I appreciate the responses from you all. The thing is...... I really know nothing about this stuff. I have a music back ground and trust my ear. I know my equipment is decent just working on moving up from the dragonfly. I know there is more to be had. I will look into the Topping and some others. Maybe work it out so I can try several at once returning which I don't like. Any other advice? Tubes? Xlr or Rca?
Best route to go for new dac?
Hello. I am looking for a better dac. I am currently using My MacBook Pro with a dragon fly red. Audioquest golden gate 3.5mm to RCA to McIntosh Ma 252. audio quest type 4 to Revel Perfoma3 F206 Speaks and SVS SB3000 sub. The sub has Audioquest Black lab IC. I have around 1000 bucks. Best route to go? I mainly use Tidal. Thank you!
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I would definitely listen to a new dac purchase or buy from a source with a good return policy. I have been listening to dual Wolfson WM8740 chips and I love the sound they produce. I then purchased a Hegel H390 integrated with a AKM AK4490 chip and the reviews were all very good. The amp is very good, the dac, meh, I still listen to the dual Wolfsons. |
I own the Topping D90 and found that it greatly improved all aspects of my music vs the Bluesound Node 2i with a DAC built in. The Schiit multibit also look good for the money. Denafrips and Border Patrol are also a good choice. You will find a great improvement no matter what you choose. Apos Audio has 30 day return and doubles the warranty on their DAC. Schiit also has a good return policy. Both companies are top notch. |
Under $1,000, really anything in blue will do: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/master-sinad-distortion-comparison-graph-... I went with the SMSL SU-8 v2 and love it. My software front end is generally Foobar2000 playing FLAC files and using the SRC resampler to perform a straight 4x upsample on the computer side prior to D/A conversion. So what hits the DAC is usually either 16/176 or 24/384, unless I’m being lazy and listening to 320kb MP3’s on Spotify and then it’s just straight 16/48. The SMSL M500 measures better than my SU-8, decodes MQA and DSD and also has a headphone amp stage that nearly measures as well as the new THX AAA products, which makes it a crazy value. I know value is a dirty word around here though so /shrug |
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