The Musician Draco could be a great candidate...
https://aoshida-audio.com/products/musician-draco-r2r-decoder
https://aoshida-audio.com/products/musician-draco-r2r-decoder
Alternate to Benchmark Dac 1?
The Musician Draco could be a great candidate... https://aoshida-audio.com/products/musician-draco-r2r-decoder |
The Benchmark DAC2 or 3 is much better than the DAC1. I have owned all 3. None of them are warm but the 2 and 3 are not fatiguing and much better DAC's. I have the DAC3 now. A really great DAC that is a bit warm is the Gustard X26 Pro. It costs $1500 and is excellent. Do not let that price make you think is cannot compete with $5K DACs. A really amazing bargain. I use the DAC23B and Gustard in the same system. A very neutral DAC that is like the DAC3 but cheaper is the Topping D90se. I like the DAC3 for sound (by a bit) and features (by a lot) but the Topping is 1/2 the price and will not add anything to the sound with uber detail. Also non-fatiguing. |
@kijanki I have not owned a dac other than the Schiit Modi 3+ for a few weeks and a dragonfly for my iPhone for about a year. I do not have much experience with dacs. The dragonfly makes Tidal sound great. Especially with MQA over Grado SR 80 headphones. I don't know which camp I am in. The NHT speakers are very clear with a slight harshness in upper midrange every once in a while. Not much though. Enough that I wondered if a dac with some coloration would not be good for this particular set up. I read that Benchmark does not believe there is a big difference between their models, but users seem to think so. Maybe that's why I could pick up the DAC 1 so cheap. The 2 and 3 are out of my price range. Do you have any experience with the Bifrost 2? Thank you for replying. |