Best Bang for your Buck DAC ?

I’m also in the market for a dac since I bought a Musical Paradise MP701MKII Tube Preamp few months back does it make sense to buy a tube dac? The seller is suggesting to get the Musical Paradise MP D2 MKIII which is a tube dac with a AK4490 but can be upgraded to AK4499 but I’m leaning towards the RME ADI2 which is the same price as the MP tube dac.

Another thumbs-up for the Musical Fidelity V-90. I haven’t auditioned all that many DACs, but did take the v-90 to my dealer to run against a Simaudio $1,500 model. Yes, the Simaudio might have had an edge, but not much. I now have a PS Audio Directstream because that’s what it took for a clear step up with upgradability. 

while all being very good sounding units, the rme adi2 and musical paradise are at opposite ends of the spectrum:

rme is crystal clear, fast sounding, shimmery, slightly mechanical, relatively centralized, flat narrow sound stage -- probably a very honest representation of the digital signal being portrayed

otoh, musical paradise unit is ’enriched’ in the midrange and midbass, slightly rolled on the top and extreme bottom, soundstage ’expanded’ and deepened via tube output stage, more perceived coherence top to bottom

so to use again the very apt analogy by john darko the reviewer -- ’skim milk vs full fat’

schiit gungnir mb is smack in the middle in terms of tonality but with nice imaging (imaging is the rme’s achilles heel imo, not an issue for hp listeners of course)... gungnir issue which led me to move on is there is prominent relay clicking between tracks, if you change source or different bitrates, irritated me

hope this helps those trying to make a choice

Very happy with my Rega DACr... under a grand and maybe around $450ish for a good used piece. Fabulous build quality and plays great with any electronics I throw at it. 

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