Looking for a DAC that has..

Even if the DAC you find does not have HT bypass, this can be added and will be superior anyway:

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=108715.0

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

Hi Steve,
Thanks for the info. It's very valuable. This just opens up whole other dimension for my dac search.

One more thing, I posted the following for you in other thread "appleTV vs. logitech SB".

I have AppleTV feeding to my Electrocompaniet ecd1 dac. I recently added Oppo 95 and find that using its USB input with flash drive improves the SQ in details, tonality (except midrange) and most significantly soundstage. Obviously Oppo's 32-bit sabre dac plays a major role. One big drawback is I hate Oppo interface and ease of use is not even close to AppleTV.

Do you think adding a reclocker between AppleTV and Electrocompaniet dac would improve the sound to the level on par with oppo or close to in soundstaging, resolution and dynamics?

Thanks in advance.

What you are looking for would be a highly desirable product but I do not think it exists in your pricerange. The wyred 4 sound dac 2 has what you need but it is has a digital volume control (and is a lot cheaper). You could configure an MSB Platinum DAC the way you specified, but this will set you back about $15K.

You can also add this passive switch into the chain:

http://www.goldpt.com/sw2x.html

Kz - Adding a reclocker will make a huge difference, assuming its a good one. It may even beat your Oppo. More important than the DAC itself. The high-voltage discrete output on the Electro DAC is quite good. I used to mod this one. Unfortunately, the DAC module in it is only average, using an older 96-capable D/A chip.

Edorr is right. The lowest price for a good quality solution with everything you want is in the $7K range anyway. The Final Drive transformer buffer alone is around $2K.

You might consider the following:

AppleTV -> Synchro-Mesh -> Electro DAC -> Transformer Linestage -> amps

The Transformer linestage (TVC) will beat any active preamp because the drive from the Electro DAC is strong. There are several options for the linestage:

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=89744.0

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

One of my customers purchased an AMR DP-777 which has an optionally enabled line stage with analog volume control. He prefers it over his high end tube preamp.

Dealer disclaimer.