Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD

Funny things...

Since I finished my listening room, I changed (or upgraded) all my equipments piece by piece. As i said in a previous post my last device to buy is a good DAC. So I started a long process to test different devices. In the same time, I still don't have DAC. So I can not listen my music and it's very frustating because all is ready to run. I talk about that with my friend Chris and he says to me : 'Just buy a small DAC'... after a several stupid arguments about the sound quality of budget's DAC and my audiophile ears, he said : 'Just buy the new Idac2 from Ifi. It's not expensive and it's realy good'. 350 $... why not.

So, I did it. I received the 'Gadget' one week ago and you know what? I'm blown away by the quality of this product. Really. It's so small, tiny, and inexpensive.... Wow. Of course it's not in the same range than a Pavane or an Overdrive, but honestly I can live with it without any problem. And because ifi products are really inexpensive, I will buy the iUSB 3 to test if the USB 3 is better for sound than the USB 2.... In fact, inexpensive products are sometime surprising.

Marc, I totally agree with you. So often people scoff at budget gear, but there's a market for them, because you can hear a nice difference. Honestly, I have an old Krell Stealth Dac that I'm putting into my system tomorrow.  It doesn't have USB, but it had balanced, two coax and a couple or so optical.  I've had it in the system before and it's really nice for an older piece. I'm about to place it up for sale as some folks just love Krell pieces, but I've heard a ton of DAC's from 1500 down that are really nice sounding.  Incremental upgrades are what audio is all about.  Then you have to figure out where you have to jump off the train.  

So a couple of the worst sounding reproductions I’ve heard came from a Mac Mini. Not sure if it was really a Mac issue or coincidental. One was with the Oppo high end headphone DAC/Amp.

The other was the sound of an Ayre QB-9. I love Ayre and the Pono. They sound warm and rich but the one time I heard a QB-9 playing from a Mac it sounded really hard. Another listener who owns a QB-9 said the same thing.

I don’t think it’s worthwhile going crazy making the Mac Mini audiophile grade, but it may be something to watch out for. I don’t know if the issue was ground loops, or what.

In any event, I likd Shiidt, Audio Research and Parasound’s Z DAC a lot, as well as the Ayre DAC’s, of course! :) Actually I got to hear all of those (except the Z DAC) driven off a Mac Mini, and only the Ayre was a real disappointment, it just did not sound as good as I know it could have.  The other three, the Shiidt and AR were my favorites.  I forgot now what kind of hoops they ended up jumping through, USB Isolators, or cables, etc. but in that environment if I had to listen via a Mini, I'd choose the Shiidt or AR.

Money, time and effort no object I'd try to make the Ayre sound good. :)

Best,


Erik

The Mini that I have was totally rebuilt by Steve himself as it was his old server he used at shows.  I has it's limit, but with the Hynes regulated power supply and all the mods he did, it's not like any mini I've ever heard.  I'm about to purchase the Melco to use only as a NAS eventually.  As I think I've posted, this is the unit that the Ayre folks use with their QX-5/Twenty.  Even if I don't get the new Ayre, the Melco will be a great NAS and can be used as the streamer/server also.  With the new update to the Melco, you can easily rip to it also and I know they are even working on an optical drive of their own that will just rip quickly and easily with dbpoweramp.  

ctsooner kind of proves my point. :)  That's a lot of upgrading to make a source sound good. 

I'm sticking to my Logitech Squeezebox until the Zombie apocalypse happens, thank you very much.  Then I plan to walk into an empty audio store and pick up something for free. 

Best,

Erik