My list of recommended DACs

[project86]

First off, I want to emphasize that this is NOT meant to be an exhaustive list. I don't pretend to know everything and I certainly haven't heard every DAC out there. In fact I have a list of about a dozen DACs that I plan on checking out when I get a chance. That being said, I have probably heard more DACs than most people, and these are ones I recommend.
 
I'm making this post because this is a question I get asked rather often via PM. I welcome PMs with questions, comments, etc, so I'm not complaining, but it seemed like it might be more helpful to have it posted rather than answering the same question over and over.
 
So here is my list, broken into a categories:
 

 
Starting from the top of the picture and increasing in quality and price as we go down. Each new category is a fairly significant improvement over the one before it.
 
Under $200: Hot Audio DAC Extasy, DAC Wow, and Audinst HUD-mx1 (not pictured, a friend is borrowing mine). These 3 all have exceptional performance for the price, and for some people are about as far as you need to go for a DAC. The DAC Wow is the most transparent, the Audinst is almost as good but more versatile, and the DAC Extasy has the warmest "analog" type sound.
 
Under $300: Matrix Cube. I preferred it to several more expensive DACs in a head to head comparison, including the Cambridge DacMagic and the Musical Fidelity M1. It has a well balanced detailed sound with an exceptional soundstage. It also has a great headphone amp section, which was easily on par with a Musical Fidelity V-CAN with V-PSU power supply during direct comparison.
 
Under $500: Yulong D100. I found it to be in the same league as some very nice DACs such as the Lavry DA10, Benchmark DAC1, and Grace Design M902. The built in amp is good enough that you have to spend $300-500 to see a significant improvement.
 
Price unlimited: Anedio D1. I am still working on a review for this, because I want to be sure it is as good as I think it is. At this moment it matches or exceeds every DAC I have around, including the much more expensive Esoteric D70, Wavelength Cosine, and MBL 1511e, as well as the earlier mentioned Benchmark, Lavry, and Grace Design units. I can hardly believe the performance from this $1300 unit.
 

 
So that's my list, please read the full review of each item for further info. Reviews of the DAC wow and the Anedio will be posted as soon as I'm finished.

 

[bilditup1]

Color me officially intrigued re: the WOW, considering just how much you liked the Audinst

 

[computerparts]

I'm not familiar with the other dacs but I am familiar with mbl. You actually have an mbl dac on hand? I just find it difficult that something with a price of $1270 should even be mentioned in the same sentence, the mbl was a $10k retail dac afterall. I had a 1511D and nothing else I tried prior (Levinson, Lector, Audio Note, Audio Research, MSB, CAL, Electrocompaniet, Theta, I'm sure I'm missing a few) could even come close. Where some other dacs and cd players could sound like a good turn table, the mbl sounded like live music and that was only in single ended mode.

 

[project86]

Quote:

I'm not familiar with the other dacs but I am familiar with mbl. You actually have an mbl dac on hand? I just find it difficult that something with a price of $1270 should even be mentioned in the same sentence, the mbl was a $10k retail dac afterall. I had a 1511D and nothing else I tried prior (Levinson, Lector, Audio Note, Audio Research, MSB, CAL, Electrocompaniet, Theta, I'm sure I'm missing a few) could even come close. Where some other dacs and cd players could sound like a good turn table, the mbl sounded like live music and that was only in single ended mode.

Yep, I do have one and that's how I feel (at this point anyway... ). I should mention that I've never been THAT impressed with the MBL compared to some other owners I've spoken to. Perhaps it is a "system synergy" thing, but I actually prefer both my Esoteric D70 DAC ($6k retail I believe) and my Marantz SA-1 player ($7k plus $2.5k mods) over the MBL. Note that I purchased all 3 of them second hand when they were a few years old, so I didn't pay anywhere near msrp, and my brother chipped in a good portion as well since we share our gear. If I had paid full price on each I might be compelled to like the MBL the most!
 
The Anedio is the only one that I got brand new. Price be damned, I am finding it to be my new reference. I'm certainly not the first to be blown away by a Sabre ES9018 based DAC.... I've heard many people proclaim the Eastern Electric Minimax, Wyred 4 Sound DAC1/DAC2, and Buffalo32 are giant killers in every sense of the word.

 

[computerparts]

Very interesting. It could be a system synergy thing. The mbl is the only dac I have found to be truly transparent/neutral and let me hear everything else that's in the chain, cables and all. I couldn't detect any sound signature from the dac at all other than the realistic dynamics. It especially did percussion unlike anything I have ever heard. I didn't pay retail for my mbl either, but it impressed me more than the Levinson 35 which I got for around the same price. Does the Anedio have rca output or is it strictly headphone? Also, what are you using for a transport? I had a Theta Jade at the time I had the mbl and couldn't have been happier.

 

[project86]

The Anedio does have RCA outs, and I've been using it with a Luxman P-1u when I don't use the integrated headphone amp. The interesting thing about the Anedio is that it just doesn't seem to care what I use as a transport. I have tried the Marantz SA-1, a Lexicon RT-20, a Theta Miles, Rotel RDV-1092, Marantz CD63SE, and an old Kyocera DA-510cx. I can not tell them apart when paired with the Anedio D1. I assume this is because of the exceptional multi stage jitter reduction involved but it is still impressive. When I have time I need to find a really cheap player and see how that does.
 
I'm on vacation soon for a few weeks but when I return I will dive right in to my full review.

 

[digger945]

Quote:

The Anedio does have RCA outs, and I've been using it with a Luxman P-1u when I don't use the integrated headphone amp. The interesting thing about the Anedio is that it just doesn't seem to care what I use as a transport. I have tried the Marantz SA-1, a Lexicon RT-20, a Theta Miles, Rotel RDV-1092, Marantz CD63SE, and an old Kyocera DA-610. I can not tell them apart when paired with the Anedio D1. I assume this is because of the exceptional multi stage jitter reduction involved but it is still impressive. When I have time I need to find a really cheap player and see how that does.
 
I'm on vacation soon for a few weeks but when I return I will dive right in to my full review.

Indeed, the website claims that the multi stage jitter circuit works equally well for both spdif and usb. It is a quite impressive write up they have about the D1 and their testing procedures.
 
I look forward to your further thoughts, and hope you enjoy your vacation.

 

[erozsolt]

Thanks for this list project86!
 
Could you help me which sub $200 DAC (+amp) should I decide to use with a Windows 7 based laptop with only USB ports (no SPDIF or optical), and with a AD700 headphone? I know it's not a serious setup, but I liked the AD700 sound for classical music and jazz when I used it with my PC with a semi-pro sound card, and I would prefer musical sound over aggressive or bass heavy sound any day.
 
I know that the AD700 shouldn't need an amp, but I don't know if it's a good idea to just connect it directly to a WOW or EXTASY. If they can do only 16 bit, and I wouldn't have access to a volume control, then the only way would be digital volume control in foobar, but at 16 bit I think it would really hurt the SQ (50% volume would mean 15 usable bit for the sound, 25% volume - 14 usable bit, ouch!). And then there is no cheap way for future headphone upgrades, as for any other headphone I would need to buy an amp.
 
The MX1 on the other hand is much much more for the same money, it's a DAC and AMP and a HiFace like device in a small package. As far as I understand, even if the sound might be a bit better with Hot Audio products, I think for a start setup the Audinst MX1 might be a much better choice. What would you recommend? Could you try to listen to the Hot DACs with a sensitive headphone or IEM directly without an amp? Can you test what happens when using the USB input with foobar/WASAPI and you set the volume in either foobar or in the task bar in Windows 7?

 

[bilditup1]

I own the WOW, and it is simply stunning, but it doesn't have an 1/8 inch headphone jack, only RCA outputs. I guess you can buy a smaller attenuator and RCA-male to 1/8 inch female (or standard RCA-to-1/8th-inch plus a patch/"lesbian" type connector) to do this. 
Also, you might be able to get the HotAudios for much less than list price, if you make him an offer.
Otherwise, the Extasy will be more about sounding warm than the WOW according to the reviews.
IEMs should be safe if you get an attenuator, too. I use an IEM with my DAC Destroyer, but that has a much much lower output voltage.
Honestly? For your purposes, the Audinst sounds better seeing as you'll be using it primarily with headphones; the HotAudios were designed to be hidden. Unless you plan on buying a separate amp, of course...

 

[shaggy]

Wow, thanks for this great comparison. Can tell how close the d100 comes in performance to the Anedio D1?
 
If you have time or the desire, you should create a similar thread for amps and headphones

 

[DaveBSC]

Interesting list. I had not heard of the Anedio D1 before. Some impressive specs on it, but it's disappointing that it's unbalanced only, and the 16/48 USB input is pretty weak these days. At the top of my must audition list is the new Audio Research DAC8, which I've heard is an Alpha DAC killer.

 

[Icenine2]

I just stumbled on the Anedio reading about Squeezebox Touch hookup to a DAC  then linked here.  I wonder how it compares with the Wyred4Sound DAC2.  If this was balanced I'd probably buy it.  I'm waiting for my Woo WA22 which is balanced and the WS4 so far is the only real affordable contender.  Ayre QB-9 is probably great but it's almost $3K and has no preamp.

 

[ttan98]

Project86,
 
A timely contribution considering so many readers are interested in budget or near budget DAC with USB input.
 
Cheers to you.

 

[project86]

 
Quote:

Wow, thanks for this great comparison. Can tell how close the d100 comes in performance to the Anedio D1?
 
If you have time or the desire, you should create a similar thread for amps and headphones

Thanks!
 
The Anedio is simply stunning, the best I have heard. The Yulong is quite good, especially for the price (which is 1/2 or less than that of its direct competition). I could be totally satisfied with the Yulong in my system, as I could with a Lavry DA10 or Benchmark DAC1. But the Anedio is on a whole different level; a level usually occupied by the Berkeley Alpha DAC and some other big $$$ devices. I'm working on the full review now.


Quote:

Interesting list. I had not heard of the Anedio D1 before. Some impressive specs on it, but it's disappointing that it's unbalanced only, and the 16/48 USB input is pretty weak these days. At the top of my must audition list is the new Audio Research DAC8, which I've heard is an Alpha DAC killer.

Anedio is all about "affordable high end". I think the lack of a balanced option is probably a choice that was made with respect to priorities; getting the fundamentals right is a lot more important than extra features like balanced operation.
 
There is a good reason behind the 16/48 USB limitation, which I will explain in my review. They informed me that they are working on a high resolution USB to SPDIF converter and will offer it as a low cost add-on to current D1 owners. The Eastern Electric Minimax and the W4S DAC1, both also use the Sabre32 Reference chip, and both had the same limitation (W4S DAC1 has now upgraded to a new version which handles 24/96). Also the Audio Research DAC7 had the same limitation too, which was addressed with the release of the DAC8.
 
I've heard the AR DAC7 which was very good, but the Anedio is easily on the same level for way less money.
 
 


Quote:

I just stumbled on the Anedio reading about Squeezebox Touch hookup to a DAC  then linked here.  I wonder how it compares with the Wyred4Sound DAC2.  If this was balanced I'd probably buy it.  I'm waiting for my Woo WA22 which is balanced and the WS4 so far is the only real affordable contender.  Ayre QB-9 is probably great but it's almost $3K and has no preamp.

 I just picked up a Squeezebox Touch as well, haven't set it up yet but I'm excited about it. The Anedio slots between the W4S DAC1 and DAC2 in terms of features and price. I'm trying to get my hands on one of them for a comparison in my review of the Anedio.

 

[eiSLeBen]

Hello, Could you give me an advice, what the better solution is for my Sennheiser HD600:
The Yulong D100 (used as Dac/Hp Amp Combo) - or the combination Matrix Cube Dac (only as Dac) with the Matrix M-Stage. 
What is more important for a good sound: Focus on the Dac (Yulong), or Focus on the Hp Amp (M-Stage)