Dated but still A rated DACs


Looking to purchase a great sounding used DAC , unless I can obtain equal quality on a new one. Your thoughts?
goldenear1948
You don't often see them come up, and when they do they're not as cheap as you would expect given their age.  But the Timbre DAC featured a sound that endeared itself to some who preferred analog to digital in a big way
Many believe the 63's were the best on standard Redbook, the 1704's only excelled when 24/96 recordings are used.  Pass themselves agree with this.  I am a HUGE fan of the 1704s and have owned numerous pieces, too many to count, with them.  The 63s are something special.
I am a HUGE fan of the 1704s and have owned numerous pieces, too many to count, with them. The 63s are something special.
Had them both over many dacs and cdp's, and tinkered and modded them to the hilt.
The PCM1704 is top dog for all Redbook pcm, far lower noise, almost glitch free, so it doesn't upset wide bandwidth I/V stages as much.

Cheers George
The problem with digital gear is that it keeps evolving so quickly.  Today's $5000 wonder is tomorrow's $2200 White Elephant.

I run a Peachtree DAC I bought several years ago for $500.  Still sounds great and I need to make no apologies for it.  More than one visitor has proclaimed my system to be of "reference quality".  You can pick one of these things off of EBay for $200 or so.  

They have both a USB input and an optical input.  I feed it a USB line from my media computer and an optical cable from my CD player.  Sounds identical both ways.

Go ahead and drop thousands on something else and all you'll get is a very, very rapidly depreciating box you'll eventually drop off at Goodwill in 3 or 4 years.