It's eerie how much my opinions/experience overlap @charles1dad 😎I use the same roughly 12 year old Dac and it sounds fantastic. I also heard the BP Dac in the same show system as Charles and loved the system overall. And I agree you can't condemn all older Dacs many are quite musical and revealing with Redbook. I cannot comment on ARC Dacs specifically however it sounds like others who've heard it don't recommend it very strongly never a great sign.
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@charles1dad Hi Charles. dCS (gen prior to Apex), which I seriously auditioned, is one such example. It is without doubt a top tier DAC technically; and for it's owners: also in performance. However, for my preferences, it fell short. Hopefully this clarifies my previous post. Let me know? I've been test driving cars. The Audi S5 and S6 are illustrative / representative of the same. Uber competent. Yet missing more than something [for me]. : )
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I completely get your automotive analogy. I would say that this really applies even more so to audio equipment. Listening to music is undeniably an emotional undertaking (For me more emotional than driving). If the audio product fails to connect and engage you with listening to music, what good is it? If you aren’t being touched, something vitally crucial is missing. Charles |
I own an REF 9se… (technically a CD9SE). It is the best DAC I have ever heard… I had a Berkeley Alpha Reference 3 ($22K and highly rated) in my system with my ARC 9SE for several weeks… I fully expected to be coming up with another $5K for the Berkeley… but honestly the diffference was absolutely minuscule and tipped in the favor of the ARC… a tiny…tiny more flushed out sound. I was pretty shocked when I heard the ARC… and went back and read reviews of previous models. They are very highly rated… so, I am sure there is not a huge differences between models. Tne strengths of the ARC is musicality, fully fleshed our sound that sounds natural. The detail is all there… but not pushed in your face… but very realistic. The 9 is definitely world class. I find it hard to believe the 8 isn’t relatively close. I have heard great things about it. However, some folks want a lean, details forward sound… that is not ARC. You can see my system under my UserID. The ARC DAC… is simply amazing and completely complementary to the other ARC stuff to produce detailed musical sound. Obviously the sound I have been going for for decades. |
DACs have come a long way in the last couple years. No longer is it necessary to trade off detail/resolution for naturalness/musicality or vise versa. I recently picked up a Meitner MA3 that I feel does a superb job at both: https://parttimeaudiophile.com/2022/07/08/meitner-ma3-dac-review/ https://www.stereophile.com/content/meitner-ma3-integrated-da-processor And is has a great network streamer to boot. |
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