dac recommendations for turntable listener?


hi everyone, kindly asking for your dac suggestions. im almost 100% a turntable listener, but recently picked up a DirectStream Dac for those times I cant find the vinyl, its too expensive, or it simply doesn't exist. im looking for suggestions as im not happy with the DirectStream dac, its just not to my liking. its too sharp up top, too thin in the lower midrange, other than that everything else is pretty great. id like to get, if possible, a dac that sounds more like my turntable. I feel like I would get mostly there if the midrange was fuller, and the top end was softer. 

my current system is marantz tt15 , dynavector 20x2, icon audio ps3 mk ii, primaluna prologue premium, and elysian 4 speakers. 

the current dacs I was looking to switch to were lab 12 dac, primaluna evo 100 dac, lampizators entry model, or Merason DAC 1. does anyone have experience with these and can recommend them? 

thanks a lot! 

Anthony 

128x128palutena

guys I think I found out what my issue is!... for the heck of it I moved the dsd to my bedroom setup, which consists of heresy iii/forte iii diy speaker and a sabaj class d $100 amp, this set up was strictly used for watching movies. I think the room is the issue. the main listening room is a big L shaped room. 14 ft by 22 feet in the bottom section of the "L" where I listen, the other section of the L is 13ft by 30ft. my bedroom is 13 by 16ft. 

the bedroom sounds 10x better. I knew the room was important, and mine had suckouts in the bottom frequencies but I didn't know it made THIS much of a difference. all that fullness with the dsd is there! im listening at 80db instead of typical 90db, as I don't have to turn it up to feel loud, I think the better balance is helping out with the over sharpness/fatigue I was getting in the other room. 

the turntable in my main room I would say is barely passable when it comes to being enough fullness in the lower midrange/bass, but my worry now is If I move it to this room its going to be way too mushy/syrupy and full, as the dac sounded anorexic in the main room but sounds amazing in my bedroom. 

this has made me rethink of everything , completely eye opening experience. I may move my room, or try to close off the "L" shaped room somehow so that the listening area is a rectanglular room. 

 

id also like to add that there's no subwoofer in the bedroom and the bass is bigger fuller more sustained more decay. these diy heresy/forte speakers I originally had in my main room but purchased elysian 4's as the diy speakers were very very thin sounding in that room. now im questioning my elysian purchase as even though they sound fuller in my main room than my diy speakers (and better in almost every other area) , I feel I might not have needed them had the room been better. im very confused overall , bare with me lol 

Mojo Audio makes some real good natural

sounding Dacs I’ve owned a few and would put them up against anything!

Good! The hustle paid off and now you know. 
I will also tell you, +1 @soix 

Streamer will improve things even further. I used mac mini for a while and didn’t believe a streamer can make this much difference but alas 4 streamers later I’m getting the performance I was expecting from my system…but the important part is every one of the streamers sounded different and better than the computer. 
 

@audphile1 I have a bluesound node coming in the mail tomorrow I figure that’s a good inexpensive place to start. I turned this bedroom system up to 90db just to have a comparison with what I wa listening to in the main room, still a tinyyyy but sharp to my ears, but this is going through the diy horn speakers, and not my primaluna tube amp, and no room treatment, but the point is it’s at a level now where I can definitely see streamers/cables making a difference and getting me to where I want to be. I definitely don’t need to turn it up to 90db as 80 in this room feels louder bigger and fuller than 90 in my main room. I’ll report back once I listen to the streamer!