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Best DAC you've heard

post #1 of 63
1/18/11 at 5:34am
Thread Starter 

What is the best DAC you've heard?

 

What made it special? Price? Approx. year of production? Type of construction - if you know or care?

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post #2 of 63
1/18/11 at 6:33am

The one I one: Lavry DA10 (AD1955-based), the one I don't own: Mark Levinson 360S (PCM1704). Is performance difference huge? Not as huge as the price difference.

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post #3 of 63
1/19/11 at 5:22pm
Thread Starter 

 

I'll contribute: Heard the Burmester 099 DAC Preamp on a $80-100000 show-off speaker-rig at a dealer. Best rig I've heard, which makes me conclude that the dac-part was good as well:) 

Also - I really like the Naim DAC with (and without) the TeddyXPS (PSU upgrade) a lot (I presently have them both). It is very upfront and lively. The XPS makes it slightly smoother, I believe. I've also had the Hegel HD10 for a couple of days, and it was a remarkable improvement to the Marantz SA7001KI CDP I had then. The Hegel kind of lowered the noisefloor, in a refined understaded way. With the Naim, I felt the sound coming more upfront. But I never got to a/b them - and my auditory memory is really unreliable. 

Finally - a small and inexpensive NOS dac has caught my fancy theese days. But since it is now dead de to malfunction, I'll wait until I'll get a steady working sample before I (potentially) will recommend it to anybody. 

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post #4 of 63
1/19/11 at 8:56pm

I would have to put in the ayon skylla. Very neutral and ss sounding. It pulls so much detail out of the music while not being analytical.

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post #5 of 63
1/22/11 at 11:54am

The best DAC I have heard is the one I am lucky to own : the Ayre QB-9. Previous DACs were Wadia 25, Counterpoint DA-10 (upgraded), Wyred 4 Sound DAC (and others). The QB-9 is perfect ! 

 

Maybe this is not the right place to say this, but I find that headphones (and most headphone amps - with some exceptions) are too limited to really appreciate high quality audio. Only my speaker setup (Harbeth / Meridian 551) really allow me to fully appreciate the QB-9.

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post #6 of 63
1/29/11 at 3:35am

Finally decided to go back to the Counterpoint ! The QB-9 is close to perfect, but I still find the Counterpoint more enjoyable.

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post #7 of 63
1/29/11 at 7:25am
Thread Starter 

Is i this one? Why is it so good - it's pretty old, isn't it? :-)

http://audio-database.com/COUNTERPOINT/etc/da-10-e.html

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post #8 of 63
1/29/11 at 12:19pm

That's the one. It was first manufactured first in 1991, but some later models date from 1994 I think. It is not "dry" as most recent DACs are - very smooth but yet detailed.

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post #9 of 63
1/30/11 at 12:57am

So far for pure involving overall presentation, I still haven't found anything that I like more than the Assemblage 2.7.  It has it's weaknesses, but there's something that I really like about the fullness in the lower mids to bass areas.

 

For detail, I would have to say the Weiss 202.  There's a detail and smoothness to it that blows my mind, but I actually didn't feel like I got hooked into the music as much as I do with the Assemblage DAC.

 

So I feel a lot of it depends on what you're looking for.  As a parallel, my experience with clarinets put two particular models at the apex of units still in production and readily available.  You have the Buffet R13 and the Selmer equivalent.  Both are excellent musical instruments and are constructed very very well...but they each have a different strength.  The Buffet has a rounder and mellower tone that lends itself well to classical music, while the Selmer has a brighter and harder tone that makes it a wonderful instrument for jazz.  I wouldn't say one is better than the other, overall...it all depends on what you're looking for.

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post #10 of 63
1/30/11 at 11:31am

Mark Levinson 30.6 reference.  I heard it played through Levinson 33 amps and MBL Radial speakers.  I also heard it through the Dyanaudio reference system too w/Battery powered amps+preamps and their giant speakers.

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post #11 of 63
1/31/11 at 4:06pm

For me it would be the mbl 1611F, Ayon Skylla, and Audio note Dac 4.1x which I recently heard. Each has their strengths and weaknesses.

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post #12 of 63
1/31/11 at 4:56pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by hopkins View Post

Finally decided to go back to the Counterpoint ! The QB-9 is close to perfect, but I still find the Counterpoint more enjoyable.


Do you have the Rapture 24-bit DAC card in your Counterpoint DAC?  And obviously, since Counterpoint is spdif only and QB-9 USB only, the CD transport and PC will impart their own characters...

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post #13 of 63
2/1/11 at 3:50pm

I only have the receiver chip upgrade. I probably have not given the QB-9 enough time... 

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post #14 of 63
2/2/11 at 3:08am

I have an Ayon Skylla II.  I was interested in comparing it to a qb-9 or DAC202.  Has anyone compared any of these?

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post #15 of 63
2/2/11 at 9:08am
Quote:
Originally Posted by rsbrsvp View Post

I have an Ayon Skylla II.  I was interested in comparing it to a qb-9 or DAC202.  Has anyone compared any of these?


The USB input on the Skylla is garbage. If you want to compare it to the Ayre or Weiss, I would suggest partnering it with an Off-ramp 4.

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