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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
davehg
85 posts
 
In the mid 2000’s, I auditioned the Musical Fidelity Trivista 21 DAC. That was an audible wow. I kept that DAC for 15 years.

Traded it in for a Lumin D2 so I could play hi Rez streamed audio, and I kept it for two years. Demoed a Lumin T2 and within minutes it was “wow”. Shortest demo I’ve ever done, the T2 was so clearly superior to my D2 with LPS.

I still prefer vinyl but on hi Rez songs, the difference is closer.
essrand
297 posts
 
Went from Bricasti M12 to the Nagra Tube DAC. I am done.

Stand out in my journey was AMR DP-777, wish I still had that to compare to the 10X in price Nagra DAC. 
spatialking's avatar
spatialking
612 posts
 
Wyred 4 Sound, their high end DAC with the Fempto clock option.  Blew me away for sure.
rsf507
2,350 posts
 
@essrand is the Nagra tubed dac worth almost twice the Bricasti M12? What did you find in improvements? What was Bricasti lacking? Reason I'm curious is I have the M1 but have heard the M12 and it's what my dreams are made of.
ddafoe
259 posts
 
Mojo Audio Mystique V3 Balanced NOS R2R.

My favorite (by a decently wide margin) over all my previous DACs  (Bryston BDA2, Berkeley Alpha v2,   SimAudio 380DSD,  Bricasti M3, Topping D90 MQA,  RME ADI 2FS).
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