Please help me find perfect dac for me


Hello,

I am looking for a new dac, and i hope you can give me some suggestions. I find dac world is so competitive, and moving so fast... It is difficult to know where to "start"

Here are my constraints
- Budget : ~2K Euros - 2.5K USD
- No tube
- Pure dac, no preamp 
- Silver color
- Bonus : small form factor, 10" width (25cm) max would be ideal but not mandatory

Now for sonic, i want something that sound live, not too much analytical (i don't like when i heard too many details), large soundstage in width and depth, with neutral tonality
Here is a list of what i have heard / owned and what i did not like. (Unfortunaly each listen was with different system, so my judgment may be biased)

- Audio research DAC 9 : i love this dac, probably my favorite I heard, but way much out of budget. If you have cheaper alternative which sound like it and without tube i would like to know !
- Audio GD (don't remember which one 7) : Sound is too smooth and slow.
- Mytek DSD : sound is too bright and dry. maybe pro stuff is not for me
- McIntosh D100 : sound is flat. I just find it boring
- Lampizator DSD (currently owning): details retrieval is perfect, I really like the sound of this dac, except i find soundstage too narrow. higher model (atlantic, lite 7...) are out of budget. Besides i want to get rid of tube in my dac

I read lot of good thing about yggy, but i am affraid it may be too clinical for me, and seems hard to get. HOLO is black so i have to pass on this one ...

Any suggestions ?

Thanks :)




sphilia
@rhljazz , I'm sure battery power sounds better than with a wall-wart PS.

About 5 years ago I owned the Qute EX. I loved the organic Chord sonics, but it lacked low-end extension using the stock power supply.
Yes, Chord. Hard to go wrong there for your interest. Check out HoloAudio Spring Kitsune Tuned Edition Level 3 if you can find one where you are. Yes, Empirical Audio Overdrive. Auralic Vega. For the just the facts mam, look at Mytek Brooklyn+ or Benchmark Media Systems DAC3 HGC. These last two maybe a bit dry for you but have their fans and worth a listen.
I recommend Caylx Femto.  You can get a used one near your budget.  It's
really a wonderful sounding machine.
I would tell you just buy a low priced DAC  2K 
OR lower because you will be buying more then  this one.   That DAC s.o.t.a.  is changing to fast. 
 Let's get that right