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What DAC upgrade made you say “DAMN, that sounds SO MUCH better than my last DAC”?

As the title suggests, what was your overall system and DAC at the point where you bought only a new DAC and said “DAMN, that sounds SO MUCH better than my last DAC”?

I’m a novice and so many people talk about improvements from new equipment as if they were only listening to varying degrees of static until they bought more and more new equipment which added up to them finally being presented with music. It’s like Salome and the seven veils. But when does the last veil get peeled away? 

So what system did you have and what DAC did you swap in that made you say “DAMN!!!!”?

I guess I’m looking for night and day differences, not gradual progressions……


pip_helix
jjss49's avatar
jjss49
6,612 posts
 
when i found the 'on' switch on my denafrips terminator... i said "damn that sounds sooooo much better than my last dac", a chord dac that i blew 4 grand on

i could never find the damn on switch on that chord hugo tt2 - as a result, i always felt that one lacked air and impact and truth of timbre...  the brits make such crap these days  😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫
mahler123
3,502 posts
 
I went from using the DAC in my Oppo 105 to a Mytek Manhattan I. This may have been the sun ale biggest upgrade I ever made.  Interestingly both DACS used the same ESS Sabre Chip
zlone
831 posts
 
While not quite night and day, the upgrade of my Gungnir to Multibit was an immediate and noticeable improvement.

mr_m
1,900 posts
 
Zlone, what did you upgrade to?
verdantaudio's avatar
verdantaudio
1,522 posts
 
My most recent "Holy S?!T" moment was the move from a Chord Hugo 2 to a Weiss 501 during a customer demo.  The Weiss was new to me and I use the Hugo 2 all the time.  These are not in the same price class (Hugo 2 and 2Go are $3800 and the Weiss 501 is $9k) but there are times when you make a change and the difference is subtle and you aren't certain how much of an impact one DAC had vs. another.  The Weiss is very warm and almost analog sounding while the Chord sounds a bit colder.  Not bad just very different presentations.  
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