DAC PREFERENCES TO MATCH WITH NODE2


LOOKING TO STEP UP FROM BLUESOUND’S MQA CAPABILITY O AN EXTERNAL DAC.  ANY SUGGESTIONS?
dct

Showing 2 responses by jazzman7

First, a few questions.
(1) What is your budget?
(2) Are you open to buying pre-owned kit?
(3) How important is it to you that the DAC does MQA?
Note that when connected to a non MQA DAC, BluOS will still perform the first MQA unfold getting you all the way to 96Khz. In my view most of the goodness is to be had within the first unfold, and wouldn't sweat it if the DAC was MQA capable or not ... but that is just me.
With a $1K budget:  
Shopping Used:
Ayre Codex for just under $1000 (have listened to a lot), and this would be my number 1 pick in your price range.
Bryston BDA-1 for $600 or so (own one, and still a good value at this price point.
Can highly recommend the Chord Qutest (own one), but that DAC goes for around $1400 on the used market.
I'm sure the panel can recommend many others at your price point.