[hedphonz]

Hi guys,


I need a bit of help in choosing a decent dac to go with my Graham slee headphone amp and senn HD650's. Unfortunately here in New Zealand I am unable to audition these dacs as the market is small and items like these are generally just ordered from overseas based upon reviews. (there is a audio gd agent but in another part of the country)

I use a squeezebox connected to PC to serve up the music and I'm happy to upgrade the headphone amp and cans to higher spec models later in order to get the best out of the dac.


I have sort of settled on these 2 dacs as they seem to be popular choices but am open to any better suggestions if you have any but budget is about US$1500 only. The ref 7 is a stretch already.




Thanks in advance

 

[vrln]

If I recall correctly there is an Audio-gd reseller in New Zealand. Maybe you could contact him and ask if you can test the gear somewhere?

 

[hedphonz]

Yes there is a agent in NZ , I mentioned that in my first post.


Can anyone who has listened or knows of listening results please tell me which dac has the best SQ.

I want to buy one asap as I am dac-less and just need a heads up on which is generally regarded as the better


Thanks

 

[vrln]

Sorry, I misread that... To answer your question, well, there is no straight answer... They are quite different products. The REF7 is a multibit 8x PCM1704UK chip solution with a Krell-style custom current mode. The W4S DAC-2 is a Delta-Sigma DAC that uses the latest Sabre32 chip. They are both fantastic according to reviews, but personally I only have experience with the Reference 7. It all depends on the forum you are visiting: here you´ll probably find more REF7 owners, but I doubt many or any of them have heard both.
 
Without testing there is no way to know which one you´ll like more. 

 

[hedphonz]

Thanks for your reply vrin,

I was hoping you wouldn't say that, i would rather hear someone say go for this or that it's way better, but as you pointed out different animals so maybe no definitive answer.

I think from the point of view of resale value it may be better to go W4S as they seem to be better known and are american made where as the audio gd stuff can be viewed as " Chinese made " and therefore not of same quality.(even though I know that's not necessarily true).

One thing that does make me drool though is the Phoenix amp, would quite like that in the future and therefore probably better synergy with the ref7

Decisions decisions

Cheers

 

[fdhfdy]

I don't believe so called american made products anymore,lately bought two expensive gears from the U.S. Their buid/sound quality is so disappiointing.(loosen screws, misplaced transformer, scratchs on the chaisis, long shipping time...)
 
there is an review for reference 5 and the guy mentioned dac-2 as well. Go through it if you haven't. I agree with him as I owned few of these products listed in the artical and what he said about them is ture.