2. digital
  3. 132029-90127

Best DAC for my situation...Read on!

So thoughts and opinions please.
What I have and my idea.
Oppo 105D and Bluesound Vault 2 feeding into McIntosh C48 preamp.
I chose the C48 because it is a nice complete all in one box solution, headphone amp, mm and mc phono amp, lots of analog inputs with 2 sets of xlr inputs AND 5 total digital inputs.
Now I have both the Oppo and the vault connected by analog and digital inputs to the C48 so I can compare modes pretty instantly and I have to admit both cases the analog sounds better.
Which makes me wonder if the C48, although a great all in one solution may be the hold up as far as the DAC performance is concerned.

What I was considering as a trial is a seperate DAC that can handle the digital signals from the units and then output the analog signal via xlr preferably, back to the C48.
At this stage I have no intention of getting rid of the C48 as I really like the analog signal SQ as well as the headphone performance.

Any good suggestions in the range of $2000 used or am I really not going to see much improvement at that price range over the C48 capability?
uberwaltz
uberwaltz's avatar
uberwaltz OP
13,381 posts
 
Some long thoughts ahead for sure
Benchmark
Mytek Brooklyn

Anybody have any good experience with Schiit? Seem to be seeing a lot of threads on them lately
shadorne's avatar
shadorne
7,491 posts
 
@willemj

I agree with you but with with a caveat: not all line level equipment has high quality output - so I would restrict my choice to go without a preamp only when using a very high quality DAC with excellent and powerful output circuits. Some power amplifiers and long cable runs may introduce a challenging load to a cheap line level DAC output and result in signal degradation (usually a loss of dynamics). So a preamp is just like an audio mixer in the pro music world - it buffers the line level signal by presenting a high impedance easy load and then has a powerful output that can often drive a more difficult load.

@uberwaltz

Schiit is not in the same ball park or league as Mytek and Benchmark and Bricasti and Bryston and a few others (lots of choice - Stereophile A and A+ is a good start)
hgeifman
2,360 posts
 
+1 Ayre Codex DAC.   I own the Ayre Codex DAC and it is outstanding and highly recommended (new or used).  It has great performance and can be used as either a preamp/DAC or DAC only. Please see:

https://www.ayre.com/codex.htm
uberwaltz's avatar
uberwaltz OP
13,381 posts
 
The Ayre Codex does not have digital coax input though from what I read.
Mainly a usb DAC I think

hgeifman
2,360 posts
 
@uberwaltz

Your are correct that the Ayre Codex DAC does not include a digital coax input (it should but does not).  The Ayre Codex DAC specs are:
Input
USB : PCM 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, 88.2 kHz, 96 kHz, 176.4 kHz, 192 kHz, 352.8 kHz, 384 kHz (up to 24 bits), DSD64, DSD128 

Optical input (Toslink)
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