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Got Innuous, now a DAC

I worked with the Music Room and purchased an Innuous Zen Mk3. I remember five years ago when I started building my system, I heard many say streamers don’t matter. Well they do. I thought my BS Node 2i was good with the after market power supply. The Innuous kicked dirt in the face of the BS. The Innuous forced me to use USB which probably helps as well. And an added benefit: NO MORE SOFTWARE ISSUES. Yay! Qobuz internet interface is great. The sound of Qobuz is so good it made my $400 BT speakers sound better.

The Music Room associate said I will see another step improvement. I have looked around. I think R2R might be a good try. I would characterize my system as neutral. I have eliminated most glare or listening fatigue. But I don’t know what I don’t know.

I would like to keep this under $2000. Here are some that I found.

Denafrips Pontus 12 $1500

Ali express Denafrips 15 $1518 plus ship

Aqua La Voce. ???

Ayre Dx9. I think these are old but have good rep. I think it s Delta Sigma

Chord ??

Gustard. R26 mixed reviews

Bel Canto ???

i will not be updating amp and preamp. Thank you in advance.

The brands are exploding, but thank you in advance for your suggestions. 

 

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airwatcher's avatar
airwatcher
8 posts
 

Chord Qutest! In my system it was transformative.

ethereal_beats's avatar
ethereal_beats
5 posts
 

I would add the Border Patrol Dac to your list at your price point. There has always been a synergy between Innuos and Border Patrol, and both brands build around the quality of their power supplies. Gary Dews at Border Patrol also sells Innuos products. The Border Patrol SE-i is a refined, natural, human-sounding DAC that is not fatiguing. I use that with my Innuos Zenith as I wanted a streamer/dac to match my Esoteric transport and Audio Note Dac combo.  
   

curiousjim's avatar
curiousjim
4,868 posts
 

I still have the original Pontus ll and it’s still has a wonderful sound to it.  I’m looking forward to upgrading someday, but I’m not a a great hurry.  Although I have had an eye out for a DDC. 😃

thebingster's avatar
thebingster
35 posts
 

If you can locate a previously owned Aqua La Voce, jump on it. Very organic sound (IMO). If not, and you can afford it, buy it new- I think it's around $6K (maybe more now as it's been awhile since I checked). I was so amazed, I upgraded to the Aqua Formula (their high-end DAC). It added further improvement, La Voce was a giant step up from a decent DAC in the Hegel integrated I had at the time. Now set for the duration.

emergingsoul
1,210 posts
 

chord Worth looking at.  I had a blue sound node and it was nice but the quality was not that great.  I'm sure that was a dramatic change. Choosing the right dac Will be very important to making older music sound good. I used a lumen x1 streamer/dac and was really happy. So my chord stored away. I don't like separate dacs if you can find a good streamer/dac but I do like to streamer you got.

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