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I need a new DAC! Advice/Recommendations?

The good old Cambridge Dacmagic is finally done for, making this the last product from CA in my collection. My gut combined with a general understanding of quality (I bought used and owned it for six months) tells me to stay away from Cambridge Audio, but I did enjoy the sound from that DAC. It's probably one of the better things they made in my opinion. After a short, but good sounding run with the DAC it appears the unit needs servicing, harsh audible distortion at anything over -10bd. We all know it's not worth servicing , which leads me to my next point:

What Next?

A little about me; I'm young with excellent ears, I produce, mix, and critically listen to music everyday of my adult life. I knew the dacmagic was going to be a stepping stone into High End audio, so no, I don't want the dragonfly. Moreover, I don't want something that's only powered via USB with an rca out. I'd like something with a few input options to run my audio interface with preferably XLR inputs. Sample rate is not of huge importance to me. DSD compatibility would be nice. Something that's made in house would also be nice for quality control purposes. Id also really like this next dac purchase to be an investment and last for a long time. 

My budget: $1000 give or take, probably $1500 max. 

My current ideas in no particular order:

1. The Naim dac v1 because Naim has the reputation of lasting forever, sounding great, and it just looks so good. I've never heard this one, but unless it's like the NAC 112 in regards to sound I'd probably be satisfied. Also, the idea of being able to use a nap 100 and the v1 alone is promising, possibly adding a stageline when I'm in the mood for vinyl. 

2. The Rega DAC-R because it's Rega. Not a lot needs to be said in that regard. I also have the brio-r so the remote feature would be nice. (Neither one mentioned so far have XLR) 

3. The musical fidelity dac M1. It seems to fit bill with what I want, and the price is reasonable  considering it's age. The only concern I have is the quality control being made in Taiwan. 

Other ideas include, w4s's dac v2, building my own DAC and gaining solder practice at the same time, and getting a life outside of posting on Audiogon for DAC recommendations. 


Any help or for that matter any response at all would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for the help! 











128x128audiodoggy
ghosthouse's avatar
ghosthouse
4,300 posts
 
Already many great-sounding suggestions, I’m sure. I’ll add another vote for a DAC from Schiit and in particular, the Gungnir with Multibit upgrade. New, it will come in slightly under your $1500 top budget at $1249. No XLR input but the Gungnir does have a pair of balanced XLRs OUT (as well as 2 pairs RCA out). It is a true balanced design. Inputs are BNC, Optical & RCA SPDIF + USB (now standard). It doesn’t "do" DSD as @djohnson54 also noted. Find all the info at the link to their site, below. Do note the 5 year warranty along with a 15 day in home trial period (money back less a 5% restock fee). You will need to burn in any new Gungnir a solid 10 days (at least!) processing signal 24 hrs/day to start to hear what it really "sounds" like.

FWIW - I just had my Gungnir upgraded to Multibit and have been knocked out by the new and unexpected high level of performance that resulted...and I was already very happy with it before sending it in. It’s almost worth getting the stock Gungnir first ($849) so you can appreciate what the MB upgrade does.

Prior experience was with a Musical Fidelity V-DAC (1st gen) in combination with their V-Link..

http://schiit.com/products/gungnir

Good luck with your decision.
shadorne's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
shadorne
7,467 posts
 
@audiodoggy   

Glad to see from your Cambridge experience you are aware of the pitfalls of buying stuff on anecdotes rather than performance. So why not use that experience in your next purchase?
jl35
3,956 posts
 
Simaudio 300D v2 are now going for well under $1000...the original zdac often is under $200 which is a great value...
jjue
103 posts
 
I had W4S DAC-2, Rega DAC-R, Ayre Codex and Hegel HD25 on my system for extended period of time. For your budget ($1000), I'd highly recommend a used Ayre Codex or Hegel HD25. The both have some limitations such as connection ports or DSD support. But they both give you excellent sound quality compared to the their prices. 
amaglioc's avatar
amaglioc
30 posts
 
Rega DAC-R has been in my system since November of 2015. It's the most budget-minded component I have, but it more than holds its own. There's plenty of detail to compensate for the slight euphonic coloration. I use the USB input after having compared it extensively with the optical. The DAC-R USB implementation is solid. With Audirvana as my player, I use the max upsample to feed 192khz to the Rega on all my lossless files and Tidal. 

I really like the component.
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