consider the advice from people who have listened to quite a bit of gear. 


And that is why I decided to sign up here and ask some people about their opinions. I didn't want to buy some DAC only because one person says its good or better than all others.

 

However, it's true that I decided to go for a R2R DAC after finding that mother-of-tone website and not checking its reliability.

 

But I'm gonna stick to these multibit dacs and thank to some advices already posted in here I'm pretty sure I'll find a good dac for me. I don't know whether it's gonna be better than my current one but actually it's not the point. I just hope it won't be worse:)

 

 

So if anybody could add some more R2R dacs to already mentioned here I'd highly appreciate it.

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post #20 of 23
8/1/10 at 3:36pm

I still don't understand why you are limiting yourself to a dac that uses an R2R chip. I believe the Mhdt Havana uses R2R, but those usually go for $750 used. I'm sure almost any used dac within your price range will be better than what you have now. By the way, some of the world's finest dacs are delta sigma based. Take the MBL 1611F for example, a $20,000 dac and it uses delta sigma.

 

I owned an earlier version of it's little brother, the 1511D which sold for $10,000 that also used delta sigma. All I can say is that was the best sounding dac I ever owned. It surpassed my vinyl rig, surpassed my previous digital which used a PCM-63P chip, and was extremely close to sounding like live music IMO.

 

Like I said before, don't limit yourself to such a shallow selection. Rather, do some research and see which dac in your price range would be a good match for your system.

 

Anyway another dac is Monarchy 22A or 22B (PCM-63)

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post #21 of 23
8/1/10 at 4:30pm

The Havana is a NOS DAC.

 

To see a list of DACs and what chips etc they use, mostly vintage (the list is unfortunately not up-to-date), see here.  

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post #22 of 23
8/1/10 at 6:21pm

Everything from MSB is R2R. They make their own DAC chips.


Edited by IPodPJ - 8/1/10 at 6:23pm
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post #23 of 23
8/2/10 at 1:36pm
Thread Starter 

Actually, I decided not to buy any R2R DAC now. But sooner or later I will - and the reason for it is simple - to hear it:) It's the only way to find out how it sounds.

 

 

Now I'm gonna look for a DAC within price range of my Devilsound v2.1 but hopefully at least slightly better. That way I'll have more money to spend on some good amp and speakers:)

 

 

Anyway, thanks everybody for feeding me with all the info on R2R dacs.


 

Quote:
Originally Posted by computerparts View Post

I still don't understand why you are limiting yourself to a dac that uses an R2R chip. I believe the Mhdt Havana uses R2R, but those usually go for $750 used. I'm sure almost any used dac within your price range will be better than what you have now. By the way, some of the world's finest dacs are delta sigma based. Take the MBL 1611F for example, a $20,000 dac and it uses delta sigma.

 

I owned an earlier version of it's little brother, the 1511D which sold for $10,000 that also used delta sigma. All I can say is that was the best sounding dac I ever owned. It surpassed my vinyl rig, surpassed my previous digital which used a PCM-63P chip, and was extremely close to sounding like live music IMO.

 

Like I said before, don't limit yourself to such a shallow selection. Rather, do some research and see which dac in your price range would be a good match for your system.

 

Anyway another dac is Monarchy 22A or 22B (PCM-63)

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