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Is it possible to find a good DAC for under $50, 000?

Apparently, the good folks at The Absolute Sound have you covered.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nItR8Z6CCWE

(Audiophiles are never going to shed their out of touch reputation with journalism like this. I'm sorry, but it's just so tone deaf.)

hilde45
allenf1963
385 posts
 

I believe this was supposed to air on April 1st, because it most certainly is a freaking joke.

 

Change the title to "Under $100.00", and you actually have something.

audioman58's avatar
audioman58
4,341 posts
 

$50k  for under $10 k  a number of very good sounding dacs 

$50k I have heard ,excellent  but should be expected , starting from the router, LPS power supplies good cables, and quality Ethernet hub , you can get to over 90+% for dood dac imp,DCS has a $120 k 3 box setup including shipping !!

something things are nuts,$15 k for a 1.5 m loudspeaker cables 

I guess if you have money to 🔥 burn  why not l

yyzsantabarbara
5,073 posts
 

Sometimes the gear has to be this price otherwise the wise folks with money won't buy it. A great example is the PlayBack Designs Dream DAC (at $24k) vs the Nagra DAC. The PBD Dream was built by a guy who knows digital technology since he was there at the start. The Nagra is outsourcing the the PDB boards.

Try and guess if PBD is OEM-ing the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd best boards to Nagra. Then guess which DAC costs more.

whipsaw
771 posts
 

Lots of people (including audiophiles) would likely think that I was a fool to pay ~$6k for a DAC. But I'm very happy with my Aqua La Scala, and do not believe that paying multiples more could possibly provide other than wildly diminished returns.

In fact, it would be far easier for me to believe that there are DACs that cost half, or a third of the La Scala, that also sound really good, than that $15k or $25K DACs sound significantly (if at all) better.

2psyop's avatar
2psyop
1,815 posts
 

I could not pay over $2500 for any DAC. I begin to question my own sanity and how ridiculous the cost of my audio system is at that budget. In many ways (not knocking others here) I find the significance of my stereo is not that great compared to other things in my life.  $50k range would go to an automobile, roof on my house, siding on my house, college funds etc. Not a single DAC.

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