2. amps-preamps
  3. 142139-117076

Compact DAC + Amp

All

recently moved to NY and need to downsize my HT. Right now I use 3.1 channels and planning to move to 2.1 channels. 

For speakers i am considering Focal 1028 be or kanta 2. 1028 is on sale at $5000 and lowest price I have gotten on Kanta is $8500. 

While most practical option is to get a soundbar (looking at Martin Logan or Golden eat), I considering a second option - a small footprint amp placed on a small wooden floating shelf under the wall mounted TV and feeding speakers through speaker cables run through the wall vertically. I need a small footprint DAC + Amp for that. 

Options so far are
1. Sonos amp - major advantage is it can feed Sonos Sub wirelessly 
2. NAD D3040
3. Peachtree Nova 150
4. Naim Uniti Atom

I heard Naim and liked it. But would like to stay under $2000 ideally. If size wasn’t a constraint, I would have probably considered used H190
Any othee options worth considering?

marrduk24
gdnrbob
4,445 posts
 
You could do what I did:
Buy a couple of McCormack Power Drives and have Steve upgrade them to monoblocks (about 120wpc).
Buy an Ayre Codex DAC
If you can find non working amps, all the better as Steve guts the amp and practically rebuilds it from scratch. Perhaps more money than you wish, but at least you'll have a decent power source.
Bob
erik_squires
16,089 posts
 
How about the Mytek DAC and Amp?

Talk about tiny powerhouses!

Otherwise I can strongly recommend the NAD mini integrateds. I own the D 3020.
marrduk24 OP
36 posts
 
Thanks guys. Tried Simaudio Moon 240i today. I think I liked the sound of Naim Atom better with Kanta 2. 

But on Wilson Sabrina I liked 240i better than McIntosh 252. 
austin_jeff's avatar
austin_jeff
33 posts
 
you have deep pockets...now try something in your living space
yoby
539 posts
 
Hi marrduk24: I would recommend the Exogal Comet Plus DAC with the Ion amplifier.
More to discover