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A DAC to beat NAD C541i?

I've had NAD for about 6 years. It used to be a good one 6 years ago in my system, but now I think it is a bottle neck in my current system -- Tyler Taylo 7U, Linn AV5105 amp, Rogue Magnum 99 preamp.
My friend brought his Rega Apollo CD player and compared it with my NAD on my system, but I did not hear much difference, except Apollo sound a little bit more warm. But I liked NAD's more bright sound.
If Apollo is a real good one at $1000, I guess I need to spend over $2000 for a new CDP to for better sound.
Instead, if I want to go for DAC with NAD, which DAC (at $500~1000) would be best to beat both Apollo and NAD?
Which CD player (used at $500~1000) would be far better than Apollo or NAD?
Thx
128x128ihcho
ihcho's avatar
ihcho OP
612 posts
 
Thanks for all suggestion.
Looks like I have a plenty of choices.
How would Adcom GDA-700 par against those suggested models?
tobias
1,534 posts
 
Apogee Mini-DAC in all probability far superior to GDA-700 but no HDCD.
mmarvin19
157 posts
 
You might consider the Benchmark DACs. They are selling for under $800 used here on AGon.
ihcho's avatar
ihcho OP
612 posts
 
Thanks again.
I am leaning to Mhdt paradisio 3 (or used paradisio +) for budget wise and its USB support. Whatever I end up, I will get back and report how I feel. It will be compared with Marantz DR700 and NAD C541i.
ihcho's avatar
ihcho OP
612 posts
 
I got mhdt Paradisea+.
After 3 days of continuous play (the seller said that he had used it for about 30 hours), it still sounds pretty much similar to C541i and DR700. Most jazz albums I tried, there is hardly any difference. Some orchestral music revealed tiny noticeable difference on C541i.
Using C541i as transport produces a little bit warmer sound with a bit less muddy in full orchestration. But the difference is still very subtle.
Using DR700 as transport reveals no audible difference at all. Maybe changing the digital cable (currently $40 IXOS cable) and upgrading the tube may help a little bit, but I am not quite sure. I'll wait a week and see if it would improve any bit.

Would TosLink cable be better than digital RCA cable if the price is the same?
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