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Best DAC for 1,000?

Fellow audiogoners,

I'm in the market for a DAC to be used in my headphone system which consists of Senn 650's with Cardas cables, X-CAN V3, and X-PUS. Sources include my main system (DV-9500), I-Pod using Apple Lossless, and my laptop. I listen mainly to Jazz, Rock, some classical and other eclectic stuff like Frank Zappa. There are so many different DAC options that I'm starting to go nuts so I'm hoping to get some different opinions to get me back on track. Here are the units I've looked at so far:

X-DAC - Great reviews, I have the X-PUS, no USB input and I don't believe it does 24/92

Stello DA-100 - Sounded great at CES for the 5 minutes I listened to it. Upsampling can be switched off, USB input, No local distribution, I have to send my money to Korea, scary.

Bel Canto DAC-2 - See them used, good reviews, small footprint, no USB

Benchmark DAC-1 - Good reviews, includes headphone amp balanced outputs (don't really need either of these), no usb input.

Apogee MiniDAC - Lots of sampling options, ugly, has USB on newer model, ugly, includes headphone amp, ugly, level control goes to 11, would have to hide it so my cat wouldn't puke on it.

Grace M902 - Great reviews, looks cool, lots of sampling options, crossfeed, has usb, at 1,500 is over my spousal imposed limit.

Scott Nixon - no upsampling NOS dac, tubes are cool, looks like a kit

Audio Mirror - another NOS dac, right price

I'd like to hear any thoughts or opinions on any of the units above (or any other recommendations). I'd also like to hear throughts on over-sampling vs NOS DACS and throughts on tube dacs vs. SS.

Thank you for helping me out of the DAC MUCK!
128x128fzfan
cwlondon
1,210 posts
 
How will you use your iPod with an external DAC?
matt8268
92 posts
 
I recently heard an Ack Dack v2.0 (with high resolution option) through headphones, and it was eye-opening. Extremely clear, black background sound. Very analog sounding. Simply blew away the other DACs present (though most were cheaper). Made them all sound like noisy messes. I believe it sounds so good because it runs off batteries (charges from the wall), so you don't have to deal with any power cleaning. If you have a way to try one out (may be hard), definitely do!
fzfan's avatar
fzfan OP
6 posts
 
I thought the Airport wifi adaptor would allow me to SPDIF from the Ipod to an external DAC, I was wrong. I guess I'll have to get a small transport for the headphone system or run a digital cable across the floor from the main system.

I was leaning towards the X-DAC (since I already have the X-PUS) but there's not been a single positive word since I started this thread.

I'm still confused although the Audio Mirror and Ack Dack seem to get good reviews everywhere.

Thanks for all the good info, any others?
hassel
248 posts
 
I would still try the Benchmark. I bought it for a friend, and briefly compared it to my own Chord-DAC64 (3200$). The Chord still sounded better, but only by a small margin.
dmitrydr
221 posts
 
So, what about Stello DA100?

Anyone?
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