@vdotman "Geshelli Labs Dayzee. You have to wait to get one, *ut it’s worth the wait!" did you hear one at a show or get a preview unit?
I have their JNOG2 socketed, fully kitted. It's fine and good value, but frankly didn't beat the DAC in my EversoloDMP. Its Works better than what's in my Marantz HT pre/pro, which is 13+ yrs old... but once I got the DMP and a/b'd that vs. the Gheseli in the signal chain, I pulled it. And the JNOG was not as good as any of the 3 current generation DACs/Pre's in my basement now (Moon/Sim390:~$6500, Wandla:$3900, T+Adac200:$8k+). Testing at home side by side with a known room, speakers and amps you're familiar with and can control variables helps determine what will work 'for you' and 'in your system'.
@captelee "I run a T+A DAC 200 on my main system..." out of the 3 this week, noted above, this is the one I kept turning to, and will be buying this weekend. Coming from a wonderful BAT balanced preamp and modest <$1k dac (eversolo, gheselli, or the babyfacePro DAC that came with my Bacch4mac setup) all 3 new ones I tested at home this week were an upgrade in detail, attack, place and pace.. The Moon was pleasant, musical, friendly, solid. The wandla, a great value that also sounded neutral, not soft, and the Hypsos external power supply with the variable voltage + it's Signalyst filters were very fun to tweak. But I kept going back to the T+A as the most honest of the triplet. Of the 3 I felt this was the one stretching the rest of my gear (a factor I look for when I get new kit) and was very, very revealing and yet not harsh (bez2 filter was used most) all this detail didn't get in the way of me enjoying the music. My notes: "front row seat" with the dac200... and with Bacch all 3 had identical soundstage and imaging, when Bacch was engaged (i made a new bacch profile ('bin' setting) for each dac+pre and would switch between Bacch profiles them when swapping dac+pre's and a/b with and without bacch (there's a bypass of course) when on a given dac+pre.
So if it wasn't for the 1024DSD future proofing and 2 separate DAC chains in the T+A, and the ladder gain, and all I wanted was a compact value based software upgradable DAC+Pre to let Bacch do it's thing, the Wandla would have won as it was no slouch at all**. If I only had $8k and still needed speakers or amps, then the wandla, and shopping for those wit the savings. but for now this dac+pre was the 'last piece of my current puzzle' so the budget went to T+A.
**wandla also had several adjustable filters, with more coming, HT passthrough (line in analog that will pass L+R from a pre/pro) also AES/EBU, usb and even i2s (hdmi port format) and also a balanced and isolated analog section, and the dedicated power supply (which can power a 2nd asset as well) was a great match. hence why I recommended it above to OP.
