Back to the DAC

Check out Merason. I have heard them at a friend’s house and at my favorite room at AXPONA. Very natural. I think it will be my next DAC. 

I have the MSB Premier. Very relaxed and analog sounding DAC without any strain. Highly recommend.

Ever looked into AQUA acoustic quality? I own the latest version of the La Scala and I'm very happy with its sound quality.

Denafrips makes awesome quality equipment at lower prices that “well known” brands. You can get their Terminator DAC for less tan $5K - R2R with 0.005% resistors, over-controlled clock, excellent measurements. They also offer DDC units that reclock USB signal before it reaches DAC and then sends to DAC over proprietary I2S connection. DDC can synchronize to DAC clock. Anyway, a lot of very high quality tech at very reasonable prices.

Of all the DACs above I would audition the MSB DACs.  IMO, they sounded the best of all of the SS designs.  The Lampizator can be upgraded (by me) to sound excellent.  You can find a post somewhere on Agon where we did one for a customer.  That option saves you a ton of money versus the higher end cost DACs.  We also build tubed DACs on occasion for our customers.  R2R, separate power supplies, 101D DHT or 6SN7 versions.  Was not a fan of the Mola product although I do hear what people hear, but overall just not natural sounding which is what we prefer.  The other DACs to our ears are good to just OK sounding.

Happy Listening.

Playback Designs MPD-8 is one of the best, if not THE best, DAC around. 

+1 for TVAD (both comments)

My experience: I have listened to a Lampizator Atlantic (my own) and Pacific side by side with a Mola-Mola Tambaqui and clearly preferred any of the Lampizator.

In facto and generally speaking I have not heard other DAC that pleases me more than Lampizator although not side by side (dCS Vivladi and Bartok, Audio Research, Simaudio Moon)

The only one that I enjoyed more was an APL when not using its USB input where the difference is not so clear.

I understand…especially the stranger variety seems to attract tube de jour..or hour… i’ve rolled a few in the Pandora but fewer than 4 variants x 2 positions….

best wishes for 6SN7 happiness 

I have yet to hear a Bricasti i couldn’t live with, but i can say same about Lampizator and Aesthetix. I lean to a very well engineered tube output that behaves well feeding a tube preamp. Ive heard a Rockna in a well sorted system that was also very very musical. I agree on the Mola Mola comments, i’ve got significant a/b seat time vs my Aesthetix and it is polar opposite…and like @tvad i understand why people like it. 

Thanks @tvad. I never heard the M21.  Pro reviews indicate the M1 S2 comes close.  Do you have an opinion?   Also, what converter do you use most often on the M21-chip or ladder? … and what are your impressions on both.  I have been considering an M21 but would need to go preowned.  

I have also been considering upgrading my DAC and compared the following, listed in order of my preference.  

-Bricasti M1 Series 2:   Detail, imaging, soundstage second to the Mola Mola Tambaqui but not by much.  Both are resolving, with excellent retrieval of ambient detail, secondary harmonics and decay.  Both create dense images.  The edge the Mola Mola has is separation of images and dimensionality of images. I rate the  Bricasti as my favorite because timbre is more to my preference with a richer tone than the Mola Mola. 
-Mola Mola (see discussion above). The detail, staging and imaging champ IMHO.                
-DSC Bartok 2.0 (preowned). Detail, staging and imaging equivalent to the above.  Stage further back. My preference is the more up front presentation.  Others disagree with me.  Images less dense.  Again not my preference.  Lighter is a word that comes to mind IMHO.  

You cannot go wrong with any of the three.  You need to audition in as much as a controlled comparison against your current DAC and chose the best for you.  
 

For now I am staying with my Wyred4Sound 10th Anniversary DAC together with an Aurender N200.   All of the above have better detail retrieval and staging.  But I prefer a rich, natural timbre with solid, dense images. I favor sharp leading edges with excellent micro and macro dynamics and the retrieval of secondary harmonics and decay.  I find my current DAC competitive in these areas that are important to me.  So for now I am trying saving my change until I have the bank for the spend on one of my top two.  

By the way, here's Laiv's website. For some reason I couldn't get it to take in the above post. Cheers.

@navyachts That Laiv DAC supplanted Srajan Ebans Terminator+, Sonnet Pasithea, Cen.Grand, and COS for a fraction of their costs. The leader behind Laiv hails from Denafrips, who went on his way.

Not only do they have a return policy and warranty program, they're also working on a distributor in the US. Here's the review of it at 6moons, and here's another video/podcast of it. Just advance the timeline of it to get to the Laiv discussion. It starts at 15:19,

All the best,
Nonoise 

@navyachts I had the M3. Using the PS Audio for time being but might be upgrading soon. The PS Audio DSD MkI is a really nice DAC as well.

Better presentation of musical overtones, amplitude, pitch, timbre, texture with a wider/deeper soundstage (if this is possible) than I have with my existing DAC. Under $10K, used is OK.

If you’re not opposed to a tube DAC I’d give Lampizator a hard look given what you’re looking for.  For solid state the Denafrips Terminator ll with either the Gaia or Hermes DDC (gets you i2S, clock, etc.) is another strong option. Just a couple to consider and either should be a considerable step up from the Gustard on every level.  Best of luck.

@audphile1 The Bricasti is highly recommended. I recall you had one but moved on to PS Audio. Which model Bricasti did you have?

@helomech Thanks, I have heard great thing about the DMP-A8, but I'd like to stick with separates for now. Although one day, I could see myself going with an active pair of speakers...only! lol 

The Eversolo DMP-A8 has an excellent streamer and DAC and preamp all in one. All sections are stellar. No longer do we need to have all these functions in separate chassis in order to get reference sound quality. There’s good reason many rooms at Axpona this year were using the Eversolo as a source.

In all my years in this hobby, only three times have I encountered a product that I consider an incredible value, the DMP-A8 is one of them. 

@soix Better presentation of musical overtones, amplitude, pitch, timbre, texture with a wider/deeper soundstage (if this is possible) than I have with my existing DAC. Under $10K, used is OK.

Martin Logan speakers used to be a lot brighter in the past but their newer models seem to be tamed down a touch. I'm thinking the R2R configuration of my existing DAC maybe holding thing back a bit?

Bricasti is excellent. I grew out of love with the network card in the M3 using Roon with it. It was emotionless and bland. the Aurender n200 blew it away and I refrain from using such claims but in this case it was exactly that. As a DAC though I highly recommend Bricasti. 

What’s your budget, and what specific improvements and sound characteristics are you looking for?

@tvad excellent advice, much appreciated! 

@ghdprentice the Mola Mola has streaming capabilities as well, so is in that all-in-one category. 

@tvad point well taking, but tough to demo if you're buying used, which maybe be my case, depending on the price!

@navyachts 

Sorry, I haven't heard any of them. I have also been shopping for a DAC in that range, and my research has led me to those. The ones that are just a DAC. It's hard to audition DACs. My local store has only 1 DAC, and it's $15K. A bit out of my budget.

I definitely agree that combined DAC and streamer is not a good idea. Typically you will get one strong component and one weak one. Exam-Les of this is the Lina (good DAC poor streamer) and the Aurender lines (great streamers, ok DACs). 
 

For DACs Mola Mola is excellent. I would be cautious on the Weiss… very analytical. I would look at a used Audio Research DAC. 

@koestner Thanks, which of these have you heard, and which did you prefer? I wonder what might better my Gustard R26 DAC I currently have?

The new flavor of the month seems to be the Laiv Harmony DAC:

https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fyoutu.be%2Fw36Nu7egr2M%3Ffeature%3Dshared&data=05%7C02%7C%7C5ec8078b67034d59878308dc660235a7%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C638497406895671273%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=h2sWGhjuIVK6obl5M8rVUYIFMMC96UFTH79uAPrbRCo%3D&reserved=0

These come to mind: Weiss 204, Danafrips (in your price range), Audio GD.