Mine arrived on Christmas Eve. I haven’t had a chance to open it yet. I will listen to it tonight for first time.
Best DACs under $7,000.00
I'm tentatively beginning the search for a DAC upgrade. Currently, I have Innuos Zen MK3 as a streamer connected via USB to a Denafrips Iris DDC that is connected via I2S to a Denafrips Pontus II DAC. The Pontus II is excellent but I feel it's the one point where I could gain incremental improvement toward that illusive natural, layered, analog end-of-the-rainbow. I simply can't / won't spend above $5,000.00 - $7,000.00 on the DAC. The rest of my system: top-of-line Prima Luna Evo 400 Integrated Amp and a set of Harbeth speakers. Right now, I'm looking at Denafrips Terminator II or Holo Audio May DAC. I've never seen an a/b comparison of these two, but both stand out and have a following. Of course, the unsettling thing is DACs have evolved so much and are still in a blooming state technologically, making it a given that whatever we have today will probably be surpassed by better for less later, like electric vehicles. But that's the nature of the beast. Does anyone have alternative suggestions in this current climate?
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@verdantaudio How are you going to get the music bits into the SPDIF of the GAN1? |
@ricevs how can this unit have no tubes, no transistors, no op amps, is it magic? |
As stated before.....you need no tubes, transistors or opamps BEFORE the DSP chip in a digital amp.....no preamps, no DACs with their output stages and no normal tube or transistor amps......of course there are transistors in the DSP chip and drivers and GaN transistors in the class D output stage......but before the DSP chip there is nothing....but a PCM signal from your source. Yes indeed....it is magic......and now VTV Audio also has a digital amp that has higher power than the Peachtree amp. |
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