What is the best DAC ever made?

Man, what a question and you expect to ever get a definitive answer? Look at the responses and you can see that pretty much if 100 people respond you will get 60-100 different answers. I have been in the hobby for over 25 years now and from what I can see to each his own! Yes, there are some statement products out there that are considered the BEST for a short time but they always get replaced by newer and "better" in no time! Just read some of the audio magazines out there and you will agree! One thing I just know by now is that each opinion is worth a penny and is pretty much useless unless you experience the product by yourself. What "tastes" good to me might be tastless to you.

I usually get this type fo questions by people outside "audiophilia": What is the BEsT speaker out there? What is the BEst company in Audio? What is the Best amplifier? What is the Best cup cake? The best for one is the MOST expensive. TO another is the "best sounding" for HIS or HER own tastes.

Sorry for being in a "philosophical" mood but the question did strike me funny. Please do not get me wrong. I enjoy reading the responses but if you try to make an assessment of what you learn you can go crazy. What amuses me to no end is that people actually TRY to respond to a question like this. They usually talk about their latest acquisition or something they dream about but rarely have any serious experience with. In both cases any response to what is BEST is at best subjective and in many cases very misleading.

Anyway, enjoy the hobby!

Hi Murataltuev, thanks for the response. What tubes were being used in the Acustic Arts Tube dac, did you guys experiment with any others and what digital cable were you using along with the connection and of course transport. If you used it with the original tubes you never heard the dacs true qualities. I will keep those pces that you have mentioned on my list to get to compare. Referring to Teajay's responses about AA product I have found in the past to have a similar taste and when I tried different pces found to be on the same page of what my thoughts are. That being said there are so many flavours of sound and the rest of your set-up also greatly depends on the end result so possibly yours and mine just differ which is okay.

Hi Pubul57, if you read my past threads you will see that my answer would be yes to the cd7, it's been a long time now since so you would need to read through to find what my thoughts were. Good to read that you are happy with what you have, that's what it's all about.

Guys who are ranting about the word "best", anyone who has been in this hobby for any length of time knows there is no best in anything so don't get so worked up about when you read a thread referring to such.

Hi Dev, I asked about the CD7, which you liked, and like the TubeDAC uses tubes, and I wonder if why they work so well for you, and for Teajay, stems from that a bit; not sure if your power amp is tubed. I agree about the problem of anyting being designated as "best", like all know, system matching and personal taste is just as much a part of the equation as the inherent qualities of any particular piece of gear.

Hi Pubul57, I was looking through my past threads and couldn't locate but I believe it was the Acustic Arts Dac MK4 at that time compared to the ARC cd7 which I had on lone and prefered the AA which as you know has no tubes.

I use to have CAT JL3 Sig. MK11 mono's but don't use tube amps currently, looking at Teajay's system info. he uses solid state, I do use a tube pre though.

I have the AA Tube DAC with Long plate Buggle Boy Nos. My speakers are Wp7's which can be on the bright side if not used with proper electronics. While I have not heard the Berkley, the warmth and clarity that I hear from my DAC has not left me wanting. I once tried a very well respected digital cable that was recommended by Teajay. In my system it was too bright. It totally changed the character of the DAC. The point is that AA tube DAC is not at all bright or grainy. It has the advantage of being able to tune it to your system by rolling the tubes.
I am sure they are all good Dacs. The only weakness that I see in the AA is that it will not read files higher than 48. High resolution files cannot be used.