Next best exponential DAC quality level?

I recently had the opportunity to try out some of the budget DAC's in my system to see how they compared to my AN DAC5 Sp, which I consider to be an outstanding dac. The Dac 5 has had quite a few mods ( 768K Femtosecond input receiver ) as well as the AN silver oil caps and the super regs. I bought a Gustard x26 pro for my office system and had access to a D90 Topping w a linear supply.

Granted this was a HUGE spread in price and I felt the result was interesting.

Not to brag but my system is super high end and I have been financially blessed but the result is interesting and worth consideration.

Bottom line is both of the Sabre dac's sound very, very much alike in comparison to the DAC 5 and unfortunately are nowhere near the realm of the AN dac. I somewhat regret spending the bit more for the Gustard but it is much easier to hook cables to and is balanced like my system. I fed the Gustard in NOS and internal OS, 24/384 from HQ Player and 16/44 straight. I have 14 tb of mucic, mostly SACD rips and the SACD was where the Sabres began to show promise but never gave the holographic air and soundstage that the DAC 5 did.

PRAT was in a quantum league higher with the DAC 5.

Images are confined to the space between the speakers with the Sabre Dacs vs an immersive wide and deep stage on the AN.

The Gustard was the strongest bass but not really that defined, however on a bright system it may be the ticket.

The interesting thing was the 2 low priced dacs were extremely listenable and any flaws were just shortcomings vs objectionable flaws.

Bottom line is both of the Sabre dac’s sound very, very much alike in comparison to the DAC 5 and unfortunately are nowhere near the realm of the AN dac. I somewhat regret spending the bit more for the Gustard but it is much easier to hook cables to and is balanced like my system. I fed the Gustard in NOS and internal OS, 24/384 from HQ Player and 16/44 straight. I have 14 tb of mucic, mostly SACD rips and the SACD was where the Sabres began to show promise but never gave the holographic air and soundstage that the DAC 5 did.

@dht4me , I would never expect the Audionote to sound remotely like the Topping or Gustard. Not even close. The Topping and Gustard are designed to replicate the waveform as accurately as possible and would do this with far more precision than the Audionote. With the Audionote, you are buying art. I don’t mean that in a disrespectful way. The goals of the two are completely different.

Being pragmatic, the image should be confined between the speakers. That is all that is possible on the recording. What the Audionote creates is artificial. Again, I do not mean that disrespectfully, the goals are just different.

Depending on the room acoustics, and personal preference, I expect many would prefer the Gustard and Topping to the Audionote, just as many would prefer the Audionote. Again, being pragmatic, I expect the Gustard/Topping has, under critical listening a touch more detail, and again, under critical listening the imaging may be sharper, even if the image is not as wide. The Audionote, if like other Audionote DACs is unlikely to have a very flat response, rolling off in the lows and highs, hence why you would find the Gustard bass heavy in comparison, and in your system, that may not come across flabby, and ditto while the Gustard will come across brighter. If you don’t have a well treated room, rolling off the highs and lows can also increase the listening pleasure, and will improve what people call PRaT.

I will go out on a limb, and please don’t take it the wrong way, but I highly suspect that I could take out the caps, superreg, and upgraded input receiver and you would never know it unless I told you.

You can buy a dac for $20. Many of the dacs built into some integrated amps probably only cost $20, can you hear a difference to a $1000 purpose built dac with separate linear power supply? If you cannot get a new hobby.

@henry53 ,

And if I could show you that YOU could not tell the difference between some $20 DAC and a lot of $1,000 DAC, would you promise to quit the hobby?

Perhaps you can explain how other than bandwagon jumping, your posts helps this discussion?