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"Aesthetically pleasing" DAC???

Okay- I know it's going to sound cheesy, but I'm wondering if anyone can suges a reasonably priced, high quality DAC that also happens to be "eye catching". My system is in our living room, so the wife insists that components not look like components ;-) Just to give you an idea of what I mean, my system currently includes the Basis 1400 turntable, Shanling CD-T100 cd player, and Cary SLP-98P preamp. Any ideas? Any tubed units with open-tubed layouts? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
reeldude
jvogt
212 posts
 
I like the Levinson 360 DAC. Some may not prefer the
"industrial" look, though I find it attractive.
lordgorian
133 posts
 
the chord is a great reccomendation, absolutely beautiful and easily one of the best dacs for the money.
ed_sawyer
588 posts
 
Hey Jax -

Josh has talked about building a DAC but hasn't got to it yet. Hopefully he'll soon have the preamp finished to go with the amps I got from him. (wait until you see this preamp...;-) The next thing I want to get him to build is a phono stage... hopefully all DHT, S&B step up and RIAA trannies, battery filaments... should be impressive if he can pull it off. He was actually talking about building a dac and phono stage into one unit.. we'll see what happens. Agreed that a dac from him would be the ultimate (in my book).

Other nice ones:

the Stax X1-T is quite nice looking, the Zanden looks pretty nice too. Or how about the Wadia 790 Powerdac? those look damn cool.

-Ed
bigkidz
3,387 posts
 
Birdland Audio makes a great DAC and one model has a volume control.
gunbei
2,327 posts
 
I love the way my Kora Hermes makes music, but I gotta tell you that the faceplate looks like something from a cheap Revel model kit. I think the Chord is super neato looking, kinda like a mini hi-tech bomb.
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