Holo May KTE and Denafrips Terminator II are the two comes to mind at top of 5K range. Now I have not done head to head comparison with aforementioned DAC’s but did audition Konus Audio Digitale 2000 in a very high end system. Gorgeous analog sound with lots of detail. We listened to multiple genres and nothing sounded out of place or forced. The fact, Digitale 2000 - $3900 held its own in a system just shy of $100K, it was quite remarkable. My only knock, it does not do DSD or anything above 24bit/192kHz.
Among the used bargains under $5K, take a look at SW1X Dac III, AQUA La Scala and Bricasti M3 DAC. They are currently listed at other site.
USB yet again
For a few years I have had an Intona Isolator with Oyaide Continental 5S upstream and Intona Reference downstream connecting Streamer and DAC. Given the Strong benefit of filters on the upstream Ethernet connection I added a LHY Audio USB 3.0 purifier with a Grey Knights power cable. The tightening of the transfer and resultant SQ was remarkable despite having used superior cables before.
While USB remains a compromised transfer format, asynchronous USB is the only protocol synchronising the server’s and dac’s clocks unless both have master clock connections. AES/EBU may have better noise rejection but has imbedded clock signal,SPDif is outdated as well as speed constrained and I2S not standardised. Hopefully the industry comes up with a better solution. It is interesting that there seems to emerge a trend to combine server and dac: one wonders why?
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@lalitk Appreciate the tips as ever and will check out those mentioned. Top two would be a stretch at present but Konus has my interest. I gather all are plausible candidates for USB-only streamers such as N200. Current DAC takes mini-USB only, which can't be ideal. |
Great discussion that has potentially answered why I have struggled with a streamer solution. It hasn't been for a lack of trying though. I've had several in my chain to date without experiencing a SQ improvement. I stopped the search last year and followed through with my original year long plan of buying new speakers. While saving for those I wanted a lesser bump with a better streamer than an iMac.
I currently use a SSD iMac (not a laptop, an iMac) and usb to a Holo Spring 3 KTE. This model and the May KTE have an optimized usb input that nulls power riding on the cable, is galvanically isolated, has good clock implementation, and nearly immeasurable jitter.
The streamer I hoped would jump the SQ was an Aurender A10 borrowed from a neighbor. If the usb output from that older model is inferior to the Holo usb it is reasonable to conclude SQ would not improve?
If true, the question is at what point will I start experiencing better SQ from any streamer using usb out when feeding an already usb optimized DAC? There seems to be two camps designers are approaching streamers with. One is through usb and the other through I2S and some of the higher end lines offer both. Reading product data for the A200 I see there is an optimized usb out and equal design attention to implementing I2S with the statement it's a personal choice which to use without claiming either is better. How is it that better sound is achieved using a well designed usb in the A200 out to a DAC with usb that is already taking care of the known issues with usb? Optimize the optimized? Where is the improvement in this proposition. This is when my head explodes attempting to understand what is what and I give up in frustration. Worse is reading the many satisfied users here that figured this out and are enjoying the synergy of streamer/DAC.
I'm all for fitting this last puzzle piece and if it requires crossing the 5k line to get there it will take awhile to save up so I can trial.
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