Performance of $1000 DAC's

Brianmgrarcom, I have been wracking my memory to see if I can be of any use and I come up with this. I am presently using an Esoteric P-10 transport with an Atlas Opus cable (1.5m) and a battery-powered Apogee Mini-DAC. This DAC with a battery PS would sell in the $1K range.

Now I think way back to the first time I heard a P-10. Thanks to a very generous pal, I was comparing four digital sources: an Ensemble Dirondo/Dichrono, the P-10 with an Apogee DA-2000, a TEAC T1 with an Apogee DA-1000E-20 and a Shanling CD-T100.

The order I've listed them in was the order in which I perceived their quality. The top two were very close (in the top 3 I'd heard up till then with the Linn CD12), and now I am trying to recall that experience so I can give a rough idea of how my present setup compares to those.

I would say that the Mini-DAC on a battery is very surprising. With a P-10 it would take the middle spot in the lineup above, and perhaps sit very close to the second. My impression is of a bit less liveliness and punch than the DA-1000E, but also less congestion on complex passages, and more openness and air.

For tone and body, all five of the sources did very well. I wouldn't call any of them thin-sounding.

Why would thin sounding be correlated with price?

I just acquired a Modwright Sony NS 999ES with the Platinum Truth Mods, Signal Cable umbilical cord and NOS Mullard rectifier and Tung Sol 5881s, and it is just simply a truly amazing player. That being said, I still have my Bel Canto DAC 2 and Benchmark 1 DAC that I have directly compared to the Modwright 999es and while not completely its equal both are phenomenal for their price points and definitely in no way thin. Until I got the Modwright the above two DACs were by far the best digital I have had in my system.

I have a Benchmark Dac 1 (no USB) with a Nordost digital cable, Shunyata Taipan Vx Helix Power Cable into Hydra 8 and Masterlink Alesis 9800 (on Walker Audio Valid Points, also Taipan Vx Helix PC, Tara Labs RSC One single ended interconnects from Benchmark to preamp) used as transport and compared to my Esoteric X03-SE (Tara Labs The One Balanced cable, Shunyata Python Vx Helix + Hydra 8 on Finite Elements Cera Pucs), the soundstage from the Esoteric is noticably deeper, richer, more transparent, better detail and dynamics~all in all obviously better sound. The masterlink really did came to life with the Benchmark, though I don't think it is a fair comparison as the complete CD Rig with cables is probably $10,000 vs probably $3k for the Alesis/Masterlink combo. The Benchmark is very musical and sounds wonderful, just not in the caliber of the Esoteric. I would like to try a more expensive DAC (maybe a Mark Levinson) but not going near there for a while. I'd love to hear other opinions.

I've had the Stello DA100 Signature in my system the past couple months -- it does not sound thin and the soundstage is remarkable. In fact, it makes my EVS Millennium DAC 1 sound flat and 2D by comparison. The best way I can describe it is that the DA100 not only presents a layered soundstage, it does so in such a natural and realistic fashion that you don't just see/hear the layers -- you can actually sense them as well. Had the same experience with a Stello DP200 a while back, so it seems to be a family trait.

I found this review comparing the Stello DA220 with the Benchmark if you haven't seen it: http://www.soundstage.com/revequip/benchmark_dac1.htm.

I think both units have been upgraded since this review, but the core strengths probably remain. They both seem to come very close to the best available, so it's hard to see going wrong with either sonically speaking. So, to answer your original question it seems there are DACs in the $1000 range that are not thin sounding and do soundstage like champs. Hope this helps.