Hello
First posting for me.
I have the Bricasti M3 and I fell that it is a bit too
analytical and dry. I ended up with a Sonnet Digital Audio Pasithea
which I love. It has a sweet r2r sound.
Sweet Sounding DAC
Ok, here's another one of those threads seeking DAC guidance. Certainly, I have started more than my share of such questions.
This search started as a need to find a smaller DAC and streamer due to overcrowding in my cabinet. Current players Bricasti M3 and M5. But as I started looking and listening, I realized there is a sonic search as well; just to complicate the process. As much as I like the Bricasti gear, I have always yearned for a softer- perhaps more tube/ analogue sound. So the search got harder. Here are some of the contestants with my questions/ comments or concerns. I seek advice from those who actually own or know the gear to follow , I will try to be brief. BTW my budget is essentially what I can recoup from selling the Bricasti gear. So lets say 3500 to 5000 ( if I sell both pieces). The first 4 I have sampled, the rest I have read about
1. Wattson Madison; great size. Found vocals a little off/ sounded better w external streamer - but then whats the point of the DAC / Streamer
2. Lab 12 DAC: loved the sound; too big a footprint. Great vocal tone
3. Konus : real nice, still a strong contender
4. Merason Frerot with LPS: not for me ( suprisingly)
5. Audio Note: would need to be entry level due to size. Is it good enough?
6. Gold Note DS-10 + Evo. Looks good on paper; has anyone heard it? Some dealers are not so high on it
7. Ferrum Wandla: looks good on paper but would add a box ( LPS ) to my cabinet. Anyone hear it? Word is that is a rich - smooth tone
8. Audio 11 Sagra: not much to go on but supposed to be smooth and sweet sounding
9. Border Patrol: some love it and some don't. Cannot fathom who is right.
10. AudioMirrow Tubadour. Seemed like a strong contender until a user told me its not that sweet sounding. More neutral in tone. I was bummed to hear that. Not sure it has the Lab 12 tone I seek.
I think thats enough to choose from.
Any insights would be appreciated. Please refrain from snarkiness....I much too tired for snark, But I do appreciate the help.
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Apologies in advance because this DAC is huge and heavy but reference level none-the-less. In my 10 years of borderline frantic searching - now completely over. I no longer thing about DACs at all. Every song plays like a PERFORMANCE in my room. The Heléne is a bit-perfect ladder DAC and uses NO data processing, upsampling or oversampling – all data is converted at their native sample rate and bit rate. Taking technology from the Kassandra Series, the converter banks are implemented around a matrix of eight R2R converters per channel, running in parallel. The two independent banks use EIGHT (8) R2R matrixes from the 8 Analog Devices AD1865N-K in current mode. Most reference DACs use one of these chips. The Kassandra uses 16 chips per channel. https://aries-cerat.com/helene-product-page/ I read these forums a lot but rarely post. This is definitely a worthy mention!
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- 96 posts total