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DAC for Aurender N200

For past 2 years I have been running Aurender N200 into Musical Fidelity M6s DAC. The DAC is built like a tank and very versatile, but I must connect via coax since Aurender clock is superior to DAC clock.
Well, I am ready to upgrade DAC for SQ reasons and presently inclining to PSAudio MkII for US mfr, good reviews, good service, current bargain price.
Q1: What DAC (<$8k) would you consider an optimal match for the N200?
Q2: N200 has very few outputs compared with other streamers in its price class.
I know Aurender has always inclined to USB. All else being equal, is USB the best output?

 

hickamore

Showing 1 response by ghdprentice

ghdprentice
7,782 posts
 

There are a number of good DACs in your price range. Many people like the PSAudio. I would definitely recommend a used Audio Research Reference 9... it is more refined and detailed while remaining extremely musical. The ARC REF9 is an outstanding DAC an will get the best out of the N20 and N30 Aurrender streamers.

I am a big Aurrender fan. The entry level Aurrender streamers use USB only... I have a N100 on my headphone system. All the Aurrender streamer above entry level have coax and AES. On my main system I have a W20SE and use AES. I remember trying the coax and not finding any obvious differences in sound quality.

USB streamer output puts a larger amount of processing on the DAC. A simplified look at USB is that the bitstream is retimed by the DAC... with the other connections it is not. 

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