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Empirical Audio Overdrive DAC: King of the Hill?

I received the Overdrive DAC a month ago and have been listening to it without a preamp interposed between the Overdrive and my Luxman M-600a monoblocks to Evolution Acoustics MMmini2s.

I have rarely heard sound this transparent and realistic. I am a strong believer that top priority in digital systems should go to transport/DAC. Not all DACs and digital transports are the same; there are MAJOR differences. The off-ramp->I2s->Overdrive front-end is one of the best I have ever heard; digital or analog. I am getting natural, organic, lifelike music I never thought possible from a computer front-end. Only the DAC 202 is comparable, but I don't think the 202 could beat it in a head-to-head match.
dallasjustice

Showing 5 responses by edorr

edorr
714 posts
 
I am planning to do a double blind shootout between the overdrice SE and my PWD MKII sometime this summer, so stay tuned.
edorr
714 posts
 
There is no doubt the overdrive is an excellent DAC, as are the Berkeley, Weiss, PerfectWave MKII to name but a few that have been cited as "the best digital I ever heard" by many of its owners. Without a double blind shootout between the entire lineup all we can realy say is just that; "they are all very good DACs". Profesional reviewers are not very helpful either because they have a tendency to declare every single DAC over 5K "the best digital they ever heard" as well.
edorr
714 posts
 
To be precise, I would actually buy the Overdrive with a 30 day return option, allowing me to do the shootout. Still a generous policy of course.
edorr
714 posts
 
Nope. I decided to jump right into the 5 figure segment instead, and ended up buying the EMM Labs DAC2X, which is a lot better than the PWD MKII (gap is bigger than I expected).
edorr
714 posts
 
I don't own an overdrive. I owned a Perfectwave MKII and was planning to compare it to an overdrive. I upped the budget and got an EMM Labs. The PWD MKII has been sold. I may get the new MSB analog DAC for a shootout against the EMM Labs shortly, but I am no longer considering auditioning the Overdrive. I still own the Offramp 5 with Monolith PS though.
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