DAC for second system

i enjoyed my time with a mojo dac, but ultimately i returned it to benjamin -- not because i didn’t like the sound, but because i wanted a dac that had variable volume to drive a power amp directly (in addition to sounding terrific)

i felt the r2r mojo sound very very nice, very natural and organic very refined, not a trace of digital nasties/harshness - if anything it is a touch on the ’polite side’ to my ears

for a small form factor dac with a highly organic and musical presentation, i can heartily recommend a tube buffered dac from mhdt - orchid, stockholm, istanbul, toucan etc etc... lovely, highly refined sweet yet resolving sound, small footprint

greater resolving power than the border patrol (i have had both side by side), sense of space and clearer leading edge transients without any trace of harshness

in the past couple years, i’ve compared the orchid (stock and grannyring modded) against ayre codex, musical paradise, various schiit, chord, denafrips, and numerous higher priced units

A Topping DAC is the polar opposite of an R2R NOS DAC that the OP is looking for. 

@soix +1

you beat me to saying this

those recommending the topping in this case are pretty clueless

couple years back i had compared the original terminator to the pontus 2 at length, both had the ’updated dsp module’ offered in that period - i felt the terminator brought the treble energy forward quite a bit and had a slightly broader soundstage (no doubt due to a more robust output stage and power supply), and a slightly finer grain to the sound

the one fault of the pontus i heard was a sense of noticeable grain in the lower treble/upper mids, despite the midrange and midbass being so lovely, warm and dimensional (which made it special, to my ears).... at that time, i ditched the term and kept the pontus, which i felt represented great value given its sound and fairly modest cost

only later i got a modded mhdt tube buffered dac and that to my ear was even more beautiful and organic sounding than the pontus, with enough detail and speed, and without the slight grainy texture to the sound