Looking for my first DAC

Curiousjim,

I use a Schiit Bifrost Multibit with one of my office systems. I have been very happy with it. It sounds great, especially for the price. If you are concerned about MQA, DSD or other formats of questionable value and low adoption, then this DAC is not for you. If you just want a really good sounding DAC for a reasonable price, you would be hard presssed to find better.

If you happen to find yourself well funded, take a look at the Mytek Brooklyn DAC+. I use one in my main system. It runs about $2k. It slices, it dices, it chops and handles every format known to man. Assuming that is out of your range though, the Schiit Bifrost will give you years of service.

Has anyone suggested the Mytek Liberty?  I think it goes for around a grand.  I haven’t heard it but I used to own the Manhatten, which was an extremely impressive DAC

Mahler123,

Thanks for recommending the Liberty. I realized right after I hit send that the Liberty would be a good choice for him. You are right, it retails for $1k.

Lots of good info here.  Just to revisit some of them, it would be helpful to know what aspects of sound reproduction are important to you and/or what things are you looking improve upon. 

I had an Oppo transport fail on me, so u know where I stand on upgrading the Oppo.  

Also, has anyone been able to compare the Liberty to the Bifrost?  And, how are they at jitter reduction?  The Oppo ain't a super transport in stock form, so if neither DAC has great jitter reduction I'd recommend including something like the Empirical Audio Offramp.  Jitter can make digital sound so, well, digital.  You can always add one later I suppose.  Anyway, best of luck.