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Looking for recommendations for a 'warm' sounding DAC

Would anyone know of a warm sounding DAC, budget to £2500/$3000 new or used. My ears don’t like a crisp and clinical sound, I find that Chord/dcs/Topping sound painful if loud. I know many love those crisp leading edges that these deliver but that sound does not synergise with my amp/speakers nor my sensitive ears. I know the easiest way to achieve this would be to switch speakers to a mellow speaker but this option is not available.
Any suggestions would be welcome.
128x128duckworp
mlapenta
104 posts
 
I thought my chord qutest is warm and want to hear the tube prima luna as i have their amp and love it.  
timo62
279 posts
 

I would recommend checking out The Chord Qutest also, along with the Chord M Scaler.

Audio Note DACs would be another suggestion to try.

pkvintage's avatar
pkvintage
199 posts
 
Hi Charles
"Your ears regognise it"  I never thought of it that way but that is exactly what is happening. That's a very good way to describe it. As a result of buying the AN 3.1 I ended up buying an M6 phono, a set of P4 mono blocks and a second An system based on an M2 phono. For me I would say that was deffinity a game changer. I use Tannoy MG's. I will eventually end up with a set of AN E's
thecrow97
1 posts
 
I only have a setup for my headphones (higher tier) and i love my metrum nos hex dac

great separation, natural/analogue sound. 

This dac will never be sold by myself

This has been discontinued in recent years. 
The pavane is one of the older higher tier that offers more - i have not heard it though. I also have not heard any of their latests dacs so I can’t help there either
garydt
15 posts
 
I said I wasn't going to participate in these forums again, but here I go.
Barely any audiophiles seem to know of Prism Digital. Heavily used in the high end recording studio world and regarded as the most accurate sounding AD & DA converters out there. So enter the Prism Calia consumer model; by warm I assume you mean rich and accurate harmonic reproduction accurate to live music, while being open and clear sounding. The Prism Callia. Or it's Pro version which would have AES EBU
Another choice would be Dacs or built in Dacs from the SPL line in Germany. Also a Pro roots company. These are the AD's & DA's the high end studios are using and there's a reason for that! 
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