Great Intergated amp with great built in DAC

just a sidenote on soix’s comment re the hegel h360

the newer 190 390 590 series specifically improves the dac section of these 160/360 prior gen units

the amp sections are virtually the same, if not, highly similar

this does raise the question of the wisdom of buying an expensive unit where one part (the DAC) might become outdated before other parts (linestage and amplifier) -- such is the challenge of figuring out how to spend money wisely in high end equipment... no clear answer

Aesthetix Mimas; tube and SS with card based DAC from a Super designer of Analog and Digital circuits- jim White. The card based means it will have an upgrade future :-)
stellar sound in both systems I have heard it in. If you like soundstage, look into Vandersteens. Have fun !!!!

@jjss49 

this does raise the question of the wisdom of buying an expensive unit where one part (the DAC) might become outdated before other parts (linestage and amplifier) -- such is the challenge of figuring out how to spend money wisely in high end equipment... no clear answer

I’ve seen this line of thinking over the years. Personally, I believe about five - ten years ago the better digital converters began to sound like music. I agree that a bad dac permanently installed in a good amp isnt ideal but in most cases you arent prohibited from adding an external dac.

Here’s where I see the flaw in the argument. If you think something sounds good today, then it sounds good. Dacs dont erode over time like a tube, they will within operating parameters always sound as good as when you originally chose it for apparent sound quality reasons. To fully reveal my biases, Im not convinced that the ever increasing bit rates and dxdsdxyz mega resolution of month is improving the musical reproduction but YMMV. The better ladders/R2R dacs seem to be extracting the best of the format to my ears. Improved renderers/transports appear to have been a revelation in recent years.

i have two digital setups that I really enjoy both fed over ethernet by an Innuos Zenith mkIII. In one setup, the Aqua La Scala/Linq is very nice and in anothe the inboard dac in my Boulder 866. They sound different but equally musical and I feel Im leaving nothing on the table. In fact, the dac in the 866 is good enough that Boulder is launching a new preamp in the 800 series based on the dac found in the 866. It features analog inputs, digital inputs and a sophisticated headphone section. 
How good is the output stage, thats where most of us should focus. In short, if it sounds good to you, it is good. My 2 cents.

I was using a Parasound HALO integrated, with DAC and phono. Great all in one. Lots of power and very good sound. I found the DAC to be on par with the Chord QuTEST (side by side, about the same)  Parasond was paired with KEF 500 floorstanders, and made those speakers sing. There is one for sale on Audiogon right now for about $1,500. Can't go wrong. It's well built and has 180WPC. I have since upgraded to SimAudio 740/860 and a seperate DAC- because I upgraded the speakers to KEF REF 5's. Parasound has a newer version out now- but sonically the older model (about 3 years old) sounds just as good if not better than the newer version.