[J-Pak]

Quote:

Originally Posted by uzziah you're amazed they could find it in their infinite wisdom to put a usb input on a $2000 dac? why do headfi'ers love gear companies so much?

Please tell me more about more high end (aka not Zhalou/chinese) DACs that offer USB.

Whats wrong about liking "gear companies"? It's why I'm on Headfi in the first place.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ezkcdude So, whatever happened with this? Did you ever get one? Inquiring minds want to know.

I'm on the list to get one from my <not so local> audio store. They haven't shipped them to that particular dealer yet.

 

[Sleestack]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ezkcdude So, whatever happened with this? Did you ever get one? Inquiring minds want to know.

Still waiting on shipments from BC.

 

[rodentmacbeastie]

Volume is optional at a cost of $500! Even a DACT balanced stepped attenuator is less than that and I don't think that Bel Canto can, or better yet, will install a better knob! I will stick with my plans and wait for Ken at Storm Digital to come out with his $1500 tube output D1 and build a passive DACT volume control and save $500. Or take that $500 and add two of the DACT preamp modules and voila, balanced preamp and kick ass DAC for the same price!

It probably will be a killer DAC, I just think I nee tubes in there somewhere since I no longer have my Woo, the source seems to be the best place for them! This way I get tube presence without having to deal with low power for the speakers and I can also run balanced to my HD650.

 

[shiosai]

I just collected my bel canto dac 3 today, sound really promising and I like it better than the benchmark dac 1

 

[Riboge]

I can echo shiosai. I got mine from someone who said he owned it for 3 weeks, but it looks new and I don't know how many hours it was used. Right off it sounds at least as good as the Stello 220mkII which has more than 100 hours on it. They both are simply outstanding in build quality and sound quality, very enjoyable to listen to endlessly.

 

[Konig]

Quote:

Originally Posted by J-Pak Please tell me more about more high end (aka not Zhalou/chinese) DACs that offer USB. Whats wrong about liking "gear companies"? It's why I'm on Headfi in the first place. I'm on the list to get one from my <not so local> audio store. They haven't shipped them to that particular dealer yet.

Wavelength Crimson dac and the Twinplus dac from holland. So far i havent heard any1 that talks bad abt wavelength products (except for the price)

 

[Distroyed]

Quote:

Originally Posted by proglife haha...the random derogatory comment someone left made me spit out my coffee

It looks like it got deleted... what did it say? PM me if appropriate.

 

[humanflyz]

@Riboge:

Any more updates on how the unit sounds?

 

[Edwood]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Distroyed It looks like it got deleted... what did it say? PM me if appropriate.

Here you go!

Quote:

Originally Posted by HugoFreire Here's a short article about it. The image in the article is actually a photoshoped version of the pics that Edwood took at the CES show (original ones here) AFAIK, those are the only pics of the DAC3 available yet.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Edwood LOL, someone else didn't like the fact that my pics got ripped off without credit.

Quote:

Josh Ray, You are a *********! Posted by: Jack Delaney at April 19, 2006 12:30 PM

 

[humanflyz]

So, anyone else receive his DAC3 yet?

 

[granodemostasa]

any new impressions?

 

[Riboge]

Sorry for not reposting here sooner, but I am reluctant to make a review-like statement about this dac since I cannot compare to what others consider benchmarks like the Benchmark or Lavry. I haven't had a lot of experience critically evaluating and comparing dacs, but I am enjoying this dac immensely. Someone wrote me that it was reputed to be thin in the lower midrange by some dealers and I thought I heard that early on but with fuller burn-in I no longer do. It has an impressively open and smooth sound and seems to me admirably balanced across the whole frequency spectrum. It is very clear and unveiled with very black background. Whether it is worth the asking price I can't say since that's a comparative thing. It's better IMO than the Stello 220 mkII which costs less and is also a wonderful first-rate dac but not quite as huge in soundstage and openness. I paid a lot less than the list of $2495 and would not have been willing to pay that much for any dac going in, but I probably would be unwilling to give it back if I had to pay the difference up to list now.

 

[humanflyz]

How's the bass?

 

[rumatt]

The Bel Canto site lists a "Dac3 remote" http://www.belcantodesign.com/prod_remote_pre3dac3.html

Does anyone have more info on this? Does it come with the DAC3? It looks like you could essentially use the DAC3 as a DAC/Preamp.

 

[Ruppin]

It seems to me that higher end DACs have been rare lately. My personal feeling is that products that aren't that good tend to generate no reviews rather than poor reviews.

What is the story on the DAC3.

Also, I am perfectly happy using an optical connection, which I suspect will be better than USB. Are improvements in the DAC3 primarily centered around adding USB support, or is it better across the board?