2. digital
  3. 190516-181705

dac recommendations for turntable listener?

hi everyone, kindly asking for your dac suggestions. im almost 100% a turntable listener, but recently picked up a DirectStream Dac for those times I cant find the vinyl, its too expensive, or it simply doesn't exist. im looking for suggestions as im not happy with the DirectStream dac, its just not to my liking. its too sharp up top, too thin in the lower midrange, other than that everything else is pretty great. id like to get, if possible, a dac that sounds more like my turntable. I feel like I would get mostly there if the midrange was fuller, and the top end was softer. 

my current system is marantz tt15 , dynavector 20x2, icon audio ps3 mk ii, primaluna prologue premium, and elysian 4 speakers. 

the current dacs I was looking to switch to were lab 12 dac, primaluna evo 100 dac, lampizators entry model, or Merason DAC 1. does anyone have experience with these and can recommend them? 

thanks a lot! 

Anthony 

128x128palutena
audphile1's avatar
audphile1
5,340 posts
 

Blue jeans are decent cables (I keep a set of RCAs as a spare) but you can improve upon them.
So my recommendation is…You have to start from the amp/speakers and work your way upstream. 

I would tackle the speaker cables first. For the horns I’d try something from Cardas or Acoustic Zen Satori. Smooth and detailed - no brittleness in the mids or highs. 
Then interconnects from DAC to amp. Then USB from Node to DAC. 

gkr7007's avatar
gkr7007
154 posts
 

Agree with @soix......

There are tons of streamers out there in very reasonable price range that will be better than the laptop.  As for DACS, the lots of Lampizator owners are usually looking to move up the scale to more expensive models.  Look for used Baltic or Atlantic if you're looking for more on the analog side of things.  And then you can do some tube rolling to tweak the sound to your liking even further.

gkr7007's avatar
gkr7007
154 posts
 

Agree with @soix......

There are tons of streamers out there in very reasonable price range that will be better than the laptop.  As for DACS, the lots of Lampizator owners are usually looking to move up the scale to more expensive models.  Look for used Baltic or Atlantic if you're looking for more on the analog side of things.  And then you can do some tube rolling to tweak the sound to your liking even further.

brianlucey's avatar
brianlucey
163 posts
 

@palutena

Bricasti is warm and accurate and detailed in a perfect balance

palutena's avatar
palutena OP
22 posts
 

@audphile1 speaker cables are diy canare 4s11, and im thinking of purchasing a pair of occ cables I think the brand is 1877phono zavfino. the speakers are elysian 4, horns are retired and just used in bedroom for tv/movies. 

I let you know once the occ neotech cables arrive, then I will try to get a good coax/usb cable. 

thanks again for all the suggestions. still blows my mind that the entry level streamer made such a huge difference 

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