DAC That Punches Above Its Price Point

True value is out there but look at older units. Manley, Theta Gen. V or Wadia. I have a Wadia 15 that 'only' plays redbook and it is spectacular, not just for it's age but against anything available today. I also own a Bryston that somebody mentioned but hardly ever use it due to the superb performance of the Wadia!

I am streamlining and trying to reduce the clutter and have on order a Mojo Mystique V3 to replace the 2 DAC's mentioned which will be for sale when I receive the new one. For the price of a DAC like this I feel nothing out there will come close, not in build quality nor sound. The 3 DACs in the first line are high-end units from a different era and are built like tanks.

Think Mike Tyson 1st round knockout. PM me if you are interested in buying but I live in Ireland so postage might be heavy. Perhaps if you are lucky you can find one of these locally but getting very scarce.

Also consider a CD player like Philips or Marantz (same PCB) The Marantz CD85 or CD94 use alloy transport and the TDA1541 chip, they sound great, solidly built and provide access to the internal DAC. Can find them for next to nothing and come from the same period as the heavyweights above.

@herman, well said, I fully agree, measurements alone mean zero. ASR states that he does not need to listen because the measurements tell him what it will sound like!

 @romanesq   For those who want to go the R2R route, it certainly sounds like their are good options on that front too for similar ballpark as requested here earlier but that also requires a preamp of unknown cost

You make it seem like all R2R DACs need a preamp. Would you care to elaborate on that statement. The Wadia I mentioned in my post certainly doesn't.

@westcoast, let me clarify: measurements mean zero to me. If you are hung up on measurements then measure away but ask yourself if you are measuring the right things.

Please explain how you measure something that we respond to at an emotional level. Sure measurements can get you in the ball park of good performance but are no guarantee of good sound. Also explain how two different amps that measure exactly the same can sound quite different.

I can swap out a cap of same value in a speaker crossover and never mind 'blind', you would have to be deaf not to hear it but the XO point, it's knee and it's rate of attenuation will be the same and therefore measure the same ... but it sounds different!

@westcoast, I am not sure, beyond your fixation on measurements, what you are trying to do here. Your placatory lecture by way of circumlocution is missing the point.

Lets look at the capacitor.  We are talking audio here, not radio frequency. As an engineer I assume you know the difference. The ESR you mention is a non-issue so perhaps you need to educate yourself some more. The formula for capacitive reactance is: Xc = 1/ 2Pi.f.c  This is a fact and as an engineer you know this, or should.  There is no 'R' in the equation and therefore ESR is not a factor.

Go to some of the speaker gurus like Joe D'apallito, Vance Dickerson or Sigfried Linkwitz of Linkwitz/Riley fame. Not they nor any others take ESR into consideration, why would they? it's NOT in the formula.

You also throw out the resonant frequency of a cap. It will resonate mechanically, everything has a resonant frequency, but it will only resonate, electrically speaking, if in circuit with say an inductor, and behaves according to the parameters of the components and the results are well understood.

The series cap in a loudspeaker XO and assuming a first-order filter will create a 6dB attenuation slope dependent upon its value. Take 3 very different caps, paper-in-oil cap, teflon film and a bipolar electrolytic of same value and the plots will be exactly the same, meaning... they measure the same,  but now have the audacity to actually listen. Yes to be clear have a listen which is not an unreasonable concept seeing as it's audio.

Your bloviating away about a recording studio and coffee breaks is not germane to the discussion. But cheer up old chap, old engineer, you have been promoted to the top of my ignore list.

@ herman, I think you may have misread something somehow. In the audible frequencies for the example I provided, ESR is insignificant.

I did provide the correct formula, or I’ve been wrong all these years 😳

Specifically for capacitive reactance, Xc is found by dividing 1 by 2xPixfxc. It is frequency dependent so it makes sense that ’f’ is in the equation.

Just because R is not a factor in the equation for reactance does not mean it does not exist and certainly does not mean it will not have an effect on how a circuit behaves

I am aware of the existence of ESR which I ignore for XO design but I am confused with your claim above. You acknowledge that R is not a factor in the relevant equation so how will it effect the crossover? If you quoted the formula for Xc, then I’m afraid it is wrong.

Are you saying Mr. Sigfried Linkwitz who along with Riley developed one of the filters for XO’s is wrong, and would by extension would include Bessel, Butterworth and Chebychev? They are all wrong???