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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
hgeifman
2,305 posts
 
You might also look at Play Back Designs DAC’s.   See:

http://www.playbackdesigns.com

i believe they have the connections you are looking for but I do not know their price.  It is certainly worth a look.  
psickerson
97 posts
 
I have a yggy from Schiit it is a very analog sounding Dac and pairs best with acoustic music.  Great sound.  If you read the fanboy site over on head-fi they will make you believe it sounds better than 20k options, but most on that site are biased.  It’s also a cleaver marketing extension for Schiit.
audioengr
3,282 posts
 

If you can bypass the preamp on the MacIntosh, you might want to try a DAC direct that has good volume technology.  Its eliminating jitter and analog stages that gets you closer to the live event.

Steve N.

Empirical Audio

mesch
3,529 posts
 
I am thinking a used Bryston BDA-1 might be a good mate for your C48. They come up for sale used here often (as the USB input is substandard) and if it doesn't work out you could resell it for little to no loss. It doesn't have volume control, however has many inputs and a quality power supply and output stage.  
shadorne's avatar
shadorne
7,477 posts
 
@uberwaltz    

Check out this plot (Fig 13) why you should always run line level preamp devices north of 12 oclock (when playing loud) and why you should not string multiple preamps together. 

https://www.stereophile.com/content/benchmark-dac3-hgc-da-preamplifier-headphone-amplifier-measureme...

The measurements from JA indicate to me that the DAC3 is an excellent preamp (better than your C48) and that it is best to use this DAC directly into a power amplifier using the balanced outputs and with a jumper pad precision resistor attenuation setting at a level such that you are listening with the volume between 10 and 3 oclock.
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