DAC's from the past, are any of them really worth much today?


I was thinking of buying a new DAC, the choices are many, but some of the lowest price DAC’s are to be had from yesteryear. For example, i took home an Esoteric D05 yesterday and while I have not been able to hook it up to my Esoteric player, due to no suitable connector cable, I was wondering if any of the better DAC’s from years back are really worth having? The example I have in for audition, while close to SOTA back about 13+ years ago, has no USB connection! To that, it has had years of usage, and appears pristine although I am unsure as to what can fail in a DAC? Obviously no warranty, yet a price point that is somewhat attractive, particularly for the build quality.

 

The biggest issue seems to be no USB connection to the upstream gear, but also perhaps the difference in price between a DAC like this, and a more modern DAC with better DAC chips/USB etc.,would simply make this one not a great deal. Thoughts?

128x128daveyf

Showing 2 responses by jacobsdad2000

Funny your comment @ghdprentice all the high end streamers/ servers from Innuos, Taiko, and the like use USB, using usb is not for pc any more.  Take a look around even Grimm has USB capabilities. 
 

I can’t think of why anyone interested in high end audio would want to have anything to do with USB. It was brought on board because of the PC. No high end system should have a computer in the loop… hence no use for it.

@daveyf Hey it's what works for you. Digital wise I have used them all and AES/ Balanced, Optical, USB and SPDI/F Coax, key is use a good 75 ohm cable.  Signal makes some fine digital cable as do DH Labs. Better yet buy used. Look here and on USAM.