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budget DACs

I am going to add a wadia itrans and need a good budget dac for it since my digital player does not have a digi in. Ideally it would be small and run cool since I don’t have any space on the rack for it and it is going to sit on the floor next to my rack. I am thinking about the mf v-dac ($300 new) or the bel canto dac2 (~$500+ used). Anybody listen to both and have any thoughts to share? Are there other dacs in the <$500 category used I should be looking at MDHT, etc? Thanks for your input.
wrtickle
drtmth58
66 posts
 
Definitely look at the exceptional -- by any standard -- Cambridge Audio DACmagic at about $449 MSRP and used for no more than $350 or so.
upstateaudio's avatar
upstateaudio
249 posts
 
I use a Musiland MD10 with my Logitech Squeezebox primarily to stream 128k mp3 files from Pandora as well as Apple lossless files from my computer. It is $299 new:

http://www.pacificvalve.us/MusilandMD10.html
macdadtexas
1,794 posts
 
I loved the MHDT Havana that I had. The Pardisea is supposed to be just about as good in your price range.
sfar's avatar
sfar
1,758 posts
 
The Taiwanese-built Valab DAC is pretty remarkable for its $200 price. It's very small and gives you the options of coax, toslink and USB input. I use one in my office driven via USB from a MacBook Pro but it sounds amazingly good in my main system, as well, even using an inexpensive DVD player as a transport.
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