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
@david_ten , I'd highly suggest the Chord Dave or the Metrum Adagio. Conversely, I believe you have the Denafrips Terminator which is a high end dac, perhaps you could add a well regarded passive attenuator between the dac and the amp.
Hi everyone!!!!

sorry for the long hiatus. Work and family take up a lot of time and sometimes leave little room for audio play.

Laufer Teknic is amazing gear. Sam and Mark make a terrific team. Their gear is true high end and they don’t go 6 months without releasing an update or improvement that makes a notable step forward in performance. And they share each upgrade with their customers and most come without charge unless there is a hardware change needed to implement the upgrade. Mark is a software Savant and what he does works and works better then anything else I have heard.

Now, as you all know, I pride myself on that last statement being accurate. And with Antipodes and Innuos newest products I can no longer say I’ve heard it all. I am making efforts to remedy that situation so I can give you all an opinion that is both accurate and CURRENT!!

As as far as DAC’s go, I’m not a huge fan of variable output dacs direct to amps. I see the financial advantages of course. But I have never ever heard a system at any price that doesn’t sound it’s best unless there is an active preamp with gain in the circuit. Maybe the only caveat to that might be Rowland and Bricasti, where the amps and Dacs are specifically designed to work that way and the gain and impedance matching have been accounted for.

That being said, Chord does offer a nice variable out in all of their DAC’s that does as good a job as possible of compensating. Its not ideal, but it works and sounds very good.

Empirical Audio’s volume control is not a solution. It attenuates but doesn’t go down to zero. The DAC is nothing short of amazing though.

To be hoenst, nothing earth shattering has been released recently DAC wise to warrant special attention. I think the new Mola Mola DAC is worth listening to. And supposedly Chord has released a box to increase the processing power of the Chord Dave so now it goes to 11. I have a friend who is a dealer and we will listen to the improvements it makes. I was not blown away by the DAVE (sorry Chord fans). So I’m hoping the extra box fixes it’s issues.

Im trying to get in that Innuos Statement and Antipodes double box music server. I’ll update if I can make that happen.
@mattnshilp 

I have an Innuos Zenith mk2 SE feeding a Mola Mola Makua preamp/DAC....Looking forward to your thoughts on the Innuos Statement and the Mola Mola Tambaqui DAC...if you can get your hands on them.
Thanks Matt.  I agree with you on our Memory Player server.  I'm really pumped about what they are doing with my DAC.  Can't wait until he gets the Stealth Caps in and he can start to build it so I can get my full set up breaking in. 
http://www.ariesceratespana.com/kassandra-websized/Kassandra-main-photo.jpg

I would put forward my DAC on this list, the Aries Cerat Kassandra Ref II. A superb high end DAC, R2R, AD1865 chips (16 of them) superb gain stage with E280F tubes, transformers on the output. I have tried many DACs and this one is special, an end game for me. I have recently also ordered the Aries Cerat Genus SET integrated amplifier and set up my room as a demo room for Aries Cerat in España. I haven't been this excited about digital for a long time.

I have owned or had at home:
1. Pink Triange DeCapo with battery supply Remember this one? A classic and quite radical at the time.
2. Various Meridian DACs circa 1995
3. Various Naim DACs circa 2000
4. A Linn CD12 (borrowed for 4 weeks) (2014)
5. MSB Platinum inc Signature Powerbase (2016)
6. CH Precision C1 (2017)
7. Chord DAVE (2017)
8. Lampizator Golden Gate (2017)
9. Naim CD555 (used item - 2017)
10. Audio Note UK DAC 3.1 (2014)
11. Audio Note UK DAC 4.1 (2014)
12. Audio Note kits 4.1 heavily modded (2015)
13. Audio Note UK DAC 5 (2017)

All of these DACs did somethings extremely well, but fell short in other crucial areas. The C1 for example, initially I was super excited about this DAC, and had it for a full day in my system. But after 3 or 4 hours it began to unravel and I found certain types of music didn't sound good on it, particularly strings and female vocals.Others such as the Naim had great rhythm and drive but lacked soundstage and transparency. The DAVE had soundstage and transparency but lacked weight and realistic timbre. Others sounded too digital in the true sense, a coldness and lack of three dimensionality, boring even. The Audio Note kit 4.1 when modded was actually very good within it's envelope. In fact I have kept that DAC, partly as it is 'my creation' to an extent. But still not there....


Anyone wanting to hear it just PM me, you are more than welcome. I would pitch the Kassandra against any DAC, budget unrestricted.