Is now a good time to buy a pre-owned DAC?


I imagine that many forum members build their systems by buying and selling pre-owned kit so they don’t incur large depreciation and can improve their system over time, as funds allow.

Buying 10-20 year old speakers can be a great way to get a high performance to cost ratio. I would also speculate that the same principle applies to most analogue power and pre-amps made in the last 10 years.

DACS are a clearly a very different a matter and I wouldn’t buy a 10 year old DAC so it’s tricky to know if it’s better to buy new or pick up something used.

In last five years, DAC technology has advance to a point where you can pick up some good kit ( really cheaply) and which offers such a high level of performance, that it may retain value for the future, because the technology is now advancing more slowly.

Is buying a preowned, 3-5 year old DAC, now a good idea?  

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soma70
No need to go back 3-5 years.....you have neurotic audiophiles dumping cutting edge current dacs at deep discounts all the time.  
It would be wise to wait until PS Audio release the TSS Two Chassis Super DAC, at which time there should be a glut of used DS and DS Jr. DACs for sale.
I'll build you a DAC for $5500 if you want something special.

Happy Listening.
Because of the fast changing improvemts to DAC’s I would not want to by a receiver with a built in DAC, keep them separate. It will just obsolete a receiver/dac too soon.  The benefit used to be lower jitter, but DAC’ s now are very good at jitter elimination and it is not so much of an issue now.
Hey guys I am looking for a good quality dac to improve my Parasound P5/A21+ setup. I have Maggie 1.7 speakers. Any help?

I'll second the Ayre recommendation.  Don't overlook the QB-9 DSD, it still is an outstanding performer and a steal on the used market.
That is why I now have 2 Ayre Codex's. A great DAC at a great price-especially used.
B
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I think it's a good time to get something used like the Auralic Vega for half it's old $3,500 retail price.  I think John Atkinson still uses it as his reference DAC.  Seems like good value to me.  I'm sure there are many other examples.
The devil is in the details...which DAC, what price, etc.  I bought a Mytek Manhatten I 3 years ago when it was under a year old for 80% of the original price and just sold it for about 55% of what I Paid and really enjoyed it for that time.  I consider it a reasonable outcome, but when I tried explaining this to my wife, she was somewhat uncomprehending.
  Let’s just say that DACs have gotten really good in the last few years and there is some great gear to be had on the used market
The only new DACs I have purchased are the Mytek Liberty (so I could see what all the MQA fuss was about) and the DAC in my OPPO HA1, which I have since sold.  Both were about $1K. I spent about $500 more for a second hand Auralic Vega and it is in another league. I just bought a MHDT Orchid here that should arrive Friday. I'm looking forward to trying that out. I think there are good deals to be had in the 2nd hand market.
A high-end three to five year old DAC will give you top-notch performance. You, however, may miss some SOTA features, such as a MQA decoder and an Ethernet connection. BTW, I agree with Eric.
DACs over the last 5-8 years are MUCH better than before.

I would only buy used within this time frame.

Best,
E