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$10k DAC in a 3k system?

Hello all,

Ive owned the same audio rig for 8 years or so (Rega Mira 3 amp> Rega RS5 speakers) 

My source into the Mira3 amp is a headless fanless micro windows7pc I built running jrivermc> musichall Dax 25.3

i am reading some phenomenal things about some of these Dacs in the 10K range ( Chord Dave, Ayre, Lampizator,PS Audio, etc).

My question is a simple one: the other pieces of my system sound great to me, but are at a much lower price point collectively than one of the dacs mentioned above. Do I need to be concerned about my Amp/speakers being fast/dynamic enough to facilitate a Dac like the Dave? Or could I plug a top notch Dac like that into my system and hear the same things I've heard described in the reviews (but on a relative level) ?

thanks in advance for any insight!
dla123
audioman58's avatar
audioman58
3,970 posts
 
Having owned a audio store the sourse CD- Turntable  is very important 
If you can afford better buy a good dac , reason being if the clean signal does
Not reach the preamp correctly everything else down stream is Lost.
This too applies to quality cables including digital the AQ Diamond is plenty good 
I just bought s Anticable 3.1 Ref to check out s bit warmer  sounding. Let's see if better then my Diamond USB cable,if not I send it back. I got s great deal on s PS Audio direct stream new under $4k with new firmware upgrade .
Doing much better always eject card after down load ,I DID not and the Huron upgrade sounded crappy , now much more uniform and detailed. 
jnovak's avatar
jnovak
410 posts
 
Hi dla123,
                Here's my rule; buy the DAC you want to hear. Because your ears are tuned to your set up, the difference will be clear. Buy the DAC at a price that you can afford to sell it for and not loose much if you want. It's the ONLY way to know if you really want it or not. (However,it may lead you to want to upgrade other components in time.) My first high end system was put together by SoundEx in Philadelphia (1995) with no regard to cost ratio. It was my Snell Type B's, Krell KPS 20i CD player, Threshold T2 preamp, Threshold T400 amp and all Transparent Reference interconnects (balanced). I never heard such a glorious sound! I never knew that music could sound so good. I have yet to hear better. Good luck. Joe
dla123 OP
6 posts
 
Thanks guys, jond and Almarg's advice makes sense. I guess I always assumed that the source is the most important part of the chain, as that is where the signal comes from. Jond's perspective is that the speaker is where there is more variance.  Almargs post I guess would kind of support that I guess
paul79
173 posts
 
My DAC and speakers cost the same. The rest of my electronics are much cheaper.
milpai's avatar
milpai
2,343 posts
 
@paul79 ,
We have no idea what your system consists of. Would you mind sharing?
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