lukeslens
100+ Head-Fier
Hi all,
I've been doing deep research for the past several weeks to try to find the upgrade dac in my system. After upgrading my headphones this Christmas to the Focal Clears, I've been wanting to really upgrade my system to match and bring out more musical potential.
I currently have an RME ADI-2 that was an upgrade from a Teac UD-501 and that is going into a Questyle CMA600i (I'm planning on upgrading to a tube amp as well as the second part of this journey). I think the ADI-2 is a really wonderful dac and the DSP featuers are phenomenal, but I'm really fatigued on the sheen of Delta-Sigma. I think that the Clears, which I absolutely adore and are the best headphones I've heard to date, have really unveiled the flaws of DS dacs and I'd like to move away from that.
So the features I'm looking for are a dac that people would consider highly musical and engaging. Something that really draws you into the music and distracts you from critical listening. I want detail and resolve and all those wonderful things that I know the Clear does so well, but I also want to capture something that can help really transform my digital collection (which I've built mightily over the past several years) into the intoxicating presentation that I get from my turntable and vinyl collection. I'm also looking for something with really great separation and a sense of holography as well.
So I've never heard an actual R2R dac and the only Chord product I've heard is the Mojo which I owned very briefly, but replaced with an iFi Micro BL because, while I absolutely loved the presentation of the Mojo, the amp was sacrificing a LOT of bass in my Clears and it was bugging me.
My research has led me to narrow down current options to
- Holo Audio Spring
- Chord Qutest / Hugo 2
With the Holo dac a lot of the descriptions definitely make me think I'd love it, but I also worry about how it not being as equally engaging through lots of genre's which I do listen to (more on my listening preferences soon). The Chord seems it would fix that issue, but then I worry about it not being *as* musical or romantic as R2R dacs. At least, I've read that the Qutest, while wonderful, is still somewhat neutral in presentation.
So what else should I be looking at, or am i already on the right track? I do know that my amp plays somewhat of a role here as well which is why I'm also looking at upgrading my 600i to a tube amp. My listening preferences honestly run the gamut. I love listening to jazz, R&B, pop, rock, electronic, soundtracks, etc. I love good bass and I love good space. I'd love something that can deliver a super engaging presentation of jazz as much as something from Queen.
I should also state that I will be attending Axpona next month so I'm hoping that will give me a chance to do some quick auditions of a lot of things.
Thanks for any help you can offer!
EDIT:
So I've increased my list now to include a couple more dacs that I'm interested in. Would love more suggestions and experiences with any of these. The PS Audio Directstream Jr especially seems to hit a lot of boxes for me.
1. Holo Audio Spring
2. Schiit Yggdrasil
3. PS Audio Directstream Jr
4. Chord Qutest / Hugo 2
5. Metrum Onyx
6. Denefrips maybe? Depends on what I can get used I suppose.
I've been doing deep research for the past several weeks to try to find the upgrade dac in my system. After upgrading my headphones this Christmas to the Focal Clears, I've been wanting to really upgrade my system to match and bring out more musical potential.
I currently have an RME ADI-2 that was an upgrade from a Teac UD-501 and that is going into a Questyle CMA600i (I'm planning on upgrading to a tube amp as well as the second part of this journey). I think the ADI-2 is a really wonderful dac and the DSP featuers are phenomenal, but I'm really fatigued on the sheen of Delta-Sigma. I think that the Clears, which I absolutely adore and are the best headphones I've heard to date, have really unveiled the flaws of DS dacs and I'd like to move away from that.
So the features I'm looking for are a dac that people would consider highly musical and engaging. Something that really draws you into the music and distracts you from critical listening. I want detail and resolve and all those wonderful things that I know the Clear does so well, but I also want to capture something that can help really transform my digital collection (which I've built mightily over the past several years) into the intoxicating presentation that I get from my turntable and vinyl collection. I'm also looking for something with really great separation and a sense of holography as well.
So I've never heard an actual R2R dac and the only Chord product I've heard is the Mojo which I owned very briefly, but replaced with an iFi Micro BL because, while I absolutely loved the presentation of the Mojo, the amp was sacrificing a LOT of bass in my Clears and it was bugging me.
My research has led me to narrow down current options to
- Holo Audio Spring
- Chord Qutest / Hugo 2
With the Holo dac a lot of the descriptions definitely make me think I'd love it, but I also worry about how it not being as equally engaging through lots of genre's which I do listen to (more on my listening preferences soon). The Chord seems it would fix that issue, but then I worry about it not being *as* musical or romantic as R2R dacs. At least, I've read that the Qutest, while wonderful, is still somewhat neutral in presentation.
So what else should I be looking at, or am i already on the right track? I do know that my amp plays somewhat of a role here as well which is why I'm also looking at upgrading my 600i to a tube amp. My listening preferences honestly run the gamut. I love listening to jazz, R&B, pop, rock, electronic, soundtracks, etc. I love good bass and I love good space. I'd love something that can deliver a super engaging presentation of jazz as much as something from Queen.
I should also state that I will be attending Axpona next month so I'm hoping that will give me a chance to do some quick auditions of a lot of things.
Thanks for any help you can offer!
EDIT:
So I've increased my list now to include a couple more dacs that I'm interested in. Would love more suggestions and experiences with any of these. The PS Audio Directstream Jr especially seems to hit a lot of boxes for me.
1. Holo Audio Spring
2. Schiit Yggdrasil
3. PS Audio Directstream Jr
4. Chord Qutest / Hugo 2
5. Metrum Onyx
6. Denefrips maybe? Depends on what I can get used I suppose.
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