Upsampling DACs

Dave - I think you're unnecessarily limiting your enjoyment by restricting your choices to a certain technology. Years ago, I went into a dealer asking for stand-mount speakers because I thought they were better than floor-standing for some reason. The dealer said "rather than looking for a certain type of speaker, why don't you just try to get something you like?".

It sounds stupidly simple, but I can't tell you how many people here do the same thing in one way or the other - they want an upsampling dac, a dac with a certain chip, a non-oversampling dac, whatever. IMO, it's the wrong way to go about things.

Judging from your system, you're probably not in the market for an EMM or Vitus, but seem to think very highly of the Metrum Octave, the Auralic Vega, and the Eastern Electric.

BTW - that Onkyo you have is not a bad player for the money. What are you trying to achieve - warmth? That's what most people seem to want. Nothing against Bryston, but warmth isn't their strong suit.

Good point Chayro, at the end of the day members here can only make suggestions based on what we think is a good unpsampling dac based on our preference and relative budget. At the end of the day, it's all about finding out what kind of sound you like, then building a system that suits your tastes. I mean, if you believe some of the bs on this forum, you'd end up with $40k of cables plugged in to a Chinese cd player and $700 vintage speakers. Best to forge out on your own. Ultimately listening to gear and having a good relationship with a Dealer is the best way to go.

Hi Chayro, I actually am gonna upgrade to more expensive and better sounding units than the Bryston stuff. I've been saving up for the last 2-3 years to do so. Yes, the Onkyo is fine, but I would like to upgrade the digital side of my system so it sounds more what I hear from analog, if that makes sense. Not that I'll say it will sound exactly alike. I know better than that! Anyway, I've heard what upsampling can do, and I'm a fan of it more or less...

I asked this in the other thread, and I didn't get answer, so here goes: What do you guys think of the TEAC UD-501 DSD DAC? Sound, reliability (it is made in China,) and build quality.

Dave, I can't comment on the sound of the Teac dac you mentioned, but to be honest, Teac are not in the same league as Vitus. Not saying Vitus is the only brand you should consider, and others I am sure will chime in. But from my experience they are doing it better than anyone else if bang for the buck & musicality matter.

Hand on heart if you're looking to buy new, I would recommend reading up on the Vitus RCD-101 if you want to improve the digital side of your system. The RCD-101 is a true balanced sacd player which has had an extensive rework to add SACD and DSD compared to the previous model, including a new heavily modified Sony SACD drive, a better power supply and better dac section which uses the same modular architecture as the Signature Series SCD-010! According to Lotushifi, the RCD-101 sounds better than the SCD-010 (which i've heard & sounds amazing). VA gear is hand-made in Denmark using some of the most sophisticated engineering i've ever seen.

Waxing lyrical perhaps, but i'm just a happy end user and have no ties/connections to VA. Good luck with your auditions!