DAC Choices - $5,000 to $7,000

@dgarretson.   I get your statement. I thought the same having come off the DSD Lampizator Amber 3 with upgrades/mods.  Never thought about it again once I heard how much better all my rips and streaming sounded with the Evo.  Don’t miss DSD and upsampling in the least. On the Mojo it all sounds better.  I am now solidly in the camp that NOS dacs, when done right, simply sound more real, natural and musical.  

Yes the Mojo Mystique Evo is the top of list. This dac simply has to be heard to be believed. Won’t find a more natural and right sounding dac for any amount of money.  Ben offers a trial period so give it a listen. I suggest adding the Lundhal AM chokes for the analog board. 

@cal3713 Is your acquaintance in the northern MN area?   

So Funny. He has tried so many dacs after selling his Mojo. All of them came up short by a long way according to him. He kept telling me he made a big mistake selling it. He just had to see if there was something better 😊. Oh my!

He trialed a very costly Metronome dac, Lampi, Terminator, Sonnet, Audio Mirror maxed out and perhaps another one and none of them pleased him like your Mojo 👍.

He is getting his Evo tomorrow. He will be happy and has learned his lesson.

I doubt the Mojo ever leaves his home for any reason. Ha!

Actually Ben does not change his dacs nearly as much as most of the industry. The good news is his Evo is easily upgraded and modular in terms of upgrading to any future improvements Ben may offer. This is a big departure from his past builds.

I upgraded my Mojo Mystique with the Lundhal chokes and the improvement was just wonderful. I strongly suggest this upgrade in terms of the overall sonic impact of Ben’s various upgrade options.

The sound of the Mojo dac is a distinct departure from the pretty much ubiquitous electronic dac sound I hear in so many high end dacs. The Mojo sounds like music. Pure and simple. No part of the sound spectrum is exaggerated or out of place no matter how loud your music plays. In fact, this dac is so effortless and right sounding that the music swells and expands when the volume is turned up and one never gets the sense that it is “loud”. It has a solidity of sound that is built from the bottom up if you will. Just so full, solid, substantial and meaty. The tone is absolutely beautiful. Anyway, I love his design and dac.

@mitch2 He really did not like the Sonnet. Lacked body and weight. Not enough bass and again too electronic sounding vs his time with the Mojo. He thought the Sonnet sounded weak and “fragile” vs the solidity, ease, control and foundation sonically of the Mojo.

A good audio friend of mine had the new Sonnet Digital Audio Morpheus and well as the latest Denafrips Terminator with DSP board in his home. He also owned the Mojo Mystique 3. He felt both dacs were rather electronic sounding compared to the Mojo. After living with the Mojo in his system for a year he simply could not enjoy music nearly as much with the other two dacs. He just purchased the new Evo.

He was very disappointed with the Terminator saying the upper mids and highs were too forced and not natural sounding like the Mojo. Hyper detail was there with the Terminator, but not his cup of tea. This is most likely more a comment on how good the Mojo is as opposed to how disappointing the Terminator was to him.

Keep in mind Ben has never claimed his past dacs were upgradable.  He has really separated out the various parts of the Evo dac so they can be swapped out for new boards and/or parts. Look closely at the pics to see this. 

I personally upgraded my Mystique 3 to an Evo by upgrading chokes, USB card, wiring, opamps, grounding and  shielding. It was a royal pain in the rear.  Very difficult and a darn near impossible task. After seeing what he did to change that in the Evo it is a completely different task and upgrading will be much easier. 

That would be a question for Ben.  Like to hear from him on this.  

I can build you a better sounding usb than those if interested Tim. Let me know.  

I have been comparing a fully burned Merason Dac 1 to my Mojo Audio Evo. Tony of Ellington Hifi provided me with a trial unit. Let me state that Tony is a great guy and A+ dealer!

So my wife and I have been comparing both dacs over the past 5 days. The Dac 1 has been playing music 24/7 over these 5 days. I should point out that even though the Dac 1 had many hours on it, I found it needed a full 36 hours of playtime to settle into my system. No additional sonic changes after 36 hours of play.

My Mojo EVO dac is an upgraded Mystique 3 that Ben helped me upgrade with his valuable coaching from a distance. Here are the particulars of my Mojo Audio dac:

- upgraded EVO USB input board provided by Ben

- all five chokes upgraded to Lundahl with the all important analog section chokes being the better amorphous type.

- the op amps upgraded to Staccato class A discrete op amps per Ben’s recommendation.

- added chassis vibration control

- WA Quantum chips added to Mundorf 4 pole capacitors

- ERS tape applied on AC inlet area. Very small amount used

This matches up to the higher level EVO offerings when offered last year. Not exactly the same, but pretty darn close.

 

Ghasly and Starboard are spot on in their review and comments of the Dac 1. It is easily the best sounding dac I have heard at its selling price. The only dac I have heard that sounds as good at $10,000 and under is my Mojo Audio Dac. More on that comparison in a moment. I have owned and listened to some great dacs including the Luxman DA-06, the Aqua line of dacs, Lampizator Amber, PS Audio Direct Stream, several upgraded MHDT dacs and others I can’t seem to remember 🤔.

 

The Dac 1 has an addictive golden glow that softens the highs just ever so slightly making music so enjoyable and fun to listen to. It offers amazing detail retrieval, but not in an aggressive manner. It’s resolution of inner detail is delivered with a warmish vibrancy that is special. The level of sonic realism is stunning at this or any price point.

So how does it compare to the mighty Mojo Audio dac? Very well! In the end I preferred my Mojo Audio dac ever so slightly, but the Dac 1 came very close to it sonically. The Mojo Audio Evo remained a tad more composed at higher volumes with a greater sense of ease. When music was more complex the Evo dac sorted things out a little better and cleaner. The Evo bass drive was slightly better, but this was close. Finally, the Evo revealed differences in recordings better by not editorializing with any personality of its own. The Dac 1 has a sonic signature that listeners would never notice if not comparing to a dac like the Evo. The Dac 1 has this golden glow of vividness that one hears recording to recording. Initially I thought the Dac 1 revealed details not found with the Evo. After more listening it became clear the same details were there with the Evo, but presented in a less “obvious”manner. Is the Dac 1 too vivid? No. Absolutely no. My comments are only in comparison to the Mojo Audio Evo.

I think the Dac 1 is an astounding value and deserves far more attention in audio forums. I have done my part here. I am confident some would choose the Dac 1 over my Evo in my system and theirs. The dacs are that close in performance.

I honestly felt there was no way this $5500 dac would really compete with the Mojo Audio dac. However, comments from Starboard and Ghasly peaked my curiosity. I was taken back by the stellar performance of the Dac 1. A sonically well balanced dac top to bottom that is full bodied and absolutely beautiful sounding.

 

 

 

 

 

Couple of more comments. I use the usb inputs only on both dacs. My digital front end is as follows:

linear power supply powered modem - Network Acoustics ENO ethernet cable - English Electric Switch 8 powered with a linear power supply - Network Acoustics Muon Ethernet cable - Network Acoustics Muon ethernet filter - Innuos Zenith 3 - Tchernov reference USB cable to the dacs. The dacs placed on a Sound Anchors 225 pound rack with the dacs on Townshend Pods

 

Both dacs had great body, solidity and never sounded thin. Both threw a nice big stage and imaged like champs.