[George Hincapie]

Bet you too (ALL of them).

Wwll done! Your dedication is impressive!

 

[jbarrentine]

my Qutest in classifieds but it's not balanced.

 

[chesebert]

Someone is selling Sonic Frontier MK2 on usaudiomart.com. If you get it below 1500 it will be the best dac you can buy at that price.

 

[Odezra]

+1 for the Gustard R26 if you are considering R2R. Really lovely DAC - fantastic bang for buck - outperforms it's price point by some way

Also worth considering:
- Chord Qutest
- Schiit Bifrost (latest version)
- RME ADI 2FS

The above 4 will give you different flavours of resolution, soundstage, timbre etc.

There's a few i'd rule out (potentially):

- Denefrips/Musician Pegasus (the Gustard in my view is v v similar but costs less than a Pontus, and is packed full of good features, particularly the LAN port)
- Topping/SMSL/Burson Conductor (my view is the RME combined with it's EQ features is better here, that said the burson's integration with it's amp is v v good, i personally find ESS chip implementations generally underwhelming)

EDIT: not trying to stoke any kind of a war if people have differing views. these are just my experiences. Will be interesting to see the general themes across multiple postings.

 

[gimmeheadroom]

I guess just a little info on where I'm at might help with suggestions.

The Stello DA220 came out in 2004. It was originally around $1200. I think I got it used from a Head-Fi friend for $750. It was, at the time, highly recommended, and reviewers often compared it to DACs that cost $3000 or more. If memory serves me correctly, it uses an AKM chip. This is connected to my Mac with a VLINK USB to SPDIF converter, since the original Stello DA220 did not have a USB input. The Stello can accept only accept upto 24/96, but upsamples to 24/192.

What I don't really know, is how 18+ years has affected the sound quality versus price ratio. I get the impression that some of the DACs out of China punch well above their weight in price, however, I have no actual reference for what that means or sounds like. This is where I was hoping some of the people here could chime in.

I was initially considering things like the Bifrost 2/64 or the ADI 2 FS, but I really don't know what I would be getting, or if those would be side-grade instead of upgrade. The Denefrips Ares also seems interesting, and I've heard people say that ladder DACs were amazing, but again, I have no actual frame of reference. From what I've been able to read and find on YouTube, I take it that they are more musical, but perhaps less detailed, or perhaps, they lack a little of the punchiness that one might find in a delta-sigma DAC.

For reference, I listen to a lot of pop music, with rock, jazz, and country sprinkled in.

For headphones, I have HD650s, HD280 Pros, UE10s, and a few other random IEMs from back in the day. For my speakers I'm running Adam Audio A7Xs with an M-Audio SBX10.

Any thoughts, reviews of products, or threads that you think might help me are greatly appreciated.

The RME ADI 2 FS does not have balanced out for headphones. It is a very musical DAC (at least the AKM version) but it will not do a great job with your HD 650s. It has a dedicated IEM out (not just a small jack) so for IEM guys or people who like to twist knobs and want the immense feature set it's a top choice.

Unclear if you want a DACAMP or just a DAC.