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Is there anything other than a Benchmark DAC?

I own the Benchmark DAC3 and love it.  I am looking for another DAC due to the addition of a  second system. It will either go with a Boulder/Audio Research/(B&W or Vandersteen) system or a McIntosh/Bryston/(B&W or Vandersteen) system. I am looking to try to get something under 3k (maybe 4k) used. I've been looking for a month or so and have seen Bryston (DAC3 wanna be), Primaluna (too much distortion) and a bunch of really old stuff.  I have yet to justify any purchase when a DAC3 is sitting there new around 2k with those untouchable distortion numbers. I would love to try a tube DAC tho another solid state DAC would be fine. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Given my DAC3 bias I would love to hear from  those whose bias differs from mine.

128x128delmatae
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delmatae's avatar
delmatae OP
14 posts
 

More great stuff thx all.

@yyzsantabarbara Yes I run my DAC3 through an ARC tube pre and then to a Boulder amp. It really sounds good, both through vandersteens and B&W's.

@cundare2 I do think the DAC3 will end up in my second system. I have run it through my Mac before and liked the results.. 

@yage I did have an Ayre VX-5 amp for a while with my ARC pre which is also zero feedback with my Vandersteens. It sounded great, I do like the boulder better though.

mitch2
4,084 posts
 

Are you considering another DAC3?

delmatae's avatar
delmatae OP
14 posts
 

@mitch2 yes I am, tho I am leaning towards something suggested in this thread.

yyzsantabarbara
4,941 posts
 

Since you are going through a tube preamp my suggestion is the Schitt Yggi+ MIB. For the longest time I thought Schitt was mid-fi gear. However, after buying the Jotehuim R headphone amp for my RAAL headphones I started to try out more of their gear. Some of it is top notch.

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