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New DAC's on the horizon

post #1 of 11
6/1/11 at 9:02pm
Thread Starter 
Hi all, longtime lurker, first time poster. I recently purchased some Denon D2000's and I think I am hooked. Living in NYC, I think it's easier to optimize listening for headphones over a stereo/home theater setup. I have Grado SR60's from 12 years ago that sounded fine until I bought the Denon's, so there must be room for a ton of improvement yet.

In any case, I really want to get a DAC and amp to see what kind of improvements they make. For me, I am interested in products that work in the Apple world, just for convenience, but it's not an absolute requirement.

There seem to be several interesting DAC's on the horizon. On my short list are the Schiit Bifrost, NuForce iDO, and the Peachtree DACiT. The Cambridge Audio DacMagic seems pretty appealing to me, too. Is there anything else noteworthy on the horizon that is as of yet unreleased? It's so hard for a noob to get their head wrapped around all the choices, especially since I can't just walk into a store to audition most of the stuff mentioned in these forums.

I am thinking I will most likely pair whatever DAC I get with the Woo Audio 6. I am pretty sure it will work well with the low impedance Denon's, and it just looks cool, and I want it sitting on my shelf for that reason alone, ha. If all goes well, next step is vinyl...
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post #2 of 11
6/1/11 at 9:53pm
Consider used DACs, too. New ones come out and are hyped up for awhile. Then other ones come out and the old ones become unfashionable.

Still, a lot of used ones sound terrific and some vintage ones become popular again. I'd go for an older one that had good reviews when it came out. You'll save a lot of money and still get good sound.
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post #3 of 11
6/1/11 at 10:38pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Uncle Erik View Post

Consider used DACs, too. New ones come out and are hyped up for awhile. Then other ones come out and the old ones become unfashionable.

Still, a lot of used ones sound terrific and some vintage ones become popular again. I'd go for an older one that had good reviews when it came out. You'll save a lot of money and still get good sound.


Would you say that DAC technology has begun to plateau and that a lot of what is coming out now at the higher end ($1000 and up) is mostly either a lateral move or a miniscule concentrate-hard-enough-to-bend-spoons-to-hear-a-difference?  And how far back would you be comfortable with going?


Edited by Mkubota1 - 6/1/11 at 10:41pm
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post #4 of 11
6/2/11 at 11:39pm
I think the technology plateaued some years ago. New chips and designs come out, but I'm not convinced that they improve on older designs. Sure, new ones sound good. But you can also get great sound from ten years ago.
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post #5 of 11
6/3/11 at 12:11am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Uncle Erik View Post

Consider used DACs, too. New ones come out and are hyped up for awhile. Then other ones come out and the old ones become unfashionable.

Still, a lot of used ones sound terrific and some vintage ones become popular again. I'd go for an older one that had good reviews when it came out. You'll save a lot of money and still get good sound.


Any examples?

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post #6 of 11
6/3/11 at 12:55am
So I'm expecting a Schiit component that ties all products together: The Schiit Yggdrasil. biggrin.gif

I became interested in Norse Mythology after playing the Valkyrie Profile video games. They take some...liberties, but awesome nevertheless.

Looking forward to the Bifrost as an upgrade to my E7.
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post #7 of 11
6/3/11 at 1:14am

Definitely excited to see the new Schiit DACs.  I wonder if they're going to share similar dimensions with their amps, and maybe they'll offer a matching rack or stand so you can have a pile of... NM.  $400 seems like a pretty nice sweet spot for entry-level to mid-fi level DACs and I would expect their first DAC to be well under that.

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post #8 of 11
6/3/11 at 1:40am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Yoga View Post


Any examples?



There is a separate thread on vintage DACs http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/528199/the-vintage-dac-cd-player-list-review-thread

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post #9 of 11
6/3/11 at 1:40am

Audiolab MDAC also on the way, along with the EE Minimax MKII.

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post #10 of 11
6/3/11 at 8:28pm

To the OP, look for a deal on a used Parasound 1100 D/AC.  Enjoy.  It blows away most of the similarly priced new crap that's being sold these days.

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post #11 of 11
6/7/11 at 1:03pm
Thread Starter 

Woo Audio is releasing a new DAC and CD transport soon, too, apparently.

 

Thanks for the tip on the Parasound.  I am hoping to get something with USB/iDevice support, so we shall see.

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