Expensive Dac to keep or cheaper and change overtime

With the explosion of many new DACs in the marketplace, it is impossible to comment on most of them from personal experience. The mag and online reviews are interesting and helpful, but only to a degree…and littered with a hefty dose of hyperbole stirred in to trigger reader skepticism.

as you pointed out, there are 8+ year old high-end units from new that are generally indistinguishable in actual real life user audio performance and satisfaction, compared to the latest (and expensive) new flavour of the month units.

sure, the PS AUDIO DIRECTSTREAM MK2 has exalted new bells and whistles technologies but at a rich new model price ….. BUT, and it’s a further big “BUT”, there isn’t much available “future focused “turbo hi-rez recordings yet. 

An iconic quote rings true here in a cautionary take IMO,

“PRICE is what you pay, VALUE is what you get “ - WARREN BUFFETT.

My take: .

I distill hi-end DACs down to proven basic “need to have “ versus “nice to have” features The PS DAC is distinctly in the latter camp, just like 8K flat panel TVs,…. Illusory and fleeting bragging rights limited by negligible material available currently to enjoy, or showcase

NEED to have IMO for high-end units… focus on the tried and true design and build features that work on current recordings :Fuhgeddaboud trying to future-proof now in a warp-speed changing technology for bells and whistles

(1) - linear power supplies, either shielded internally or alternatively with an external unit.

This is a build and digital audio performance key step up that starts the differentiation between the contenders and the many pretenders. Before the drastic price increases and MSRP annual price increase compounding with the advent of COVID three years ago, it was roughly around the $3000+ pricepoint (and going north) that competing quality units started to incorporate this in their designs and builds.

(2) Good and accessible ( emphasis added ) technical support. This is a risky wildcard. I’ve anecdotally been told that sime can be a sh*tshow with a steep learning curve and frustration. Some are indeed fine ( eg BRYSTON )

Choose wisely.

@lwin 

Speculation? Hardly,

have I heard it ? Yes … nobody’s claiming that it’s not a good DAC,,

in a bakeoff against a dcS (model escapes me for the moment …) and the BRYSTON BDA3, all three were played in a $50k system, …my buddy and I thought all three were great . 

The point: there wasn’t a noticeable difference for us  between them .  Other than price. If I had to give a forced nod to guess at the best ( it would  be the dcS . The BRYSTON digital player source feeding it and the high-end amp , speakers, and cables together in system, seemed to be a big positive influencer and not just  the dac alone.

my only point is that most digital music is mastered  at 24/192 and below with a largest at even lower rez, a super rez capability is fine nice-to-have but not any driving differentiator for many for now,…

my take: until the future recordings get there in the unknown future, I’ll stick with high build superiority at a more competitive price for the tried and true for now. ..

@lwin

yep …. The largest chunk of my new digital inventory played Through my BRYSTON player into its stablemate BRYSTON DAC is now out purchased from HDTRACKS and PROSTUDIOMASTERS. . The lion’s share is redbook rez at 16/44 . I will buy the 24/96 if offered and intuitively go to the 24/192 if available,

intuitively, the higher the mastered resolution, there is an incremental improvement but it’s not jaw dropping.

i have a REGA ISIS VALVE cdp/ DAC with its own high end DAC that I can accces thru a USB input. For redbook CDs and XRCDs …it’s as good at a minimum as the PS , dcS and BRYSTON ,,,, and arguably better IMO. But it’s capped out at 16$ or 24/44.

Where the external BRYSTON DAC excels a BIT MORE is where the rez is higher and the REGA cant go there

All are good …there is a helluva slugfest between DACs at north of $3500and up that’s where the contenders start to pull away from the pretenders.

Why did I buy BRYSTON. It had that ethereal transparency and performance quotient that was every bit the equal of the dcS and PS in my system ( emphasis added ) and arguably a class leading build quality with all the go-to features at a cost savings to me

Some drive Fords,,,,some drive Chevys

FWIW