DAC with the best midrange ever.....

All oversampling DACs turn acoustic music into artificial garbage.

The mentions of MHDT are right on the money. They are surely impossible to beat at their price point.

For more $, the Audio Note DACs are the best.

Agree with Paul and above, no oversampling please.

Owned Audio Logic, Cal Alpha, heard and liked Altmann and Audio Note.

Currently, Museatex Bitstream outfitted with Furutech Gold IEC, provides ultimate musicality across the board.

Jafox (John's) comments make total sense, right on the money, I may add.

(I bet that Manley Dac is smokin good)

"time after time, the tube line stage is the make or break link in the system when it comes to capturing midrange textures, harmonic overtones, ambiance, etc."

Swirching the Audio Research sp 16 into my system has convinced me of this finally as well.

The mhdt DAC and ARC pre are absolutely fabulous together! Digital in my system improved significantly along the lines Jafox relates with these two and I feel my system as a whole now gives up little if anything to some the best systems I have auditioned out there.

Phono is improved as well but not as much...it was already pretty good to start with prior..

listen to an exemplar deck with oil filled caps.