2. digital
  3. 132171-1590

Solid state DAC under 12K retail preferably with ethernet

Looking to upgrade from AMR DP-777 and go solid state.
These are the ones I know or read about: Bricasti, Berkeley, Aeris, DirectStream, ODSE, Meitner, Luxman DA-06

Am I missing any other important DACs I should be looking at or reading about?
Currently leaning towards Bricasti M1 SE.

Rest of my system: Coincident Frankenstein Mk 2 300b amps, Devore O96
essrand
rsf507
2,443 posts
 
Another vote for the Bricasti M1SE. Most musical dac I've heard.
lalitk's avatar
lalitk
5,795 posts
 
@drstarbug32,

What DAC you were using with N10 audition? Just curious why would you use Mac mini / Berkeley alpha usb converter with N10?
audioengr
3,282 posts
 
I believe the Bricasti is certified roon-ready, I recently checked the Bricasti and Roon website to confirm it.

Actually, you must add the Bricasti M5 to get Roon-Ready:

http://www.bricasti.com/en/consumer/m5.php

You could add the M5 to the Overdrive SX as well.


Steve N

Empirical Audio

audioengr
3,282 posts
 
I rarely post comments in user forums but regarding the Bricasti M1 I feel compelled to comment. For the past few months I have owned the M1 limited gold with built in ethernet interface and must say that it is simply the most elegant piece of electronics I have ever had. I have listened to the Berkeley reference dac and have owned the Empirical Audio Overdrive SX but the M1 with ethernet takes sound reproduction to an etherial level.

I would be up for a shootout between M1 with DLNA Ethernet and Overdrive SX with DNLA Ethernet.  The Overdrive SX is a different animal now.  Many upgrades to it.  20psec of jitter, Duelund caps etc..

Steve N.

Empirical Audio

drstarbug32
3 posts
 
Sorry for the misunderstanding.   For comparison I used the N 10 fed into the Empirical Audio Overdrive SX (using a Stealth Varig 16 coaxial cable).  At that time my regular set up was the mac mini/berkeley alpha fed into the overdrive sx.  For several reasons I abandoned the overdrive sx and replaced it with the M1 gold edition.  The M1/ethernet is far superior to either set up in terms of convenience and more importantly sound quality.  
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