Affordable alternativ to the PS Audio DirectStream DAC

Initm, the Benchmark does not sound like any of these dacs.

Benchmark sound is much crisper and hyper detailed, the PS, the Lumin especially running DSD mode, and the Aqua are all in the liquid more musical camp.

If you want a cheap dac that sounds great and is very liquid but not as good as the above the Ifi DSD pro is really amazing for its price point of $2,500.00

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ

Audio Doctor

The point here is we don't really know what he is looking for.  He only mentioned the DS Sr. in  the context of it being a DAC and at no time mentioned the Bridge II.  So until he clears up what he wants then we are all just guessing.  As he said he was looking for a lesser priced and similar sounding DAC to the  DS Sr. then the S2 fits the bill and as I said I own both.  Whether that is true of the S3 I won't know until Mark sends it back and it is broken in.  If he wants a streamer/DAC combo then one of the Lumin's with the Wolfson chip fits the bill and yes I have owned one of those too. Whether or not the newer Sabre based units fit the bill I won't guess as I have never heard one and am not selling them.  I would guess on based on hearing them that the AKM based Teac Reference/Esoteric units would come closer.

Jacked

From the OP

I will try to see if I can audit the T2

Considering the T2 is only  a dac/streamer it certainly looks like the OP wants a unit with a built in streamer or it would be doubtful he would have said he would like to take the next step to audition one.

I used to own the Auralic Aries streamer which I thought was much better than the LUMIN and Aurender. I got rid of that and my external dac and the expensive usb cable ($750) and went with the ps audio DS dac with bridge board. Much much better. Use Roon on my Mac and use Ethernet to connect to the dac. The DS jr is almost as good as the sr version, gets the same updates. Fpga based dacs are the way to go. Every 6 months or so you get a free update that makes the dac better sounding or adding in additional features like MQA at no charge. People and reviewers like this dac years ago using the then current firmware, and now the latest snowmass firmware is much much better

Street price on a Directstream w/ bridge is closer to 4500 so compare that to a 4500 Lumin T2 which is not discounted as heavily and the PS Audio is a no brainer I sold my T2 as the sound gets fatiguing after a bit. Aurender A10 is very listenable but not quite as detailed as the T2. 
A few ladder DACs available in the 1,000-1,500 range if you can live without DSD. MHDT Orchid getting a lot of hype.