Are there any DACs that can go low?

Dacs, Dacs Dacs.... They seem to come and go like the morning sun. Some do this and some do that, but the true goal of a dac is to TRY and (somehow) sound analog. The goofy little things seem to span a cost factor that is mind boggling. I truly cannot remember how many of the digital creatures that I have bought and sold. OK... What do I think are the best for my tastes ? Of course I haven't heard them all, nor come close to owning even a fraction of the lot, but for great analog sound at a fair price, I would recommend a few good ones.

The older PS Audio UltraLink Dacs.... Very musical, well built and easy to listen to. Nice robust bass lines and very open soundstage.

Aragon D2a2 ...... Build quality second to none, quick, punchy presentation and very musical.

Michael Yee Audio Dac-1 ..... Yee is the master of analog. His "head amps" are legendary. All of his "vinyl" expertise he wired into his wonderful dac. Built like a tank but with a smooth, truly musical sound that is intoxicating. No longer in business, if you can find one... jump hard on it.

And then..... OK, go ahead a laugh, roll on the floor and call me a dip-sh-t, but try out one of the Jolida Tube Dacs. Throw a couple of the new re-issue Mullards or new Tung-Sol (12ax7's) at it and listen to it light up your life. For under $500.00 it is a steal. Extremely well built and already upgraded right out of the box, the gorgeous little dac is a music making machine.

There is my little inexpensive dac line-up that I am the fondest of. I own the Jolida at the moment and use it mostly for my Apple TV unit to greatly improve on the radio station format. I still have my Michael Yee Dac and really don't use it as much as I should.

Hope this helps out a bit. Of course, there is a endless list of others, but these have given me the most pleasure of owning over the many years.

Cheers,
Tony

Dacs are as sensitive to input changes as anything else in the chain. I have went through quite a few high and low end Dacs and feeding them correctly brings out the best rewards. My little Jolida FX Tube Dac is a top notch performer for my uses. I selected it specifically for my Apple TV unit to play the HD music channels. With stock cords it sounded mildly OK, but after replacing the power cord with a PS Audio AC-12 and using the new WireWorld Series 7 TosLink (to couple the Apple TV), the dac is stunning... Well at least to a point. I also replaced the original power cord for the Apple TV with a PS Audio C-7 type cord and also use a Harmonic Tech. HDMI, but there is still one bridge to cross. The jitter from the Apple does not make the unit unlistenable, but it does affect the entire signal... Top to bottom. Sibilance in the voice range is particularly annoying in that the singer (particularly female) sounds as though they are chewing on a corn snake when hitting the high notes. On the lower end, cellos can sound like an in-estrous Baboon scratching it's tootie on a bamboo tree. There is a cure for this somewhere in the form of a little box (there always seems to be a "little box", doesn't there ?). I have heard that it stops the itch for the baboon and also jerks the corn snake from Diana Krall's lovely lips. I don't know who makes it or what it is called, but there is one of those boxes out there somewhere. However, I'm sure that they are at least $10,000 and there is a waiting line because the baboons and corn snakes have them all bought up.