[Zorlac]

I am looking to upgrade my Keces 131.1 DAC and interested in DACs that do NOT oversample and/or upsample.

Anyone have recommendations for under $1000?

Also, I wouldnt mind having a display or LED indicators that show the current sample rate.

Thanks!

 

[Zorlac]

It may be possible that I am misunderstanding the world of upsampling and oversampling.

Is it even possible to have a DAC that does not upsample and oversample? I have heard of NOS DACs, but do NOS DACs upsample instead of oversample?

 

[Carlos3]

Nonoversampling means no upsampling either.

Under $1k:

Scott Nixon ChibiDAC (just bought this one)
Scott Nixon TubeDAC (I've owned this one in the past)

Lite Audio DAC AH

Valab DAC

All of the DACs by MHDT labs

 

[Zorlac]

Thanks Carlos!

 

[jsnyc]

Monarchy's NM24 tube dac/line stage at $1080 new. Gorgeoous sound.

 

[Alai]

A used Promitheus?

 

[Zorlac]

I am starting to think I should not get so wrapped up in this OS/NOS DAC thing.

For so long now I have thought of myself as a "purist" trying to achieve bit perfect output from my source and not touching the source signal as much as possible, but I have come to the realization that most DACs do end up messing with the signal by either upsampling or oversampling. In fact, my KECES 131.1 probably oversamples as well. This seems to be the norm and NOS DACs seem to be kind of rare (or old school?). Obviously I am still open to going with NOS, but it just seems there are more choices out there for OS DACs.

My real interest as of late is with the Audio-gd DACs (since I just ordered the C-2C headphone amp), but Kingwa has told me his DACs oversample at 8x (he does not believe in upsampling).

So now I am battling my OCD tendencies.....OS DAC??? .....or NOS DAC for that purist wannabe in me? Argh!

Any thoughts?

 

[Alai]

You should research oversampling more (in case, you haven't). Oversampling isn't really a BAD thing, per se. In fact, it's a pretty good thing.

 

[Carlos3]

Two more options:

Ack! Dack

Altmann Attraction DAC

Both of these are battery powered.


Actually I think you are on the right path. Simplifying and shortening the signal path is key to best sound IME.

The pinnacle for my old headphone system was when I used a Scott Nixon TubeDAC>Singlepower MPX3>Sony CD-3000. Consider the signal path: not one transistor between the D/A converter and the headphones (AFAIK). The full cd sound, unmodified and unfiltered left the D/A chip through a tube buffer straight into the input tube on the Singlepower for some SET OTL juice. Power and beauty and as smooth as velvet.

I have TMJ issues and can no longer wear headphones, but do what I can to "purify" things on my current solid state speaker system. For example I use Epos Speakers, which are "crossoverless" (there is only a single capacitor on the tweeter for low freq filtering), and I bi-amp the speakers so that each driver is direct-coupled to its own dedicated amp channel. While buying two amps kind of bent the budget a bit

, the gain in clarity and precision was more than worth it IMO. Get as much junk as you can out of the way of the sound, and more of the music will get to your ears.

 

[obobskivich]

I believe the CI VDA-2 is NOS, and offers balanced outputs, all at under $1k

 

[bordins]

This one looks very promising.

Reference 3 DAC, $700



Using 2 Pieces of PCM1704UK

Two-channel 1-times / 2-times / 4-times / 8-times oversampling , supports Bypass mode (NOS mode.).

http://www.audio-gd.com/enweb/pro/da...Reference3.htm

You may check out their DAC9 and DAC13.

 

[Zorlac]

I'm starting to think there is nothing out there that meets all my requirements. Maybe I should look at the $1000+ DACs?

Here is what I am looking for:

1. No oversampling (aka NOS) or maybe the ability to turn oversampling off (i.e. Audio-gd Reference Three)
2. No upsampling
3. HDCD support
4. Sample rate display or LED indicators (not a huge requirement, but this would be awesome since I am a die-hard PC guy and it is my source)
5. Coax SPDIF input (BNC would be a bonus)
6. Unbalanced RCA and/or balanced XLR outputs
7. Would rather not deal with tubes (but I can live with them if need be)
8. No battery power please
9. No built-in headphone amp

So far, MHDT DACs really interest me, but they dont have HDCD and they dont have a sample rate indicator. One tube isnt so bad. I was ready to pull the trigger on a Havana that was FS here, but decided to hold off to find a DAC that meets all my requirements. I am hoping this will be a DAC that I will keep for a long time (I have damn upgrade OCD!)

I just ordered an Audio-gd amp, so their Reference Three DAC looks awesome, but again...HDCD seems to be gone, no sample rate indicator and they removed the info from their webpage (who knows if Kingwa decided not to release it).

Hopefully some of you have more DAC ideas for me, or am I just being too picky?