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Penafrips, MHDT Labs DACs versus Integrated amps for home office

Carrying this over from another discussion.  Apologies for being verbose, but...  I 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 listen via speaker, no headphone, no vinyl.  

I want wide & deep soundstage, clarity, and great sound at lower volumes. "3D soundstage", "holographic", etc.

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)
  • NuPrime IDA-8 with 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-$1200 if possible). The loser of this bakeoff will be for sale as soon as I decide...

So, For DACs, after countless rabbit hole hours researching, I think that 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.   But open to suggestions!

I had also considered the RME ADI-2 DAC but I am afraid that it would be too sterile/harsh/fatiguing with my Canton speakers... (the NuPrime IDA-8 is awesome, but it was fatiguing and wimpy bass with my speakers unless turned up pretty loud). So, it is not a match, and I fear that the RME might be similar.  But who knows...

Hence my interest in the power supply of the Cambridge (class XD) to compare against the Peachtree's, as well as the Penafrips and MHDT hooked up to the Cambridge to compare with the Peachtree (class D) and its internal DAC.  Of course, I'd try one of the externals with the Peachtree just to compare... 

In summary, I want wide & deep soundstage, clarity, and great sound at lower volumes but will kick it up on occasion. "3D soundstage", "holographic", etc.  

Any comments and advice on this would be immensely helpful!  I am research fatigued...

Cheers!

bogbeat
big_greg
6,686 posts
 
Ignoring everything you have, if you'd like a nice inexpensive and great sounding office system, here are a couple of options for affordable (on the used market) and great sounding setups.

Vincent SV-237 integrated (solid state amp/tube preamp section - need to upgrade the tubes to get the most out of it)

OR

ARC Vsi-55 integrated (tubes)

MHDT Labs Orchid DAC

OR 

Schiit Bifrost 2

Harbeth P3ESR speakers

I owned the Peachtree Nova 300.  It's a great all arounder, but it's a bit rolled off on the top and will never give you the low level detail you're looking for.  It's very neutral and does a lot of things right, but will be bettered by either of the integrateds I mentioned.

I have the Canton 830.2 and their bigger and better brothers the Vento Reference 9.2 DC.  They are nice neutral speakers with a lot of bass for their form factor, but the Harbeths will give you more detail without sounding "bright" or fatiguing.  You'll hear things you never noticed with the Cantons.

As far as DACs, I really love the Orchid, it's a very "analog" sounding and easy to listen to DAC with good detail.  I recently bought a Schiit Bifrost 2 after hearing it in a friend's fairly high end system (Line Magnetic 805iA and Harbeth 40.2 speakers) and was completely blown away by how good it sounded.  It pushed the Orchid out of my computer system.


jjss49's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
jjss49
6,612 posts
 
wow greg

a schiit bifrost pushed the mhdt orchid out of your system???

regular bifrost or mb?

i tried a bifrost mb found it sounded very round full organic but it had a sibilance that bothered me, i think the mhdt’s have a more natural presentation overall

btw - happy thanksgiving... 
big_greg
6,686 posts
 
The newest Bifrost 2. Don't get me wrong, I love the Orchid too and don't necessarily prefer one over the other. I use the DAC in that system a lot more and being able to just leave it on and not have to worry about wearing out tubes was part of my consideration for moving the Orchid into another system.
twoleftears's avatar
twoleftears
5,320 posts
 
That was the LM and the Harbeths you were hearing.  In your shoes I'd have gone for a Denafrips Ares ii.
big_greg
6,686 posts
 
The Denafrips looks nice. The Harbeths and LM are amazing, but they're not going to polish a turd. The Bifrost sounds really good with my Simaudio 600i and Harbeth P3ESRs.
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