Aqua la Scala would be a good choice, that would match your expectations.
Worth giving it a try.
DAC recommendation in 5 to 10K range
I recently get to the point that I want to try a new DAC in $5 to $10K range and would like to know if there are recommendations I should try and audition.
My current DAC is a Denafrips Terminator, to me, Terminator is an overall fun DAC that provide good clarity, energy, and scale. It has strong macrodynamic focus with good impact and punch, as well as solid resolving power and texture, but I feel drawback is lacking micro dynamic capability, tonality is not organic, neither is presentation, treble is not that refined, and can sometimes get too hot and gritty. What I hope in my next DAC is a balanced DAC that lean a bit more toward the relaxed and slightly sweeter smoother side of things, great organicness, great placement accuracy and depth in overall stage, great coherency and liquidity, as well as having great impact and punch.
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I am very happy with the PS Audio DirectStream DAC. I took advantage of the try-at-home time to evaluate it against some other DACs like the Benchmark DAC 3 and pro-ject DAC which I was previously using. I did not compare it to the May or terminator DACs since there was no local dealer or way to try those out. I was looking for a new DAC instead of a used DAC to get the latest technology. I like the ability to get software updates to change/improve the DAC in the future. |
(At the risk of a repost - think I accidentally deleted my post, before it actually posted) You may want to look into a used Mola Mola Tambaqui. Many will tell you there’s a trade-off between having a fluid/musical/don’t-worry-lose-yourself presentation, and a higher resolution, truer-to-the-recording presentation. Bit of an oversimplification, for my money the most musical presentations are from systems that have “true” high resolution (you can hear deeply into the recording but the sound isn’t etched with artificial contrast, and there’s not distracting over emphasis on certain aspects — everything is balanced). I’ve found that the Tambaqui achieves that balance really well, across different systems and rooms, it’s got very high yet natural resolution, significantly more present dynamics than the R2R digital I’ve owned, and yet allows me to forget the system and just enjoy myself. It’s not a universally “relaxing” presentation, though - relaxing recordings are relaxing, and adrenaline-pumping music will pump your adrenaline.
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Have you checked out the Denafrips Terminator Plus? Its the bigger brother of Terminator 2 and gets amazing reviews all around. Beats out Holo May KTE
https://www.hifi-advice.com/blog/review/digital-reviews/spdif-dac-reviews/denafrips-terminator-plus/ |
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