End game dac under $3k

[musicmaker]

Pretty sure it had the Analog v2 board but going to double check this with him. Detail was great, soundstage and imaging were great, but it was bright and a bit too crisp in the top end. Now perhaps if I didn't have a super transparent amp in the chain I might've loved it. But the GS-X is as transparent as it gets and you get to hear the source.

 

[goodvibes]

What are you feeding the DAC? If it's a computer via USB, you're wasting time trying to do better. All IMO, of course but I never got as good a result that way as from dedicated source kit.

 

[Don Quichotte]

Also, you seem to disagree with @oneguy's impressions, but then you're comparing then from the point of view of smoothness / edginess and not of soundstage width... (thanks for sharing, anyway!)

 

[musicmaker]

Also, you seem to disagree with @oneguy's impressions, but then you're comparing then from the point of view of smoothness / edginess and not of soundstage width... (thanks for sharing, anyway!)

Imaging is more important to me than soundstage in a headphone. Both have great imaging and I could not pick one over the other. I did not disagree with his soundstage impressions, just said its odd that soundstage observations would differ between phones vs speakers.