[Tennessee]

Can someone recommend me an alternative for RME ADI-2 DAC?
I have ADI already and loving it, just need another DAC for different place.

What I mean is:
- great DAC,
- with better than RME HP amp,
- XLRs out.
- max €2k price.

Thanks.

 

[PaganDL]

HI @Tennessee,

Hard to subjectively 'beat' the ADI-2 DAC, I just got the Pro 2 myself...

Anyway, depending on your needs, these two come to mind in no particular order :

PS Audio Stellar Gain DAC
Musical Fidelity M6s DAC


Feel free to ask more if you need.

Hope you have a great day !

 

[Tennessee]

Honestly exactly those two are my top choices atm and I'm looking for something new since quite a while now.
I think I'm gonna pull the trigger on one of them used when I'll see some good deal.

I wish you a great day too!

 

[PaganDL]

Honestly exactly those two are my top choices atm and I'm looking for something new since quite a while now.
I think I'm gonna pull the trigger on one of them used when I'll see some good deal.

I wish you a great day too!

@Tennessee,

Honestly, unless you're in the middle of nowhere, not hard to go for a decent demo & new isn't going to be much more than used & at least you know it's going to work.

Hope you have a great day !

 

[Tennessee]

Briefly listen is not enough for me to judge an audio equipment especially DACs, where at some point differences are sometimes just subtle.
Used vs new can be even 50% if you wait long enough But spontaneous buy is usually just 20-25% less than new, which is not good enough to consider, here I agree with you.

 

[PaganDL]

Briefly listen is not enough for me to judge an audio equipment especially DACs, where at some point differences are sometimes just subtle.
Used vs new can be even 50% if you wait long enough But spontaneous buy is usually just 20-25% less than new, which is not good enough to consider, here I agree with you.

Honestly, @Tennessee,

Depends on you but when I was looking at the Stellar Gain DAC & the M6s, I demo the hell out of both of them, listening to each for at least an hour & half on both on different days with both speakers & headphones.
In that time, could tell enough to know the M6s won for me though given I use the head out on DACs as a line out, it wasn't going to work in my usage otherwise subjectively & personally, definitely m6 is the better, more dynamic performer.

As a side note, unfortunately the used market is a crock where I am & unless it's from a dealer I know who has hard to find, good quality gear, I tend not to touch used. Good sales &/or 25% off is more than fair though this also doesn't factor the up to 1.8 exchange rate compared to USD.
Also, by the time you wait for some stuff even if used is viable, the next thing comes out which may not only be potentially better but potentially cheaper...

Hope you have a great day !

 

[gimmeheadroom]

I haven't heard the MuFi DAC but I have their M5Si integrated amp and it's killer. If this amp is indicative of their gear I'm sure the DAC is great. The other thing I would suggest if you happen to need a CD transport is the Audiolab 8300CD new model with DAC. I have the previous model which does have a USB DAC but is marketed as a CD transport. It runs a ESS 9018 Pro and is unbelievably musical. It has XLR out and plays 5.6 MHz DSD. I can't remember if it goes to 11.2 but I think I had a problem and their support was worthless. But it's a wonderful device.

I have the RME and I'm pretty happy with it although I agree the headamp doesn't get along with every headphone. I'm planning to buy the Brooklyn DAC+ next month but for MQA rather than the headamp. But I will see if it likes my HD 600s better... anyway I'm thinking about a separate amp to run off the DACs. Have you considered the Brooklyn DAC+ and the various Benchmark DAC3 models?

 

[Marutks]

Burson C3X has better HP amp.

 

[Darksoul]

Another ADI-DAC 2.

 

[Tsukuyomi]

I have an ADI-2 DAC and i did consider an upgrade at one point, i was looking at the SPL Phonitor e (https://spl.audio/professional-fidelity/phonitor-e/?lang=en) and thought it was a great offering, but then decided theres no point since i dont need BE and dont think i ever will since to me i hear 0 change in audio quality.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

Burson C3X has better HP amp.

Better than what?

It should anyway, it costs more than anything mentioned in the thread. Finding a dealer in Europe is a nightmare. I just checked 20 German sites listed on Burson as retailers in Europe and not one of them had any Burson products listed at all. Found one in Poland for around 2.400 Euros.

 

[Marutks]

C3X sounds better than "neutral" solid state amps like THX 887, Topping DX 7 Pro and presumably RME DAC.

 

[Chris Kaoss]

Audio GD R28 or R27.
Raw clean power and the R2R Dac is a must listen to.

No matter you drive headphones or active speaker, which i do.
Adjustable DAC modes, Oversampling or NOS, are a nice feature too.

But it has a hugh footprint bc of power need air to breath and relais based volume control.
No fancy device, just functional.

 

[Ieonasj]

xduoo ta-22 with gold lion tubes.

 

[LucasKA]

Depend if you want to keep going down the clean/neutral route or try something else.

Benchmark DAC + HP4 for neutral.

Otherwise I had been intrigued by R2R DAC which has another way of interpreting sound.

I still kept the ADI in my 2nd system as I love the display and how clean the sound is!