Benchmark, yes!
If you have the right equipment to go with it
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Not chiming in on the dac of choice but rather the Made in USA portion. Yeah I am with you on the Made in the good ol U.S.of A. But I saw that someone mentioned that made in the usa means little as the value of components that are officially from the USA is like 25%. That is false. It is actually very hard to say that it is made in the USA as the value of parts has to be like 98%. They govt even inquires to where the material is from so if the metal is from China that is a strike against it. Here's a video of Schiit Head saying as such- (jump to the 7 minute mark):
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Orchard Audio PecanPi Link Top notch performance and beat most of the brand names. |
I have been thru several DAC brands and finally settle down with Schiit Modius as the DAC for my second system. I do not experience "very flat" SS. In fact, Modius preserves spatial information quite well when the recordings have it, as mentioned in several thrustworthy reviewers. The SS may not be as wide way passing speakers but, within the SS, it pinpoints the instrument / vocal well and has a reasonable depth. The BF2 is a step up model and it just does not make sense for its SS being "very flat". I know it is kinda subjective but why don't you educate the Audiogoners here what "many others" DACs in similar price points out there are better choices?
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Audio Mirror.....Great reviews. Mine is on the way. Can’t wait.....Hand built in the USA...v2.stereotimes.com/post/audio-mirror-tubadour-iii-se-nos-tube-dac-by-terry-london/ |
@rsf507 +1 My experience as well. "very flat" it never caused me to become "part of the music" just my 2 cents, but that's it. Regards, barts |
I second the Schiit recommendations. I just upgraded my Bifrost 2 to the 2/64 version and it made an improvement in clarity and imaging with my Fyne F702 speakers, Rogue Audio RP-7 preamp, and Benchmark AHB2 amp … well worth the $100 increase in price for a new model. Of course, there are other, more expensive options made in the USA, as others have said, but Schiit does make good Schiit, right here in the USA. |
I doubt there’s any American designed and built DAC that has all American parts in it. Just like GM is an American company, but it’s vehicles are built from parts from all over the world and they are assembled in several places outside of the US. Ford and Tesla, same story. It’s pretty much the way of the world of business these days. |
@mrskeptic Yes, they're quite the company in this regard. But most other companies are not, and most people are not asking about internal parts. Ideology quickly runs into the brick wall of practicality or is revealed as a surface-level preference. |
@papioaf same time! Crazy |
Carlsbad, the Wyred4Sound 10th anniversary dac is phenomenal sounding, one of the reviewers put it up against his VPI turntable with a $5,000 Japanese cartridge and he said it was every bit as analog sounding and I bought one and I have to totally agree most analog sounding DAC that I've had in my system and it's only $4,500 US and it beat up on a lot of more expensive dacs in testing. |
I don't typically take the country of origin into consideration as much as I take the company's focus on on quality products and ethical treatment of others. I have acquired all of audio gear from a audio retailer - the largest store being Tweeters in the 80s. Made in America is nice and a local audio store that services warranty and has a trade-in program I value more than country of origin. That's my approach - and growing up 10 miles from Canada and half the family being Canadian I tend to lump 'North America' companies as American. I've owned a variety of manufactures including US (McIntosh, Parasound); Canadian (Bluesound, Mirage, Moon, NAD), UK (Rega), German (Dual), Italy (Sonus faber), Japan (Denon, Yamaha). And I've bough all my equipment through local audio retailer.
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+1 for Wyred 4 Sound. As was mentioned their DACs have received a lot of love over the years and have been on my list of DACs to try. Recently I was able to pick up a used DAC 2 DSDse for ~$900 and have been absolutely loving it. For another $1k I can have it upgraded to the latest specs but for as well as it is working in my system I’m going to keep enjoying it as is for now and spend the money on other upgrades. |
