What DAC upgrade made you say “DAMN, that sounds SO MUCH better than my last DAC”?
@rsf507 M12 is only worth it if you have Bricasti amps. Its built-in that is not bypassable pre did not match well with other amps I tried. If you are set on Bricasti please get the M21 instead. At that level a separate pre is a must. The Nagra tube DAC is something different, everything I was wanting in my system suddenly was there, and I am no longer scouring audio sites for my next purchase. There was soul and there was resolution, violins for the first time sounded just right. Is it worth 2X the price? Yes, because your search for a DAC ends. Tube DACs are where it's at, IMO. But do try cheaper ones like Brinkmann Nyquist dac before jumping to the Nagra. I didn't do that, but should have, it's the only regret I have. Also please note, Nagra doesn't sound tubey at all, you wouldn't know there were tubes if it weren't for the name. |
Without a doubt the Bricasti M3 dac with streamer board option is a incredible price ,performance leader . I had a Denafrips Venus and was going to go with a Terminator ,or a Holo springs Kte but Anthony at Perrotta Consultants ,on theEast coast IMO a premiere dealer with a great assortment of great gear said these other Chinese dacs are very good But Bricasti are known for their musicality in the mastering studios but expensive.this M3 Uses the classic Analog Devises 1955 laser trimmed Multibit dac chips , and tons of trickle down technologies, fantastic build quality and execution and the streamer is seamless and Roon ready ,and best of 2020 it truly delivers excellent detail and realism,it sounds like a mixture of tubes and solid state and if you buy a cable or power cord ,very attractive package pricing . https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pG1TGrVEpOc |
Each step in my audio journey has seemed to be a great improvement...from my Marantz receiver to a Wyred for Sound DAC, then to a BMC DAC/Pre, then to my current Bricasti M1 Limited Gold. Helping along the way were changes in the source as well. From a Marantz CD player, to a BMC BDCD, to a Laufer Teknik Memory Player (first a 16 core, then a 32 core, and having a 64 core built currently). |
I think you have to be aware that some DACs could give you that WOW upgrade based on the fact they may have better re-clockers compensating for a budget-ish transport (assuming that is the case in some circumstances). If you already have a fantastic transport the differences in some DACs is less to do with re-clocking and more focused on the DAC engineering itself. An example perhaps would be the Audio Note DACs - Audio Notes shun complexity expecting your Transport to be up to scratch - an AN DAC improves significantly with the right transport on the shelf. But if you put an AN DAC on the end of a lesser transport - you are not getting the best out of it. |
