Love the discussion! Apologies for being verbose, but... I too am on the hunt for DAC and amp combo with awesome sound quality and would appreciate any thoughts. I have a 10x10 ft home office, which I spend many work and after hours in. So, I have been trying to upgrade my sound, but am not able to invest gazilllions. I stream Tidal MQA and HiFi via USB from my MacbookPro using Tidal's app.
I want wide & deep soundstage, clarity, and great sound at lower volumes. 3D soundstage!
Here's what I have so far. (amps will be in a bake off)
Canton Vento 830.2 speakers (very "revealing")
Peachtree Nova 300 integrated (with internal DAC)
Cambridge Audio Azur 851A integrated amp (but no internal DAC)
I love the Peachtree so far, but want to give the Cambridge a fair shot, which requires that I buy a DAC (less than a $1000). The loser of this bakeoff will be for sale as soon as I decide...
So, For DACs, after countless rabbit hole hours researching, I have narrowed it down to the Penafrips Ares 2 (cannot afford the Pontus) and MHDT Istanbul (cannot afford the Orchid or Pagoda). Cannot afford the Chord QUTest either.
I had considered the RME ADI-2 DAC but I am afraid that it would be too sterile/harsh/fatiguing with my Canton speakers... (I had the NuPrime IDA-8 which is awesome, but it was fatiguing and wimpy bass with my speakers unless turned up pretty loud). So, not a match...
Hence my interest in the power supply of the Cambridge and the Penafrips and MHDT to compare with the Peachtree (class D).
Any comments and advice on this would be immensely helpful!
Cheers!