@samgar2, The DCS Rossini DAC is only one piece of the entire audio system chain including the source, amplifiers, speakers, cables, power cords, the room and other things. The DCS Rossini DAC may sound great in one system and horrible in another. In some cases, the listing room may also influence the overall sound quality.
The answer to the question of price vs. sound quality depends on the person listening. If you like the way the DCS Rossini DAC sounds and, can afford it, then you purchase it. Everyone on the forum knows that there are many DAC’s available at many different price points and, obviously, many different levels of sound quality.
For me, it is a balancing act between what I can afford and what sounds good. I cannot afford the DCS Rossini DAC, so I ignore it. The difficult part of any DAC decision is the auditioning of many DAC’s in your system to decide what DAC sounds best at your price level. Unfortunately, in this hobby, it is very difficult to audition 5+ DAC’s in our home audio systems so we read reviews, talk to retailers, friends and comments posted on Audiogon, etc.
This makes the purchasing decision process even harder since no one has the exact same equipment, room, or listing tastes. OR, in other words, everyone has a ’different opinion’. For me, it is more important to hear the equipment in my space so I can best judge what sounds good (to me!). I purchase equipment that sounds great at my price point in my audio system.
This hobby is weird. It is very easy to look at the next purchase, the next DAC or another mod, and forget that what you already own sounds excellent.
I own the Bricasti M21 DAC with the MDx board upgrade and like it very much. This DAC has both a signal delta DAC and a laddered DAC so you have 2 options. I usually listen to the laddered DAC option since it sounds the best to me.
