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Best DAC for around $2,500 or less

What are your opinions on the best DAC for under $2,500?  Looking at the Schiit Yggy or many of recommend Denafrips so looking at their Pontus.  Any thoughts on how these two compare?  It might be misguided by I tend to think your getting a little more for your money with a direct to consumer company like Schiit and I know they are highly regarded for their DACS.  Anything else to look at in this price range? 
mvrooman1526
mvrooman1526 OP
42 posts
 
OP update, I ended up finding an upgrade Audio Mirror Tubadour III for a good deal and hooked that up last week.  The difference between it and just running the Node 2i was substantial.  The music is less "bright" and not as fatiguing and the realism improved dramatically.  A very good investment and a good first step for $1,000.  As I upgrade I'll look towards the Terminator but was happy to hear such a dramatic improvement in the music quality with the addition of a separate DAC. 

Best,
Mike 
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cal3713's avatar
cal3713
1,421 posts
 
@mvrooman1526 Congrats on your purchase!

I use a Magna Mano ULTRA Network Streamer with my AMT3-SE, which I purchased because of its I2S output. That is the best input on the dac and I'd encourage you to find a streamer that allows you to use it as an eventual upgrade. Also, if you're feeling the itch in a while, you might consider sending the dac to Vlad for an upgrade to SE status. Everyone who's posted about doing so has given a positive review.

And I'll note that multiple posters have preferred the AM to the denefrips terminator. I didn't do that comparison, but did prefer my AM to a PS Audio directstream, lampizator Amber 3, ifi idac pro, matrix x-sabre pro, & Shiit Bifrost 2 in my system. I think you made a wise decision and suspect you will have trouble finding a better dac for anywhere near the current cost of entry... and please do post if you do.
cal3713's avatar
cal3713
1,421 posts
 
If you haven't seen it, here's a thread enumerating the streamers with i2s outputs...

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/streamers-with-i2s-connectivity
cal3713's avatar
cal3713
1,421 posts
 
And because I just got the email correspondence from Ben @ mojo audio, I'll note that he totally disagrees with me (strongly) and doesn't believe in i2s between dacs. 

He states:  In i2s "the clocking and data are divided into three separate signals: bit clock, word clock, and data.

In every other form of digital transmission (USB, Ethernet, Thunderbolt, etc) the clocking is embedded into the data stream and then it is asynchronously buffered and reclocked.

Think about it: if one clocking stream has the potential to get distorted, why would making three clocking streams that have to be synchronized be better?!?!?!?!?"
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