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Help me with a fully balanced DAC

Hi all,

I am looking for either a cd player or a dac to mate with my new Stax Omega amplifier and 404 phones (the Omega phones will happen next year). This amp is fully balanced, and I'd like to keep the entire analog side balanced. There are a few fully balanced DACs, but they are pricey - and there must be more.. here is what I know of

Assemblage 3.1
MSB Platinum (the gold is balanced but doesn't have balanced outputs!)
BAT 5 (obviously)
Wadia
Levinson

How about something that I could get for $1500 used?

Thanks,
Adam
akimball

Showing 1 response by akimball

akimball OP
10 posts
 
Regarding Theta products, the Miles CD player looks interesting as well, but a couple of things concern me.

First, I don't like the idea of having the cd player modify the analog gain - simply because that is what my $3000 headphone amplifier is doing - I'd rather have the Stax amp do this. Can this be turned off? I.E. so it isn't even in the signal path?

Second, how does the sound of a Miles compare to a Gen5a? I assume the 5a is better, but the really nice aspect of the Gen is the upgradability..

Thanks a lot for all of the help.

-Adam
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