DACS - Need Advice

Take a look at the BelCanto Dac-1 with upsampling will make current CDs sound alot better, or the New Audio Note DAC-1 in a kit,$700 or $900 ready to roll, check out ENJOY THE MUSIC.com for a review of it. Greg

I agree with the Bel Canto suggestion, amazing sound for the dollar, however, they just took a big price increase, so not as good a deal as it was. Another choice that could be less expensive is the Audio Research DAC 120. It is several years old now and could possibly be bought for as little as $300.00. The ARC is VERY musical, and having been bought used, could probably be resold when upgrade time comes, and get all your money back.

I sell Theta, Krell, Audio Research, Bell canto, Wadia, Classe, Rega, Creek, Aragon/Acurus, and Sony (super Aud)where I currently work. There are a lot of very musical DAC's out there, but have you tried Some of the inexpensive DVD player's out there? Some of them are pretty darn good for the money! Dynamic contrast (parts quality) is a little lacking, but this can be cleaned up by using one of those "CD Blacklight's" from Audio Prisms! If that doesn't do it for you (and my DVD, in my oppinion, is better than some of the other CD players mentioned by others), try one of the Theta's (Pro Prime IIA or Pro Gen IIA) Have fun!

Although somewhat dated now I suppose, I can highly recommend the Muse Model Two. It can be had used for about $700. used, and was rated Stereophile high Class B for a long time. When new, it was an over achiever, and is still a darn good DAC. Very smooth, very neutral, very musical. It only has BNC inputs, but you can get high quality BNC to coaxial adapters from Muse. Also, this DAC can be upgraded to 24/96 (and some other options) if desired. It is very well built.

For used price for a little over $1000, Krell makes a very good entry level transport/dac player 250cd. I have a very high end system, easy $40k+, and this CD player is not the weak link.