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What's the greatest bargain in DAC's these days?

Hi, Gang,
I am currently running my Music Hall CD 25.2 CD player as a transport through my Musical Fidelity M1 DAC. I also have the Musical Fidelity V-Link 192 for playing hi-res files from the USB port on my laptop.
DAC's are such a fast-moving market segment that I started to wonder whether there was a "stupid good" DAC, even better than the MF M1 DAC, that could be had for well under $1000.
I started a thread in the Amps/Preamps forum called "What's The Greatest Bargain in SET These Days" that yielded tons of great info. I hope this thread does, as well!
rebbi
rebbi OP
1,326 posts
 
Well, if the Parasound Z-DAC is as good as some of you say it is, it should
be a steal! And that Simaudio Moon 100D is also very well priced at Music
Direct. But just to point out that the really cheap one at Music Direct is the
v.1. The v.2 is also on sale, but it's $1150. :-/
samac's avatar
samac
499 posts
 
You might want to check out the Arcam irDAC. It's been well reviewed. I have the predecessor to it, the rDAC, and have been very pleased with its performance and function.
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,483 posts
 
The Arcam player that used to license the DCS ring DAC technology was definitely a bargain at the time but my understanding was that arrangement ended a few years back?
Post removed 
samac's avatar
samac
499 posts
 
@Mapman- Yes, with the rDAC Arcam was licensing USB technology from dCS. With irDAC they have used trickle down technology from their own reference D33 DAC. The irDAC also comes with a remote which the rDAC does not have. In the near future I hope to try an irDAC and compare it with my rDAC.
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