DAC Comparison - Aurender A200 vs McIntosh C2600

The DA2 is surprisingly good. My Ayre QX5 beats it but the DA2 is better than you would expect. HDMI eARC into the da2 sounds a lot better than my anthem avm70. 

Say what you will. I was just offering helpful advice. 

blisshifi - I suppose I should also repaint my room with synergistic's acoustic paint so that my sound stage will increase and my music will be more resolving? haha

I’ve heard the Mc DAC1 and compared it to a number of DACs. It is warm sounding, but not very resolving. I’m also an authorized Aurender dealer. The A200’s DAC will be more resolving and articulate, but you may find it is not as warm or musical as the DAC1 in your C2600. If you are interested in continuing to use your A200 for the long term and not upgrade your DAC but are interested in an even better sound, try adding a Synergistic research Tranquility Pod Carbon or Tranquility Base Carbon under the A200. It will smooth out the sound, make it more resolving and focused and increase soundstage size, all while making the presentation more relaxing and refined. Aurender units also respond very favorably to aftermarket analog and digital interconnects and power cables.

I have the DA2 module in my C2700. My stand-alone DAC is $19K. I smile every time I switch to the DA2, which offers tremendous performance for very little extra cash. 

Plan on spending at least $5K on a stand-alone DAC to improve upon the DA2 module—it is that good. 

Thanks for input from everyone.  I have no tv in this room, so that is not an issue.  I believe my long-term solution is a stand-alone DAC so I'm looking for the best solution right now.

I do appreciate that input on the DAC 2 card.  I may see what that cost is, but will likely just stick with my Aurender A200 internal DAC for now - it sounds quite good.  

If anyone has heard the C2600 DAC 1, let me know.  Thanks again!

I agree, maybe the DAC 2 card is the way to go.   My Dad has a Mc MA8950 and it sounds great with his streamer and the Amp's DAC 2 card .    

I am a big fan of separates but if the built in DAC is well implemented it can sound really good.  

I have a Cyrus i7XR Integrated Amp with a built-in DAC, in fact it's the same chipset used in the McIntosh DAC.   I fully intended to use my RME DAC but the Cyrus sound so good with it's DAC I sold the RME. 

My main system uses an Aurender N200 with the LAB 12 DAC 1 Reference and it is an excellent sounding combo.  

It is nice to have that eArc inputon the Mac if you watch a lot of TV to it 

I compared the A10 to my C2700 (DAC 2) and the DAC2 is better IMO. not sure if that's a fair comparison but close as i have.

Upgrade your DAC1 to the DAC2 maybe the way FWD. The DAC2 also offers HDMI input for a potential TV input. 

I have an N200 and didn’t go with any built in DACs in any of my hardware (I use a PS Audio DAC), the reason I don’t use a built in DAC is that they are still improving them and this way I can swamp out the DAC without having to replace any other hardware. So in the end, to me it doesn’t matter how good the built in DAC is. 

Never compared but the dac in the McIntosh is nothing to write home about. It’s a good option to have. 
I do not know what the aurender dac sounds like. I have N200 going into PS Audio DSD DAC and it’s awesome.