Higher End DACs

+1 @mikelavigne re: Extreme

@mikelavigne thanks for weighing in, here!

so, that is interesting. I was under the impression that if one were to prioritize one component over another (recognizing the ’chain’ dependencies in play) it would be the DAC over the streamer.

But your direct experience suggests otherwise?

DCS Bartok maybe. DAC, streamer, and you can even get a headphone amp add-on. For around $15k you can get an integrated all-in-one system better for less than the sum of its parts.

I wish I could say I own one, but I have listened to the headphone amp out of one at a dealer and I was impressed with the all-around quality of the product.

This review really got me excited: 

https://audiophilestyle.com/ca/reviews/dcs-bartok-review-r849/

I bought a Lumin U1 Mini to tide me over (feeding an RME ADI-2 DAC which also acts as my headphone amp) while I save my pennies for a Bartok.

Mike, I’d also love to hear your thoughts on the OP’s question above.

I’m not disagreeing with @mikelavigne here...however, I started a thread (linked below) regarding the question in the preceding post, and the feedback points to the DAC as being more important. [Note: this is a relative distinction]

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/does-the-buck-start-with-the-dac

I’ve been auditioning a ’higher end’ all in one and unfortunately I will not be able to test it with different server. My gut ’sense’ (with respect to this specific unit) is that the server is less critical (to go all out on) in this application. Hopefully I will be able to test and find out for myself definitively.

Check out Audio Skies website.  Importer/Distributor Michael Vamos in LA has a new line of DACS and re-clocker unit, Ideon Audio, from $3500 to $30k.  They apparently compare with and beat many of the ultra-high end, well known DACs.  Michael is a great guy to boot.