2. digital
  3. 184664-2019

Dac that has tone and timing?

I’m hoping to see if anyone has experience and has found a dac that nails both a "meat on the bones" presentation that also preserves the leading edges of notes and maintains pace, rhythm, and timing. In general, it seems that tonally dense dacs tend to have rounded-off leading edges of notes, and dacs with great PRAT have a leaner tonality. I’d love it under $5k but willing to spend more if necessary.

schw06

Showing 1 response by creativepart

creativepart's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
creativepart
150 posts
 

Loving this discussion as I'm searching for a new DAC after 5-years... happy years with the Chord Qutest (with Sbooster PS).

And that's one thing that surprised me about this discussion. No one has really mentioned the Qutest which seems an obvious choice for the OP.

I'm very happy with the Qutest's sound quality and the biggest problem is finding a suitable, aka better, DAC to try next. With 5-years in my system it's kind of the one constant that hasn't seen replacement over this period.

Add to this being retired and having limited funds available to move up - we've got plenty of funds, but for upgrading a DAC not so much.

I've had Benchmark and Project DACs and in general don't like Sabre ES DACs all that much.  So, Holo Spring 3 "seems" like a reasonable road ahead. I do tend to buy used to get more bang for the buck.

More to discover