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Worlds best DAC

Went to CES this year to work on my transition to high Rez digital. I've heard many of the highly regarded players in my room or in others systems in the past. I'm actually very happy with my current cd based sound. As I listened to various DACS playing CD then high Rez, I was not bowled over. High rez was better, but only slightly so. The best (and most different) sound I heard happened to have one similarity. They were 2 non oversampling DACS with tube analog stages(Zanden and Ypsilon). These were without question the most natural sounding digital systems I heard at the show. They made CDsound miles ahead of high Rez. What gives?

PS: I understand the limitations of show auditions.
bflowers
agear
1,362 posts
 
Speaking of the world's best dac, the shootout between the Lampizator L7 and Trinity dac never took place as a "demo" unit was unavailable. I do understand from a business perspective that having a dac that costs substantially less being competitive is not good. Comparing it to a dcs stack is a "safer" comparison....:)
rx8man's avatar
rx8man
1,483 posts
 
Agear, I checked into the ML3 Reference speakers, they seem dead serious and also reminded me of Dale's offerings.

Too bad the Trinity couldn't be in the shootout against the Lampy (I'm kinda sorry I brought it up here due to the crazy price and lack of availability) maybe another time.
agear
1,362 posts
 
Yes indeed Pat. You have some sweet speakers yourself!

The Atlanta Phasure/L7 or L4 Lampi shootout will be forthcoming...:)
twb2
129 posts
 
"The Best" is a constantly evolving target. Stereophile Magazine would have us believe it is the $108,000 dCS Vivaldi stack.
bhobba's avatar
bhobba
303 posts
 
'Agear, I checked into the ML3 Reference speakers, they seem dead serious and also reminded me of Dale's offerings.'

They are dead serious all right.

But for about the same money they have been surpassed by the Limited. I live near the maker and he is going to try and raise the performance of the ML3 - but its going to be hard because one of the the reasons for the Limited's performance is its lined with 1/4 inch copper and has 1 inch thick cast iron bracing all over the place inside - each speakers weight is about 41kg - with stands each speaker is over 80kg. Duplicating that in a speaker the size of the ML3 is pretty much impossible at a realistic cost.

However I have been conned by the maker into getting a brand new speaker he is working on that uses the 6 inch Seas Magnesium cone and Morel Supreme tweeter. It will have a slightly smaller internal volume for even deeper bass - hence it will be more rigid again. The crossover will be in a separate section at the back, and it will have a trapezoidal shape to break up internal standing waves.

I can report on how it sounds when its built.

But its a big problem for guys outside Australia because they will have Bucklies of hearing it - unless of course you want to take a punt and fly out to the Gold Coast to hear it. Couple it with a bit of a holiday.

Thanks
Bill
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