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Best DAC from $1500 to $2500 (or so) Can anything beat the Eastern Electric Minimax?

post #1 of 6
6/13/11 at 2:56pm
Thread Starter 

I currently have an eastern electric minimax dace with a mullard tube in it as well has a musical fidelity v-link asynchronous usb->spdif feeding it.  From what I've read the EE seems like a giant killer (especially with the MF v-link feeding it).  My question is, how much would I have to spend to actually make a significant upgrade to this DAC.  Would dacs in the $1500-$2500 range really sound that much better?  Has anyone compared the EE to some in this range:

Ayre QB-9
Bel Canto 2.5
blue circle 507
Neko D100
Wyred4sound Dac-2 (6moons says this one isn't much better than the EE)
red wine audio isabella
wavelength brick
ps audio perfect wave
audio GD- NFB-7
weiss dac-2
Audio note (whatever dac of theirs is in the pricerange)
tranquility DAC

These are the ones off the top of my head around $2000.  Please suggest others if you can think of any.  Also I would prefer to stay with the warm musical characteristics of the EE.

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post #2 of 6
6/13/11 at 8:53pm

I can't speak from experience, but a lot of people seem to love the Anedio D1 which is around $1200.  There is talk of a future more feature laden model which I'm sure would be closer to the $2000 range.  I'd be curious to hear if anyone has done a comparison between the Anedio and the EE since they both use the same saber dac.  

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post #3 of 6
6/14/11 at 7:43am

Having done a side by side comparison, the Headroom UDAC (also with the ESS9018 processor) provides an extremely cohesive frequency response (nothing is exaggerated), deeper and wider soundstage and is overall smoother sounding without loss of detail over the stock minimax.  This is all provided with the supplied power brick for the UDAC.  (Unfortunately, this DAC is extremely underrated and below the radar of most head-fiers, IMO!!)

A close audiophile friend (9pintube) just upgraded the opamps in his minimax to AD797BRZ and the sound is greatly improved and brings the sound signature closer to that of the UDAC. The UDAC still wins in width and depth of soundstage and cohesiveness, though.  Do some opamp rolling with the minimax and you should be happy for a very long time!! The minimax is a steal at $750 and upgrading the op amps (at least to the AD797's) is around a $150 bucks.  The improvement in sound is excellent and well worth the investment in the op amps.

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post #4 of 6
6/16/11 at 11:30am

http://www.digitalaudioreview.net.au/index.php/audio-reviews/digital-source-reviews/item/249-anedio-d1-dac-ess-sabre-9018

 

He compares the Anedio D1 to the W4S DAC-2 and EE Minimax. All of them play in the same league it seems, but each possesses a different flavour.

Actually on the same website, he reviews and compares the A-GD Ref 7.1, EE Minimax and other DACs.


Edited by Shahrose - 6/16/11 at 11:39am
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post #5 of 6
6/17/11 at 8:09am
Hi
I have hegel hd20.
Its warm yet very transparent.
smily_headphones1.gif
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post #6 of 6
6/18/11 at 4:22am

Willing to consider something used? I'm really not in love with any of the new DACs in that price range, but on the used market that could get you anywhere from a Theta Gen Va to a Levinson 360 or Accustic Arts DAC-1 Mk4.

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