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Audio note Dac question

Hi

I don't hear much talk on the Gon about the Audio Note Dac kits. I know they may be a bit dated but they still look interesting to me. I am in the market for a new dac and really like building kits when ever I can. I was considering either the 2.1 or the 3.1 kit. If anyone can shed some light on them it would be a great help.

I am also considering the Benchmark Dac 1 usb. I had one when they first came out with the NE5555 opamps and ended up selling it. I wasn't that impressed with it at the time, then again the system I have now is much better than what I had. I have also heard they sound better with the LM4562 opamps.

Thanks for the help
Frank
128x128fc911c
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33 posts
 
Grateful,

I have the 2.1x sig.dac and the AN cdt2 transport. I have been interested in the PS Audio transport. Would you comment on this transport as well as any other transport you have used with your very fine dac?
charles1dad's avatar
charles1dad
10,239 posts
 
I`m sure Grateful has his own opinion on the PS Audio PWT but in my experience this transport is stunning good! Transparent,very open and highly resolving. Best of all it is just 'natural' in sound and tone.At lease in my system it has 'zero' clinical-sterile characteristics, it very organic mated to my Yamamoto YDA DAC.
Regards,
fc911c's avatar
fc911c OP
44 posts
 
Joncourage, why not just upgrade yours?

Frank
joncourage
185 posts
 
overall it would be just about the same cost to upgrade the 2.1 to balanced outputs as it would to sell the 2.1 and get a 3.1 with balanced.

the cost of the upgrade components, installation, and shipping the unit back and forth, not to mention the inconvenience of being without a DAC for a couple of weeks, turn out very close to just getting a 3.1 balanced made new.
joncourage
185 posts
 
of course, that's not accounting for my investment in premium NOS tubes, but I tend to exclude that since it was money spent after-the-fact (logical or not!)
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