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Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD

Hi All.

Putting together a reference level system.
My Source is predominantly standard 16/44 played from a MacMini using iTunes and Amarra. Some of my music is purchased from iTunes and the rest is ripped from standard CD's.
For my tastes in music, my high def catalogues are still limited; so Redbook 16/44 will be my primary source for quite some time.

I'm not spending DCS or MSB money. But $15-20k retail is not out of the question.

Upsampling vs non-upsampling?
USB input vs SPDIF?

All opinions welcome.

And I know I need to hear them, but getting these ultra $$$ DAC's into your house for an audition ain't easy.

Looking for musical, emotional, engaging, accurate , with great dimension. Not looking for analytical and sterile.
mattnshilp
audioengr
3,282 posts
 

Matt - Focal speakers!! At the LA Audio show I heard at least three exhibits using Focals. All sounded really good. I have added Focal to my list of recommended speakers, along with Vapor and TAD.


BTW, did you ever compare the Aurender N10 to the top of line Antipodes server?

Steve N.

Empirical Audio

Post removed 
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,341 posts
 
These days its much harder to find a bad DAC than a good one.   Very good DACs are pretty much commodity items these days.   Not to say they all sound the same.

I got to listen to very highly regarded Chord Mojo portable DAC yesterday running the $3000 Focal headphones.  Source was Tidal via a Bluesound streamer.

I was comparing to various more modest headphones I run off various DACs at home all of which I find quite "musical" and fairly detailed.

Needless to say it sounded very good.    How much better/different?   Hard to say without extended compares.  So it was not a total blowout as one might expect.

FWIW.


david_ten
5,480 posts
 
Billions are listening to music off of their phone digital to analog convertors. I'm guessing most are quite happy with that performance.

Perfectly good DACs from pennies on up. Relatively speaking $30 to say, a dollar, can also be considered outrageous.

I started my DAC journey with similar outboard cards/convertors. Absolutely fine sound. 

@mattnshilp  Very respectful move. I'm sincerely curious.

@markolino72  You are the one who has the privilege of removing your posts. The only one I'd deem worthy of that is the one made at  10-25-2017 12:37pm , but that's still your call.

Lets hear what Mattnshilp finds.
baja272
1 posts
 
I'm retired needed another hobby to keep myself busy. I've had stereo systems for most of my life. My first receiver was a Hearthkit AR15 which I built from a kit while in the Navy stationed on an old WWII aircraft carrier during the Vietnam War. After I left the Navy I worked in IT in a Data Center for 42 years so going digital was very interesting to me. I used dBpoweramp to rip my small CD collection of 500 cd's to FLAC uncompressed on my Dell tower running Windows 10 Pro with windows spaces configured to mirror 3 internal drives. I have a Antipodes DX-1 but didn't use their drive or software to rip because I wanted to get the metadata right. Getting the metadata right, I use MP3Tag, is lots of work but I have plenty of time. Look into a free Microsoft utility called SyncToy to synch your folders (needs Netframework installed to work). I have three folders on my Dell (Ripped Music, HDtracks, Acoustic Sounds)  which I synch to one folder on my Antipodes. Just setup three folder pairs in SyncToy in echo mode and run one of them when an album is added to your collection. It's great for synching your backups also. 

Matt, I would love to now what albums you pick to test your components!

Have fun, enjoy your systems and music.

Larry
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