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How do you assess a DAC?

I've currently got an Audiolab M-Dac+ and am now going to add a streamer to my system, a lot of which have inbuilt DACs. I'd like to know whether the DAC in the streamers, such as the iFi NEO stream and others I'm considering, is going to be better than my Audiolab, in which case I'd spend a bit more for an "upgrade" and sell on my DAC.

Is it a matter of taste or can I compare certain specs to get an answer?

side22olto
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acman3
4,256 posts
 

Apologies Side22olto, Read something wrong, anyway my bad.

2psyop's avatar
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2psyop
1,596 posts
 

I have a separate DAC and streamer. I have found that a simple Bluesound Node 2 can be made to sound much better .. paired with a better DAC. At this time my DAC cost me 4x more than the Node 2. But I have upgraded my DAC three times and with each more sophisticated DAC the sound improved. I think If I were to spend north of $2500 on the streamer and north of $2000 on the DAC I could get better sound but I am not willing to do that..... mostly because i like the BluOS platform and I don't want to spend extra cash. I am at about $2800 now...

side22olto OP
28 posts
 

Thanks again to everyone who left helpful advice, I’ve now settled on an Auralic Aries G1.1 with a plan to potentially upgrade my Audiolab M-DAC+ in the future to something like a chord.

melbay's avatar
melbay
43 posts
 

Enjoy. I use an Innuous Zenith Mki( got a super deal on demo model). Recently upgraded to a Lab 12 Ref DAC (R2R). Very pleasnt sound. 

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