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DAC's Made in the USA

I am shopping for my very first dac and the sheer number of product available is bewildering.Unlike many members, I have never owned an outboard dac for a 2 channel system, my budget is extremely limited and my technical knowledge of the product is low.
Further I am committed to purchase a dac made in the USA, or at least a friendly democratic country. 
You can see by my equipment list that I have nothing of any great quality or renown and much of this inventory is likely to be sold to partially pay for the dac. 
I am 80 years old, wear hearing aids and I am pretty satisfied with the sounds I presently hear and really wonder if I can enhance the sound quality of my CD collection (Jazz, blues and classical). 
Would appreciate it if I can get some real help, i.e., people who have actually used their recommendation/not read about it.  Also please remember my spending limitation, more is impossible.
Many thanks 

New (not used)
Made in the USA 
Ideally less than $1500 
Headphone jack is not necessary
Two channel analog output 
Optical and digital coaxial input 

Accuphase E-202, 
Adcom GFA 555, 
McCormack TLC-1, 
Pioneer SA-9500II,
McIntosh MA-6100
Sony DVP S9000ES (DVD, CD, SACD),ADS 910,Klipsch Forte II
stebut
yyzsantabarbara
4,817 posts
 
@arafiq I want to buy the Romanian AudioByte VOX | ZAP | HUB. It is $6k and I am pretty sure I will be able to turn that DAC3B sale dollars into the AudioByte stack. You ever read Jack and the Bean Stock. I like to also invest in magic beans. If you see me with the AudioByte in 6 months then I was successful.

I initially thought the 1/2 the price Matrix Mini-i-3 Pro was almost identical to the DAC3B. I was using the Matrix with headphones on my bedroom system and it sounded great with a Topping A90 DAC. However, on my office system with the Thiel CS3.7 the magic is not 100% the same. Something feels a bit lacking. Everything in the office system is uber revealing so the deficiencies with the Matrix are likely being shown on the office system. I cannot really pin it down but the DAC3B was better with my speakers and all Benchmark stack.

The Matrix will be OK for the short term. I think it does about 85% of what the DAC3B did but there definitely is a bit more hardness on the top, while the DAC3B has none. The Matrix is amazing on the headphone system though. I am pretty sure I will get the DAC3B again, a great DAC on my system. The HUB is a streamer so I can have 2 DACs easily on the office.
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buellrider97
388 posts
 
  Kudos to you for buying American . I upgraded from a Schiit Bifrost to a Schiit Yiggy, and I really enjoy it . Running a Rogue pre, Dennis Had amp and Zu speakers, and Morrow cables all the way . I took the AMERICAN boutique approach and am glad I did. I also run American NOS tubes, but do have a love for Telefunkens. Have a Ford and a GMC , 2 Harley's and a Ranger bass boat . My grandparents were in WWII and my father fought the Chinese as a Marine in Korea . People like you make me proud . And BTW , I’ve always wanted a Border Patrol DAC and I’m currently considering a Van Alstine SET 120 amp for some SS power . Happy listening , Mike B. 
hilde45's avatar
hilde45
4,974 posts
 
@buellrider I’ve been reading a lot about the AVA amp you mentioned. People like it a lot but love the 400 version. More Class A power. Costs more but it does come up used. FWIW, https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=174030.0
philgo01
72 posts
 
I do think Schiit is your best bet.. But Schiit does not support DSD and your SACD (SACD LAYER) will not work with any of these DACs due to copyright implementation back in the day.  I think the only way you can use an external DAC with SACDs (SACD layer) is IIS (usually via HDMI type of connector) and even that is a bit of a wild card and I don't have any experience with using external DACs for SACD layer.  

Another possibility is PS Audio's DAC that support SACDs (DSD) I think but that is north of $6K.

There is also several R2R DACs (vs Delta Sigma) that supposedly sounds amazing per reports and one of the most popular one is sadly, Made in China (Denafrips) but sold by a Singapore dealer exclusively (Vinshine Audio).  Vinshine's owner Alvin has confirmed that Denafrips have no Chinese Communist Government ownership, rather, it is owned by a single proprietor. So...  

I too have the same objective of sticking to Made in USA, (but in my case, with the constraint of "without breaking the bank").  So I ended up with Schiit Mani (phono) and Modi3  (DAC).  My integrated amp is 100% made in USA tube class A (and happens to cost 3X comparable China made ones).  My speakers are Klipsch Cornwalls.  But alas, my CD/SACD players/Streamer are either Japan or Malaysia or China.   Not much I can do there without shelling out much much more $$$.

DAC technology changes a lot too so that's another point to consider in as far as how disposable they are.

AND then,  I started questioning myself if my MADE in USA objective truly accomplishes what I want.... which is not to support governments that are not our allies or more importantly, hostile to us.  I concluded that I don't know... as if I truly want to send a message to Chinese government  (and frankly, American companies that decided to set up shop there), we should also shy away from 99% of Apple products, 99% of HP/IBM/Lenovo/Dell products, just about all smart phones etc..  AND, I don't see that happening at all as I don't know what practical alternatives we have with these devices... .And I highly doubt is the Chinese government has much interest in DAC companies which is more like a cottage industry compared to Huawei / Alibaba etc.

Our beloved world of hi-fi audio is rather minuscule  as compared to Apple / HP / Dell's operations in China.

As the world turns !!!  
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