[Ref]

Anyone heard it? Do you think it is worth it? Or are there any other better options in the same price category? If you go for Desktop amp Home DAC is only $300 more..

 

[SunByrne]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ref Anyone heard it? Do you think it is worth it? Or are there any other better options in the same price category? If you go for Desktop amp Home DAC is only $300 more..

I have a Headroom Desktop with the Home DAC, and I think it's terrific. I spent a fair bit of time at the Headroom tour stop here listening to it and comparing it with the Meridian CDP. The Meridian was better, but not that much better, and of course has a dramatically higher price tag. It's a very clean-sounding DAC.

 

[SunByrne]

lets count... 2

 

[SunByrne]

let's count... 3

 

[SunByrne]

OK... 4.

That's ridiculous. I wrote it once. Seriously.

 

[Tachikoma]

whoa, quadruple post. Thats a new record in my book

 

[JahJahBinks]

Meridian CDP is like $10000?

 

[Teerawit]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JahJahBinks Meridian CDP is like $10000?

Yeah, if you want their top of the line model....

Anywhere from $1000-3000 used; around $4500 MSRP new for the G08.

 

[Ref]

So, are you saying that Meridan is "very clean sounding" or Home?

Could you compare Home DAC to Benchmark 1 or MiniDac?

Also, have you heard the Max DAC? Is it worth $100 more?

 

[JahJahBinks]

I'd say any of the headroom dacs, be it the microdac, home dac or max dac, should be able to compete against many CDP in the thousand dollar range if not beating them to a pulp.

 

[lan]

It's a good product but it depends what you want. At the previous NYC meet, comparing the meridian 588 to the headroom amp/dac it was hooked up to, the meridian had better bass. Each component has strengths but at at certain level no real glaring weaknesses. It all comes down to what your priorities are. Headroom sources are a touch not dynamic enough sounding for me and I'd want a little more cleaner treble extension.

 

[thomaspf]

Wow, that is an interesting statement. The numbers that they recently published indicate solid performance but nothing special or anything close to a DAC1.

CD players have the additional benefit that they have a local master clock to drive the conversion. This usually results in low jitter. DACs need to add a dejitter stage to get to that level of performance. The higher end headroom DACs use an asynchronous sample rate converter but the entry level model just take the output from the receiver untreated.

Cheers

Thomas

 

[Ref]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lan It's a good product but it depends what you want. At the previous NYC meet, comparing the meridian 588 to the headroom amp/dac it was hooked up to, the meridian had better bass. Each component has strengths but at at certain level no real glaring weaknesses. It all comes down to what your priorities are. Headroom sources are a touch not dynamic enough sounding for me and I'd want a little more cleaner treble extension.

which headroom amp/dac was it?

 

[Ref]

I thought that this topic will interest many people, because headroom Max DAC is only $400 more than no DAC (with Desktop AMP).

The point is if Max Dac or Home DAC beats Apogee MiniDAC or Benchmark DAC-1...

 

[lan]

I don't recall which unit I was listening to since it was a while ago. It was I think a desktop with a mix of home and max modules.

Well you can use these units as standalone DACs and many people would like to use their own amps eh?

They sound different than Apogee or DAC1. I prefer the headroom integrated amp/source combo over the DAC1. With the apogee, i'd need a more extended listening session.