Dated but still A rated DACs

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

Mojo Mystique Dac 
best R2R Dac

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.

If you mean by dated...vintage....an older Muse 192 was an awesomely good sounding DAC in its day. No USB....but for redbook it was very sweet sounding. Nevertheless, a PS Audio PWD II is more impressive in every way.....and has loads of inputs. Same with the Benchmarks 2 and 3.....used Ayre QB 9 DSDs are essentially affordable now...along with the CODEX and again are much better than vintage DACs.....I remember the Musical Fidelity 192 DAC and liked it but it sounds dated compared to what was available even 3 years ago. Go new....many to choose from.