[mammal]

Not to mention that when I’m at that over $8,500 level I’m stretching for the DCS Bartok instead. I know that’s not transportable, however, the DCS Bartok is by far the more exciting purchase to me.

Gotta agree with you here - I was thinking where to go from my Chord Hugo TT2, tried adding MScaler, did not like the price. Going up to Dave means buying an amplifier and potentially a streamer. Then I found dCS Bartók (my review here) and found in love.

 

[mammal]

I think opinions are split on the Bartok being better than the Dave,plus i for one don't believe this streamer nonsense.

I get where you are coming from, definitely hard to say which one sounds better if your headphones can be driven by Dave directly (like Focal's can). However, for Abyss AB-1266 the situation is a bit different, Dave can't drive them on their own and you need an amplifier. I have also listened to 30k streamer before (Linn Klimax DSM) and saw no point in paying that much for a streamer. However, all of this said, if you are looking to replace Dave as "all-in-one" device, and you do not want to have a separate streamer / upsampler / amplifier, dCS Bartók is hard to beat. It is as good DAC as Dave is, but packs much more of an amplifier punch, and is capable of driving my power hungry AB-1266.

 

[Muataz]

I would like to suggest a combo of singxer SDA-6 Dac and Singxer SA-1 Headphone amplifer. this competition is superb with my focal clear and Aeon C. better bass control and smooth highs and deep deep stage.

 

[OCC7N]

I have Focal Stellia headphones now and I just pulled the trigger on a Luxman P-750U analog only, fully balanced XLR headphone amplifier. I’m fairly excited!! And the Luxman is one sexy headphone amplifier. Later on I want to match it with the Luxman L-509X integrated amplifier. The perfect analog only duo. I’ll figure out the loudspeakers later on. For now, I just need a great DAC unit and I could use Head-Fi’s help. I’d like to keep the DAC budget fairly reasonable at about $1,500 to $6,000 maximum (US dollars), the lower the better, but I want to be happy in the end. I would also prefer the DAC have an XLR out option. I’d love to read about any and all ideas. And should I just buy the Schiit Yggdrasil and call it a day?

How is the Luxman. Does it have enough power ?

Im looking for something about that price but I have not found anything

 

[Solan]

How is the Luxman. Does it have enough power ?

Im looking for something about that price but I have not found anything

Enough power to drive Abyss 1266 well. So take that as a YES.

 

[NeoDiNardo]

I never did get the amp.

 

[hakunamakaka]

If you are ok with vintage and have a luck finding Sonic Frontiers SFD-1 it would be amazing purchase for speaker/hp's setup. Others worth to mention La voce dac, Aqua La Scala MKII. All of these are probably overkill for just a headphone use. Choice can vary depending on the sort of music you are into, instrumental --> R2R with tube output if finance stretches that much, electronic you should be fine with decent chip based dac. I enjoy my qutest with electronic music, but for instrumental it's not natural/full sounding. Good R2R dacs are expensive that's why i'm thinking to go back to Vinyls

 

[SeifemitCola]

I bought a used Holo Audio Spring DAC (for 1500€) about a month ago as an upgrade to my smsl su-9 and it had a huge impact in my system. Most noticably the timbre, the texture and the spaciousness in soundstage improved. The caveat to that is, that it is not nearly as noticable on my focal clear mgs, as it is on my Hifiman Aryas, as for those it is a night and day difference and for the clears it's not. Honestly I wonder if there is that much scaling to be had from a good DAC for dynamic headphones, but that might just be me.

 

[chesebert]

I bought a used Holo Audio Spring DAC (for 1500€) about a month ago as an upgrade to my smsl su-9 and it had a huge impact in my system. Most noticably the timbre, the texture and the spaciousness in soundstage improved. The caveat to that is, that it is not nearly as noticable on my focal clear mgs, as it is on my Hifiman Aryas, as for those it is a night and day difference and for the clears it's not. Honestly I wonder if there is that much scaling to be had from a good DAC for dynamic headphones, but that might just be me.

I have never heard of a chi-fi dac that actually sounds good. The issue is not the Clear, rather the dac. Holo sounds clean, extended blah blah like all the other chi-fi stuff (probably slightly better than smsl) but not musical. For $1-2k, try the Sonic Frontier, ML 36/360S or Wadia or Theta. You will be able to hear a clear improvement over SMSL with any headphone.

 

[SeifemitCola]

I have never heard of a chi-fi dac that actually sounds good. The issue is not the Clear, rather the dac. Holo sounds clean, extended blah blah like all the other chi-fi stuff (probably slightly better than smsl) but not musical. For $1-2k, try the Sonic Frontier, ML 36/360S or Wadia or Theta. You will be able to hear a clear improvement over SMSL with any headphone.

I assume that's bias speaking, because the smsl DAC and the Spring sound nothing alike.

To quote Herb Reichert from Stereophile on his Pass Labs INT-25 integrated amplifier Review:

“In my personal life I prefer the minimalist, one-box architecture of integrated amplifiers. Always have... I would never purchase an integrated amplifier with a DAC or phono stage residing in the same box. To me, that's like buying an active loudspeaker. Why would I pollute a fine audio component with a non-upgradeable and possibly third-rate ancillary For digital, I want a super-quality DAC like the HoloAudio Spring I used for this review. For my moving-coil cartridges I want a step-up transformer and the best tubed phono stage I can afford. Therefore, I need my integrated amp to be a simple, purist, high-bias class-A design, like the new Pass Labs INT-25 ($7250).”

As I said it sounds lovely on my Aryas. I do not dislike the sound I'm getting from the clears, it's just, that it's easier for me to notice the difference in quality of my source when listening to my Aryas. But I didn't want to step on your toes. I can tell you that I like something and you can tell me that you dislike it, that won't change the way I feel about it. It's fine by me.

 

[chesebert]

I assume that's bias speaking, because the smsl DAC and the Spring sound nothing alike.

Not bias just string of disappointments. Never heard SMSL but not going out of my way to hear one either.

 

[SeifemitCola]

Not bias just string of disappointments. Never heard SMSL but not going out of my way to hear one either.

This I can understand. Sorry, I meant no offence. Is there anything in particular, that you'd recommend someone to avoid?
I also bought some chi-fi-stuff that did not work for me (topping a90). But the Holo DAC I really like.

 

[chesebert]

This I can understand. Sorry, I meant no offence. Is there anything in particular, that you'd recommend someone to avoid?
I also bought some chi-fi-stuff that did not work for me (topping a90). But the Holo DAC I really like.

For R-2R dacs around 1-2k, I would look at TOTL dacs from late 90s/early 2000s. You will be limited in high res format but you can always transcribe those in real time with your server. If you want modern dac with warranty I would look at dangerous music dacs. You can buy and return if you don’t like.