DAC shopping - Trying to sift through the Hype. Can I trust the reviews these days ??

@kairosman That is why I shipped my Venus II out yesterday, to it's new owner the resale values are in the tank. I sold it for a great price.

@kairosman 

My Venus 15th is being shipped from Denafrips.  Will post after I've had time to burn it in and evaluate it.  Should be a terrific upgrade from my Ares II.

I'm only interested in NOS (non-oversampling R2R) DACs these days. I have 4 of them: 2 are always in use and 2 are always stored at backups. The best of these are the Metrum Onyx & MHDT Labs Orchid.

Those 2 DACs handily illustrate a key point about NOS & R2R DACs: when you select this technology, you still face the intimidating choice of DACs that err on the side of "neutral" (ie, not warm, very resolving, big/detailed soundstage) or "colorful" (ie, maybe somewhat warm, spacious and resonant soundstage). The Onyx is the former and the Orchid is the latter. I like both sounds, depending on the downstream gear used.

+1 to the suggestion of using a DDC (digital to digital converter) with any DAC you end up with. I have two systems, and a Matrix X SPDIF 3 DDC is in each. I found years ago that I preferred digital coax to USB; since then I got several terrific coax cables and am very happy with that sound. I've also played around with AES/BSU cables and like that sound. None of my NOS DACs have I2S inputs, but when I get a DAC that does, the DDC allows its use.

@drmuso would LOVE to see the innards, do you ever pop the hood on your DACs?

I say get a used Chord TT2 DAC. Here’s one that I found on eBay. I’ve got one as the heart of my system and I absolutely love it. https://www.ebay.com/itm/356280491805?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=Z5tP63kISuO&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=Bul91bNkTOO&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

OP, the LTA Aero is out of your range but looks right up your alley. Mine is on order. 
 

I agree with you. There’s so much hype. So many reviews.  So many forum threads.  It gets confusing fast.  

@bunkertoy 

Check this out -- Bricasti M3 in 9/10 cond. for $2500 :

https://www.usaudiomart.com/details/650163190-bricasti-m3/

This is a great deal!  

OP, another option is to go ALL OUT and buy an end-game DAC, then upgrade slowly the rest of the chain over the next few years as your budget allows. My sources, ie my TT, CD transport and DAC, are where 50% of my system $ is allocated to. You may feel differently, most for example think it is the speakers that merit the biggest spend, to each his own obviously.

My current top DAC is the Lampizator Baltic 4, my end-game DAC is the Lampizator Poseidon - but it's $25K so I gotta be lucky with my crypto this year coming if I'm gonna be able to pull the trigger.

FYI Lampizator has a chip-based converter, tube rectification, and tubes in the output stage, so the house sound is a great blend of resolution, dynamics and soundstage grandeur.

But sadly the stuff ain't cheap 😕 

I have had my first R2R dac (Laiv) for a number of months, and I am very pleased with its overall presentation, it's quite organic compared to a number of delta sigma dacs that I have owned. Of the chip dacs I would say the burr brown chip in DSD is close. I should add that the Laiv Harmony has performed without issue, although it's  early days so i withhold comment until I have owned it for a while. I think you have to listen to a new dac, after it has broken in,  like most new pieces of audio equipment for a period of time, "live with it", sort of to really give it a proper evaluation. I don't know how you get something new, listen to it for a week or 2, and make a decision. It takes me some time to properly evaluate a new piece, in my system, especially speakers and dacs.

@kairosman I would love to try out a Lampizator DAC. I've heard great things.... I'll just have to wait for a used bargain. They rarely sell in Canada. I find many in the U.S don't like to ship to Canada for some reason.

The hype is hard to keep up with, but there are many great DACs depending on what you want to spend (and what you want to hear.) First I wanted a Weis, then a T+A, but bought a LaIV Harmony which I love. I briefly had buyer’s remorse when I heard about Holo, but then decided I made the right choice with LAiV. Nagra & Lampizator are too much for me and I would spend the cash on improving others area of my system first. Those Watt Puppies are still just a pipe dream for me.

Lampizator doesn't show pictures of the inside of their equipment.   Are they trying to hide cheap parts or the secret sauce?

I feel like you're trying to re-invent the wheel.  Your system should already be very revealing.  However, I still feel you should hook up a CD-Player behind your current DAC and see how the sound of a disc compares to the same musical material while streaming.

Fred

Any news on the Terminator yet, I'd love to hear your thoughts

@vthokie83   Yes, the terminator 15th has 190 hours on it and it is fantastic compared to the Venus II. Like the reviews say -more of everything that is good. It is a fantastic DAC, it's smoother than the Venus, yet far more detailed. Timbre is so realistic, bass has much more texture and authority but not overwhelming. I have not heard any $20K DACs but this thing is special.

Exactly what I wanted to hear, I haven't personally heard the 12th Terminator or Venus.....Terminator and/or Terminator Plus will be on my short list when I upgrade

I have the MSB Cascade .. I don't think there's any hype about it and it is fantastic but it does cost a lot of money though.

When we compared the Terminator Plus 12th to our Directstream Signature Series PLUS DAC it did quite well however no where as good sounding.  It had good detail however it did have some congestion and not as open and real sounding.  We even used it's clock out feeding the Hermes DDC however we feel it didn't really help or change the sound much.

There are soooo many DACs.  I’ve been using a Denafrips Pontus 2 for the past couple of years and just picked up a new Holo Audio Cyan 2 on the used market. I wanted a DAC that was R2R, had i2s input, and could take an upsampled DSD signal so I could play with HQPlayer. So far so good. It’s similar in character to the Pontus 2 but with more detail and better imaging. Not a huge upgrade but HQPlayer should take it to a higher level.  Good luck in your search.  

Have you tried Jriver Media player/server?

HQPlayer is good however it will not accept iso's.

Jriver has a great interface and a DLNA server so you can use mconnect to stream Qobuz and other streaming services.  Also has an app for ios (Jremote).

We run ours on a micro HP computer to our Hermes DDC to several DACS so we can do instant A/B comparisons by selecting different DAC inputs on the preamp. 

@jk_richards I'm pretty happy with my Squeeze LMS. LMS is a total open source. It also plays very well with my Antipodes Streamer.

@bunkertoy 

Does it accept and play .iso DSD files?

If you are still considering Holo Cyan 2, wait for this systerhood product:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rkp1R_Lb4lY&t=409s

and his upcoming comparison against Harmony and LTA Aero...

@jk_richards I don't bother with DSD. Strictly Hi-res PCM here.Don't think my ears would be able to tell the difference.

Cheers

@jk_richards so the dac you sell upgrades for beat out the dac you compared it to, imagine that.

@bunkertoy DSD is a clear improvement with the proper DAC. We have over 800 iso files so it’s a must in our setup.

@invalid Yes. It took us almost 2 years to prefect our DAC.

During the ride we and other audiophiles compared it to many high end DAC’s and even a duplicate of ours in order to make it even better. We purchased and sold many DAC’s in the process. Started with the Denifrips Pontus (sold), Terminator Plus 12th (sold) and many others. Just finished with the dCS Bartok Apex ring DAC (sold).

Update on the Terminator 15th. Now after 500 hours on this thing it just keeps getting better, must be all those resisters, caps etc burning in. It has opened up a great deal, I can just listen to this DAC for hours on end easily. All solid state system too. I have about 200 hours to go before it is fully cooked. I am so happy with it.

The terminator plus 12th sounded very good to us also. We also clocked it with the Hermes DDC.  The biggest negative for us was the fact that DSD files were a lot quieter than PCM material. It could also be a little Sterile sounding at times.  We feel It is still one of the best sounding DAC's.