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?
128x128uberwaltz
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uberwaltz OP
13,381 posts
 
@hgeifman 
Yeah I thought so pity.
I really need two digital inputs from my oppo and the vault and prefer them to both be coax but could be one coax, one optical. That is mostly because I have 2 fairly decent coax cables whereas my optical cables are just the ultra thin cheap giveaway stuff atm.
mr_m
1,900 posts
 
I'm currently using a Bluesound Node 2 connected to a Ayre CODEX with a glass optical cable by Wireworld and it  sounds better than the usb to me.
uberwaltz's avatar
uberwaltz OP
13,381 posts
 
I can believe that, just I need at least 2 non usb digital inputs for my requirements
hgeifman
2,223 posts
 
@uberwaltz

What about the Mytek Brooklyn DAC?

DIGITAL INPUTS: USB2 Class2 (OSX, Linux driverless, all formats), AES/EBU (PCM up to 192k, up to DSD64 DOP), 2x S/PDIF (PCM up to 192k, up to DSD64 DOP), Toslink/ADAT 2x S/PDIF (PCM up to 192k, up to DSD64 DOP), SDIF3 DSD up to DSD256. 

If not, Google DAC with two digital inputs. 

Sent from my iPhone 7
uberwaltz's avatar
uberwaltz OP
13,381 posts
 
@hgeifman 
At present I have a very short list of two, both from prior suggestions in this thread
One is the Benchmark dac3
the other is the Mytek Brooklyn.

Both are about $1995 brand new and with 30 day free trial.
Still looking and hearing opinions but it may boil down to one of those and give it an extended test run, not much to lose bar return shipping.
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