Higher End DACs

I highly recommend the PS Audio Directstream DAC with the Network Bridge II. At $6899 it is well within your budget and, if you buy directly from them, you can evaluate it at home and return it for a full refund if you dont like it. I dont think you'll return it...

tomic601,

I own the ND 555 streamer/DAC with the 555 PS DR power supply and a Uniti Core ripper/hd server.  I like how it sounds.  I use to own their 555 CD player, which I thought sounded better than their servers, but, their current top-of-the-line server is quite good.  I have almost 5,000 CDs ripped to the server.  I don't know how it compares with other high end servers and dacs, but, the dealer who sold it to me said he was surprised himself by how it performed compared to the other stuff he carries, and he has some auite good gear in the shop, like the ultra expensive MBS and the Berkeley stuff. 

If you can afford $15-20 k  you for sure without any doubt deserve to 
hear either the Top Vacuum tube Lampizator  Pacific dac,
or the closeGolden gate dac 
for true realism you would have to spend well over $40k with the upper DCS dacs,vacuum tube dacs that are also tube rectified 
bring a much more natural larger soundstage and image depth like live music.i have listened to the to top Meitner, Chord ,ps audio ,and others they just sonicly are not in the same league as these.
Lampizator USA call Rob I am sure you can get a audition ,for 2 week money back audition,and for sure Buy the a final touch audio usb cable retail $850 best usb cable under $1500 .you can for sure get $$ off if serious .i own their lesser model but spent $$$ modding my out to get close .
Lampizator is well respected around the world.

Fascinating thread....I considered my dac high end yesterday now no more...oufff :)

I wonder how much of the above we all comprehend? What was the question again?!
Any DAC with the top shelf DA chip-sets is halfway to nirvana, the other half is quite a mark of the jitter and clock designs...that’s the hard part to DAC design. The designers who get that second part right are leading the market and most of us consumers have no idea what that is all about. Someone above said it is very difficult to hear many differences in a blindfolded Pepsi challenge, I agree with that.

Take a block of gold and machine out a pocket so it slides over a iFi Audio PRO iDSD DAC and then you’ll have a DAC that streams, has a preamp mode, has a tube stage, upsampling filters, ultra-quiet power supply etc. and still sounds sounds better than any $20k DAC on the market.
Machine some solid knobs out of silver and glue them onto the two rotary controls, you’ll still have a DAC that sounds better than a $25k unit.
I have no problem paying $20k plus for a DAC, I don’t care what a DAC costs. I want the BEST DAC for my two systems, and spent a lot of time searching for it, both systems are running McIntosh gear. the office system (near field) is using active ATC monitors where the listener can hear the DAC’s smallest nuances with extreme detail, as well as everything else on the recording.
https://ifi-audio.com/products/pro-idsd/I have two iFi PRO iDSD DACs and until something big happens I don’t think it gets any better.

Steve Segal in Seattle is a very personable dealer who is one-on-one with all his customers.

Audio Video Concepts and Design

15336 NE 96th PL. Suite C-3

Redmond, WA. 98052

(PH) 425.881.5621

www.avcd.com & steves@avcd.com

I don’t know where to buy the block of gold, but you’ll have plenty of funds left over to do so.