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Best DAC / Budget

I think this is a gain issue between my analog and digital sides - but I just don't know enough
I hit a wall with the digital side yesterday
I generally listen on the lower side of listening levels
Yesterday I came home and decided to see what this rig could do and put it through it's paces on both the analog and digital side.
I'm playing vinyl on a Nottingham 294 space deck with a 12" tone arm and a Lyra Delos cart - through a EAR 843 tube phono stage - line input on a Rogue Cronus Mark I - KT120 tubes - bypassing the Rogue phono stage.  It sounds just completely glorious. I'm very happy with it.
Digital is a different problem. I've always understood this gear was meant as place holders - they got the ball rolling.
I'm streaming from Tidal, through a Pro-Ject Stream Box Ultra 2 (ethernet cat 6 hard wired to a router), through  a gifted Schitt Mano 2 DAC.

The Problem:
Analog completely surpasses the digital in every way
Digital - turning up the volume (to very high levels) only seems to result in filling in the low register and not actually increasing the volume.
I'm fully aware I am comparing a DAC to a Deck which costs many times more.

Looking for recommendations for a separate stand alone DAC which complements the analog side and for an idea of budget.
Thanks everyone







smaarch1
audioman58's avatar
audioman58
4,166 posts
 
For $2800 delivered and not much competition just do a search 
on you tube or online the Denafrips Venus , superb dac thst beats much more expensive dacs build like a tank precision R2R  dac.
knighttodd's avatar
knighttodd
203 posts
 
The Audio Mirror is too laid back. Try an RME ADI2 Dac Fs. Put it on the nos filter and adjust it for your preference. About 1200.00 it sounds fantastic. Order thru Amazon and get 30 day money back. You owe it to yourself to try it.
mrmeaner
44 posts
 
Denafrips Ares II , superb R2R DAC, superb musical dac that just makes me want to listen all day long. 
itsjustme
682 posts
 
The Schiit Modi is a very low cost DAC. I have a Modi3, and its excellent - for $99.  I'll come out and say though, that unless you only play audiophle records, even the lowly Modi2 ought to regularly equal your phono, or something's wrong.  In the real world - the remastered versions of old favourites that are everywhere on tidal in MQA generally kick the butt of any original vinyl recording.

Yes, the BiFrost Multibit is much better, at 6X the price. The Denefrips Ares 2, IMO, is better stil, much really, and can sound superb - but is not the most detailed out there.  Yet the better the other equipment the better it can sound - always a good thing.
Few of us have heard all the DACs out there. Since i do contract design, i get to play with lots of different piece parts though, and see a lot of "ideas" most of which are the datasheet for the chip, with a different logo. Not impressed.
Get a bunch of ideas - don't take my world or anyone eles as more than that, and find  away to listen in environments that either you can control or at least know well. Bring your Modi and compare back and forth with levels matched.  What do you hear? Can't tell? then it doesn;t matter now does it?
G


furiouslyadrift
42 posts
 
It’s entirely possible the digital music is not  mastered very well. Try an SACD or DSD file and compare. Better yet, something you have from the 70-80’s that’s well done on both vinyl and digital (Love over Gold or Aja?). 
A lot of early CD were terribly mastered and a lot of newer pop is heavily compressed due to the “loudness wars”. 
Vinyl has worse SNR and headroom than digital... it’s not even close. Thing is, is that restriction in the medium forces the recording engineer and master to be really really good... 
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