Havana, Pico, Vinyl ?
Jul 21, 2009 at 7:30 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 7

kostalex

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I built my system as follows: FLAC > Pico DAC/Amp > WooAudio 3 > HD650.

Then I listened to old inexpensive turntable and it beats Pico to the ground
eek.gif


I do not like the idea to move further by vinyl way. PC is much more convenient transport. Instead I am looking for the DAC which sounds analogish under $1500. I narrowed my choice to MHDT Havana.

Does anybody compared Havana to Pico? Is it really better? May you recommend some other DAC to compete vinyl?
 
Jul 21, 2009 at 3:23 PM Post #2 of 7
Audio-GD DAC-3SE or DAC-3DV. There was a review of the Nakimichi Dragon, which uses 4xPCM1704 chips where the review checked to make sure that he wasn't hooked up to a vinyl rig. The Audio-GD units use the same config, 4xPCM1704. The Reference One and DAC-9 MK3 use 8xPCM1704. The reviews on all these have been quite positive.
 
Jul 21, 2009 at 3:27 PM Post #3 of 7
Quote:

Originally Posted by kostalex /img/forum/go_quote.gif
May you recommend some other DAC to compete vinyl?


you might be better off looking for a valve / tube headphone amp and electrostatic headphones maybe which will add some of the smoothness of vinyl into your chain but in the final analysis it's pretty hard to make a digital source sound like an analogue one.
 
Jul 21, 2009 at 3:49 PM Post #4 of 7
Quote:

Originally Posted by LingLing1337 /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Audio-GD DAC-3SE or DAC-3DV.


These are interesting DACs. Do they support 24/96 (or 24/192) via USB?
 
Jul 21, 2009 at 5:49 PM Post #5 of 7
Quote:

Originally Posted by kostalex /img/forum/go_quote.gif
These are interesting DACs. Do they support 24/96 (or 24/192) via USB?


They support 24/96 but have no USB input. However, you could get something like this or this to use a computer's USB-out. Check out the Audio-GD page, it has tons of info.
 
Jul 21, 2009 at 5:55 PM Post #6 of 7
DAC-3SE does look very interesting. Take a look at the description:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Audio-gd
If you listen to this gear, mabey you will have a mistake, it just like a tube DAC,but it have more dynamic and control, deep bass, thick mid and soft high but you can hear more detail.


It sounds like Kingwa's DAC for people who desire a more analogue sound akin to what NOS DACs provide.
 
Jul 21, 2009 at 6:54 PM Post #7 of 7
I love my MHDT's.

If the build quality of the A-GD Dacs is anything like my C2C Im sure its great...the havana is stunning - I cant go back to lesser DACs - its like half the songs detail is gone.
 

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