DAC UPGRADE QUESTION

I am not expert at all in dac...

but if i was upgrading my basic one , which satisfy me completely, i will pick a Choueri BACCH dac...Before throwing money, check his credentials and his realization... In case... I must admit that this is the only upgrade i will ever need...I like my actual system without being able to fault it...So imperfect it is , nothing is perfect at any price, i did not detect any fault in my actua headphone system.It is after my dedicated/room now lost, the best i listened to in my life , Stax included...

Why Choueri dac then ?

it is not just a dac...

It is a " virtual room systems" for speakers and headphone with ears measurements ... It is a patented system of filters which introduce no timbre degradation and made headphone as speakers out of the head... And it make speakers working WITHOUT the room acoustic problem at all...And trust me on this, the room acoustic is the most important problem in audio with speakers and not the dac, save if the one you own is bad...

i am lucky because my headphone is one of the rare one already speaker-like but it will be way more externalized in the room with Dr Choueri dac ... I never listened to it, no... but i read all there is and it is enough to want it... Choueri is a top physicist and a top acoustician..

Apart from this dac i will never need anything... I dont even need anything without it right now 😎😊 I am not only lucky , i work a lot to create my 2 systems... ... read about Choueri in case...For a reason i dont understand this dac/ virtual room system is not well known...It kill any other dac because no other dac suppress all acoustic room problem with no timbre degradation..

https://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/theoretica-applied-physics-bacch-sp-adio-stereo-purifier/

The only problem for me is that my 700 bucks system satisfy me completely, because my amp is top and my headphone over the top... 😊 The BACCH filters in hardware dac will cost 15,000 bucks ... Less expansive if we use a laptop as source and hardware for the Filters set... Anyway as i said it is the only possible upgrade for me...

I have Dave (modified with three Farad Lps) and Mscaler.

But after trying out Starkrimson Pecanpi + which cost 900$, I ended up buying it.

I do not mean Pecanpi+ bumped out Dava and Mscaler.

But the former sounds slightly fuller than latter while matching close in details and soundstage.

Pecanpi+ is also streamer but I use it as standalone Dac only.

My source is Aurender N30

My pre amp has several inputs and I switch between Dave and Pecanpi+ using remote control depending on music and my mood.😀

Thomas

My budget is $3000.00.

 

 

kjl1065 OP

12 posts

07-13-2023 at 03:58pm

My budget is $3000.00.

cool. I had the Qutest and it’s a very nice DAC. I found the tone to be natural with good level of details. May be ever so slightly forward? But nothing too concerning. It does a lot of things right.
In the $3,000 price range you’re likely to get different sound but not necessarily better. I went from Qutest to Bryston BDA-3, to Benchmark DAC 3 HGC, to Bricasti M3 with network renderer. I sold my Lumin U1 Mini streamer and use the M3 as Roon end point. There are a lot of options by in my experience the next level from Qutest starts at around $5000 retail.

What are you after with this upgrade? Others above are making a good point to research the forums. @verdantaudio has an extensive multi-page DAC Shootout thread that’s an excellent read when researching and narrowing down your criteria.
 

P.S.

One of the biggest improvements across the board I heard with the Qutest DAC and Lumin streamer was when I upgraded my DH Labs Mirage USB cable to Audience AU24SE+. It’s not cheap even on a used market but it made bigger impact than I thought was possible. Just saying there may still be few drops to squeeze out of that Chord DAC before you ditch it. 

There are tons of DACs out there that can give you meaningful “improvements” in various areas, but since you seem unwilling (or maybe unable) to share what specific improvements you’re looking for I’ll just mention this Denafrips Terminator that’s within your price range. Best of luck.

https://echohifi.com/details/19355/Denafrips_Terminator-DAC