The fact that Torq thinks the RDAC can compete with the Ares is pretty bananas.
The Ares has nice tone, but otherwise wasn't that great. And has some notable technical issues, including unusually big performance differences between channels.
Hell, if
value was a factor in the evaluation then I think the Modi MB is a better bet than the Ares too; though if not the Ares has some benefits.
That translate to the Airist RDAC being just below those two mentioned.
Well, it's
below them. And perhaps closer than people would like to think, but it's not like it's a 95% solution either. And it's more that it has a sound that's something of a cross between them, without having the same level of technicalities. So it's worth noting that the RDAC is also below the Holo Audio CYAN (which I hadn't heard when I wrote that) and the dac1421.
Still does a nice job and I still think it stands up well.
After all, I bought two of them when they originally dropped, and only sold one of them when I completely tore down the rig it was in.
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After the RDAC, the next thing I'd consider would be the Bifrost MB models built/shipped after October 2018 (possibly before that, but that's the most recent Bifrost MB I've heard). They measure and sound differently to the
original Multi-Bit boards (from when they were first released), and the differences there suggest a different board-level grounding/shielding scheme and a higher degree of oversampling.
And after
that probably an RME ADI-2 DAC
fs.
Not much of a fan of the dac1321, even though I very much like the 1421 and 1541.
Not heard the latest Bifrost 2 at all, so can't make any comment there.