King of the Non oversampling DAC's? Lavry /Kondo ?

Hi Sksos1!
Nice to hear that you have owned both.
OK, Kondo has a more earthy character, could you be more precise in what sense the Lavry Gold might be better?
for example : bigger soundstage, 3-dimensional, Slam energy, dynamic contrast, emotional musical etc. ??

The failure of both DAC's to handle 24/192 bit depth/sampling rate is enough for me to pass on them. I have 24/192 sources. Wouldn't sound as good at 24/96 downsampled. At the price of the Lavry, I would buy the Berkeley Audio Design DAC that can handle that bit depth/sampling frequency. The Kondo is obviously way over priced, imo.

http://www.berkeleyaudiodesign.com/products.html

Rockitman, specs are specs. sometimes they matter, often they don't. BADA's a good DAC, but i wouldn't necessarily rule out the 2 (as well as other highly regarded non oversampling DACs) simply because they don't handle 24/192.

& as with Rademaker, i'm also interested in Sksos1's view of Lavry Gold vs. Kondo DAC, & Lavry Gold vs. analog.

More and more source material is coming out at higher sampling frequencies than 24/96. Why would you want to spend that much money on a DAC that can't playback (properly) higher sampling frequencies ? To each there own. As far as a comparo wiht a good analog rig ? Don't bother. Analog will win.

boils down to whether 24/96 format (&/or higher sampling) will become mainstream (i hv my doubts considering it's all abt convenience these days).

no doubt some "audiophile labels" will attempt to remaster popular audiophile recordings in 24/96+ formats (until a new format emerges), but... i'd rather hv a music system that will play most recordings well vs. a hifi system that will only play a handful of "approved" recordings exceptionally well.