2. digital
  3. 137101-99773

DAC Selection

I listen to vinyl mostly, but with my recent speakers upgrade I found digital sounding quite good and have been thinking to invest in a better DAC. I use tube gear - tube preamp, SET mono blocks, etc. I am using big full range 3-way speakers, highly efficient, very dynamic, going almost flat down to 20Hz. Most of the gear I use is either DIY or highly upgraded commercial products with exotic parts. The DIY products are all built by me, either from kits or from well-known simple and good sounding schematics. Listen to all kind of music but mostly jazz and blues. 

Looking to get the best DAC I can for my system. My budget is $6K. I can try building one myself, buy a kit, or get a commercial product. Besides building one myself, three DACs have caught my eye:

  • PS Audio DirectStream DAC
  • Schiit Audio Yggdrasil 
  • Audio Note Kits DAC 5.1

I have listened to several DACs and found the Analogue Devices chips to sound more musical in my system than the newer Sabre chips. But that could be due to the DAC implementation rather than the chip itself... Never heard an FPGA DAC like the one from PS Audio. The Audio Note Kit looks great in terms of design, components, and quality, but I would never know how it sounds until I build it, so can’t really audition and return if I don’t like it like I can do with the other products on my list. 

Another idea going through my head is to try building one myself - get the cleanest regulated power, the best digital section I can find, and a high-quality analog section with the best components available. And I might end up with a very high-end DAC. But again, you invest a lot of money, not knowing what the end result would be.

Some days I wish I could not solder. With all the choices we have, it is already so difficult to make decisions, and when you add DIY in the picture you make the decision making process a lot worse. And when you open a commercial product that costs $5,000 and find parts for $450, that makes you think really hard if you spent your hard-earned money the best possible way. But let’s not go there… I am happy to spend $6K for a PS Audio DirectStream DAC if I am convinced that’s my best option. And I will certainly audition that 


Any comments, suggestions, recommendations? 


nenon

Showing 7 responses by nenon

nenon OP
28 posts
 
Thank you for all the good suggestions.
Good to see owners of the DirectStream DAC providing positive feedback. My impressions after reading a lot about this DAC online was that it was not such an exceptional product when originally released but it got better and better with every FPGA software upgrade. Those free upgrades make it a good long term investment. Good model.
@mahler123 The Mytek Manhattan looks interesting, but their return policy does not seem very generous. I will audition it if I can. Need to do some more reading on the Bryston.
@sbank Interesting feedback about the Yggdrasil. I would really like to have the Yggdrasil and DirectStream in my system at the same time, and have them for a couple of weeks, so the burn-in process can take place before I compare them. That might be difficult with backlogs and different return policies, but I might be able to manage it. Those Aqua dacs look really nice but out of my budget.
I wonder if anyone here can provide some feedback about the Audio Note Kits DAC 5.1. Everything in this DAC looks really good and fits my taste - excellent power section, AD1865NK chips, tube analog section, good components, etc. But none of that tells me how it sounds :). 

nenon OP
28 posts
 
@charles1dad Checking out the SW1X. My first thought is that it would be an excellent choice if I had a CD player. But I forgot to say that I would listen to digital via USB. They have an interesting USB to SPDIF solution, and I will read more about it. The Denafrips Terminator caught my eye!
@melm Very good suggestion. I reviewed the list and the Holo and Denafrips Terminator looked very interesting. I am adding the  Terminator to my list.
@audioengr "I would not assume that every $6K DAC has $500 of parts in it." - Of course not! I've seen many high-end audio devices with parts worth around 10% of their MSRP, but I would never generalize that for the entire industry. Sorry if I have offended someone, did not mean to. There are many examples of much higher ratio too. A lot of hard work, excellent engineering, and extremely time consuming R&D goes into many of those products, so looking at the parts cost only is not fair. Yeah, as an end-user I would like to see less of my money spent on marketing and dealer commission and hate to see compromises made with the part quality on expensive products. It drives me crazy when I see a product that cost over $5K that uses $1 caps in the signal path. I have even seen a very expensive product that used a CAT5 wire in the signal path. But let's not go there... I see that you offer your DAC with V-Cap or Duelund caps. Thumbs up for that. They are my favorite caps.
BTW, I never even thought about designing my own DAC. I meant "building" by taking one of the well-acclaimed digital modules available and combining with good power section and good analog section. Yeah, it won't be anything unique, but more likely a highly tweaked popular existing solution. Chances are I won't go there at all. If I decide to do, I will start another thread. 
nenon OP
28 posts
 
That's a good feedback on the SW1X DAC. The review above says that it was better than AN 2.1, not better than the AN 4.1, but there are also additional upgrades that could be made to the SW1X DAC. Are you suggesting it could be better than the Audio Note Kits DAC 5.1 then? I do like the AD1865NK used in the ANK 5.1. Will do some more research on the SW1X...
nenon OP
28 posts
 
@nitewulf Thank you. I will look at that one too.

For some reason, I am leaning towards the Denafrips Terminator at the moment, but I have some more research to do. Taking the Yggdrasil off my list. Not sure about the DirectStream DAC anymore. SW1X and AN 5.1 are still highly considered. Thank you all for your feedback. 
nenon OP
28 posts
 
@mlapenta Have you heard any of the listed DACs and compared to the Chord? 
nenon OP
28 posts
 
@mlapenta Which Denafrips DAC have you listened to? The only one I am considering is the Terminator. Thanks. 
nenon OP
28 posts
 
What I learned here is that there are as many opinions as people.

User @in_shore sold his Denafrips Terminator and replaced with Yggdrasil analog 2:
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/ps-audio-uber-dac

User @david_ten compared the Terminator and Yggdrasil and thinks the Terminator is much better:
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/denafrips-terminator-and-schiit-yggdrasil-evaluation-and-comp...

Almost everyone who owns or has heard the Terminator is super happy. There are many raving reviews and posts, including this:
http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews2/denafrips/1.html

And then, just when you think that everyone agrees, there is this one bad review:
https://www.audiostream.com/content/great-dac

I wish more companies will offer audition at home, because that’s the way to go.






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