[wakeride74]

I'm going to make every effort to stretch my budget enough to afford a fine dac in this price range and have somewhat narrowed it down to the Isabellina or Cary Xciter. This will be for use with my Concerto and LCD-2 (and eventually some D7000) and will also be used at home between a Oppo bdp-93 and Denon 988 feeding Aperion Audio 6T's.
 
For those who have owned or heard either any detail you could provide as to what separates the two sonically would be much appreciated.

 

[Amnesia87]

Ooooh: http://dhost.info/mhdtlab/havana.htm Ahhhh: http://dhost.info/mhdtlab/havana%20balanced.htm Prices: http://dhost.info/mhdtlab/order.htm Honestly though I'd go with the Isabellina 16bit R2R... vs 32bit lameness.

 

[korzena]

 
Anybody compared Isabellina DAC to Havana DAC? 
What were the main differences soundwise?
 
p.s. Is there a separate thread about  Isabellina DAC (not Isabellina HPA)? I cannot find one...

 

[MacedonianHero]

Quote:

I'm going to make every effort to stretch my budget enough to afford a fine dac in this price range and have somewhat narrowed it down to the Isabellina or Cary Xciter. This will be for use with my Concerto and LCD-2 (and eventually some D7000) and will also be used at home between a Oppo bdp-93 and Denon 988 feeding Aperion Audio 6T's.
 
For those who have owned or heard either any detail you could provide as to what separates the two sonically would be much appreciated.

I really liked the XCiter DAC...Cary makes some great gear...but might I also suggest you consider the W4S DAC-2? I find the USB implementation a little cleaner and it has balanced outputs to go along with un-balanced outputs (and 2 COAX inputs).
 
 

 

[sridhar3]

I have to agree with MacedonianHero.  Bought a Cary Xciter DAC based on his recommendation a while back.  It really doesn't get enough love on the forums.  Very underrated piece of equipment.