korzena
500+ Head-Fier
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- Aug 9, 2009
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Please recommend a DAC with wide soundstage, very good depth and holography (price up to $1200).
Benchmark Dac1 is great. If not, you may want to wait for the upcoming Schiit Statement Dac, should fit your budget nicely.
so the upcoming schiit dac has a wide soundstage, huh?
Haha, who knows? But it should be pretty darn good, given the existing Schiit products, it should really excel at its price point.
You should take a look at the Atoll DAC 100
You might want to consider some of the dacs based on the Sabre 9018 chip, for example Anedio D1 (you'll have to wait for updated version), W4S, EE Minimax, etc. Pricewise they would be competitive with the Benchmark Dac1, but excel over the Dac1 in terms of soundstaging and holographic imaging. I have the Anedio D1 and a Benchmark Dac1-USB, and have compared these 2 dacs -- there is no question in my mind that the Anedio presents a much better image. By comparison the Benchmark's imaging seems flat and 2-dimensional (although finely etched and detailed - maybe too much so). The Anedio is both. I've only heard the Anedio, but have read similar comments about the other Sabre-based dacs.
Thanks for the suggestion of the Sabre chip. Good to know it can have the qualities I am looking for. The only thing that worries me is that I've heard that DACs based on Sabre tend to have more analytical nature, while I am looking for musical and more analog sound...
Have you had a chance to compare it to other DACs in this regard?
Not all Sabre32 dac's are made equal. Yes they probably give you more detail than other dac chips but with the proper design do sound extremely musical. My NFB-7 is proof of that, its a shame its no longer in production.
Not other DAC's in it's class no.
But when listening to live recordings, the background is never silent, there is air and depth, I can hear the surroundings behind the music are buzzing with activity out in to the far distance.
Thanks. I will try to get more information about the DAC. It would be good to have a comparison to some other DACs.