A DAC that crushes price vs. performance ratio


I felt strongly that I wanted to inform the Gon members about a new DAC that ranks with the very best on the market regarding performance, but costs around $2,000.00.  The Lab12 DAC1 SE was compared to three reference level DACS that retail for over $12.000.00 in my review for hometheaterreview.com and was at least on the same level sonicly, if not better.  This DAC from Greece is not just "good for the money" but competes with virtually anything on the market regardless of price!

For all the details about the Lab12 DAC1 SE performance and what other DACS it was compared to take a look at the review.  If you are shopping/looking for a new digital front end to drive your system, you owe it to yourself to check this DAC out, unless you like to spend tons of more $ without getting better performance.
teajay

Showing 5 responses by oddiofyl

I also picked up the Lab 12 DAC 1 Reference and am really enjoying it.    

Does it compete with $10k DACs. ?   I don't know the answer to that but it definitely has a unique presentation.    So many songs that were tough to listen to are a lot better with this DAC, it's smooth and very forgiving to poor recordings.  It has a great bottom end,  drums and bass guitar have real delineation and texture .  

With great recordings it sounds fantastic.    Sounds "bigger" than the DAC it replaced .   Imaging goes way beyond the speaker boxes.   This DAC is a good example of something that measures worse than the DAC it replaced but for whatever reason sounds much better.

I still have the original tubes in it.    Being bright is not my experience.   This is why home demo are so important.   I'm curious to learn what you do go with

Good suggestions on the Mazda tubes.  I had some for my preamp from Brent Jessee and they were great