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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
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.
ckorody
643 posts
 
Second the Valab. You will find it on ebay

The Keces 131 (SPDIF and Toslink) and the 151 (USB) are also from Taiwan. They are beautifully built and excellent sounding. David sometimes has an ad here on the Gon, also on ebay.

They are both very sensitive to power cords.
karmatogdral
66 posts
 
Yes what they say about those Taiwanese dacs are all true, My MHDT Havana is sounding ever so natural and organic, though it's tube sensitive, the tube is not an issue if you know the kind of sound you prefer or like to improve.
Havana is also popular in the 2nd hand market, so if you don't like it, it won't take long to sell. I don't remember where but i heard MF v-dac would make one wants to upgrade pretty soon.
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