any feedback on the grace 901/902 dac ?

the m902 has the USB input that Clio09 mentions. The 901 has S/PDIF coax, optical or AES input (it also has both balanced and unbalanced analog inputs, but we're mostly talking about the DAC inside). the DAC on the 901 is "limited" to 24/96, while the DAC inside the m902 can handle 24/192 input. (not something I've had to worry about yet). one thing to note, though, is on the m902, the USB input is limited to 16 bit sources.

As far as quality of the units go, the only other DAC I've compared it do is the benchmark dac1. and my opinions about that are above. I'm hoping to get together with some friends this winter/spring and compare the grace 901 with a bel canto DAC. (we've been lazy, though :) And as far as the analog side of things, it's a wonderful piece of gear. the best headphone amplifier I've heard. (I've listened to many, although never done any head-to-heaad comps). from what I gather, the 901 and the m902 are very similar, if not the same, on the amplifier side of things, while the DAC in the m902 has been improved.

The grace is a headphone amp with a built in DAC. It is primarily used in pro applications from what I gather. One nice feature is the USB input. Not sure what the quality is like however, I'm still looking in to that.

if you like smooth vynil like quality, the electo should be good.

Is the Grace 901 also a headphone amp?

thanks for the comeback... i pulled the trigger on a electro dac...pretty nice..

in a blind head to head comparison, I preferred the Grace 901 over the Benchmark dac1. The grace had smoother overall sound, and definitely better bass extension, without sacrificing detail or clarity.

the other gear in the chain was a BAT vk60 and Von Schweikert VR-4 speakers.