A few of us brought our DACs to Dave Raden’s for a blind shoot-out. We had a lot of fun, and this was more difficult than I had thought. Only Dave Raden knew which DAC was playing, and his switchbox worked well for this. Among the contenders were the LTA Aero, Denafrips Pontus II, HOLO Audio Spring 3 R2R, and the very expensive Grimm Audio MU2. The results were unanimous. The Aero DAC was the winner by a slim margin. The Holo Audio was close to the Aero, and the Denafrips Pontus was in last place. The quality differences between these DACS were closer than I would have thought.
I am checking out these DAC's for my system
I am building a system and all I have left to get is the DAC and maybe a streamer. I really an at a loss on which DAC to get. I am wanting to stream music and also use my system for watching movies. My equipment currently is SMC audio tic-2 GT24 preamp and DNA.5 GT24 amp with GR Research NX-otica's and Open Baffle subs. The DAC's that interest me are
Mojo Audio Mystique X SE- I will have to purchase used and I will need to use and adapter to connect to my TV because it doesn't have toslink.
Mojo Audio Mystique Y- It only has a USB connection so I am not sure how to connect to my TV. Mojo audio DAC's have really good reviews but If they only had toslink. I am really intrigued with the choke in the power supply. I think there might be something to that.
Holo Audio May KTE- People say the mojo sounds better more natural but this DAC still holds a pretty good price used and doesn't last long on the used market.
Musetec mh-da006- This DAC is interesting but I am afraid it will be fatiguing.
Audio Mirror Tubadour v- This just seemed interesting but afraid tubes won't last very long if I watch a bunch of movies etc.
Denafrips terminator plus- These are always for sale used which make me nervous.
If you have any of these DAC's or have listened them let me know from your favorite on down.