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Higher End DACs

I am looking for a DAC (potentially streamer&DAC) to be paired in a mcintosh system (c1100/611). Its my first foray into digital streaming and I have no need for a CD player.

I see a lot of love for Esoteric, however, most seems to be around their transports? Are they not as renowned for pure digital streaming and/or standalone DACs? I see DCS (for instance) often referenced for standalone DACs - how does Esoteric compare?
ufguy73

Showing 2 responses by georgehifi

georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
phantom_av
I moved on to Playback Design And have their Dream DAC and i can say for sure i love this dac more than the MSB DAC I had at that time fully loaded for 80K USD.

The Playback Design Dream DAC just sounded more Musical and less Fatiguing over a 5-6 hour session. 20 years now buying and selling DACs, I can honestly Say The Dream DAC from Playback Design has been the only DAC that has actually make me lose track of time constantly when playing music. There is no doubt about this no level of fatigue, an emotionally involving session where time is lost.

From Mono & Stereo review , I had no idea this was a discrete R2R Ladder dac also.
I’m a big fan of ladder-based DACs, MPD-8 belongs to the category, that I have quite a problem to define precisely, but in no way, I can object the Dream DAC fantastic performance. It clearly proves the point that when the technology is properly implemented at the end of the day what matters is know how.

MPD-8 DAC is a new DAC architecture and is based on Playback Designs’ well proven discrete converter design

Cheers George
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
I have a very strong suspicion you will be very happy even with the MSB Discrete.
MSB, email Vince Galbo (Vince @ MSBtechnology.com). They have a traveling Demo fleet that you can try at home with no dealer involvement. If you are happy though, you have to purchase through dealers

+1, and this is a great way to audition, at home, your own system, no dealers!

Cheers George
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