Least expensive discrete resistor ladder NOS DAC?

So, what's your recommended R2R NOS DAC du jour.
Updating from an internal McIntosh MX122 and need a few suggestions.

The nuprime dac 10 has a resistor lader technology

Sorry but that’s a resistor ladder for the volume control, not for D to A conversion. For that they use a Sabre delta sigma converter, which is not R2R ladder Multibit.

Cheers George

The nuprime dac 10 has a resistor lader technology at it preamp stage,  it's really good. It cost 1500 new. 

Is there any reason you are looking for NOS??  The 'no moving parts' aspect of a DAC would limit the number of things that are likely to go wrong (generally electrolytic capacitors, which can be replaced), and the lifespan should be quite long.  I have a DAC with the UA 20400, and while not discrete resistor, I think it was hand trimmed resistors.  Really delivers a wonderful sound, and available in DACs from several vendors - Stax, VTL, and Sonic Frontiers.  Directed at Redbook, and likely within your budget.  Sometimes older is better .....

wharfy,

old as as in a chip that’s not being made anymore. Way back at the beginning of CD, before oversampling was a thing, I had a Meridian MCD. It was the first “audiophile” CD player, and used a Phillips DAC chip that, I believe, was only 14 bits. It sounded really good!

Soekris also uses their own discrete resistor ladders, and going by George's post, has a NOS mode, I'd definitely consider their flagship dac 1541, which is way less than $2000.

Thing is you don't even have to spend that much, the  DAC1421 is the same as the 1541 but with only single ended outputs at 400euro less. And from what I read, you can get an Apple remote for it and the use the volume control it has.

And I've only heard balanced better single ended when the interconnect are >10mts long, and that only been a touch better noise.

From the Soekris 1421 1541 user manuals:
Remote Control: The dac1541 have support for using a remote controller to adjust the volume level and to select input source. The remote need to be an Apple remote or a compatible one. The dac1541 as default will not be locked to a remote, but can be locked to a specific remote using its device code. To lock the dac1541 to a remote, first press the “XFEED” button for 4 seconds until the “CLIP” indicator lights, then press any button on the remote. If you don’t press any button on the remote before the “CLIP” indicator goes off then the dac1541 will go back to its default setting of not being locked to a specific remote. You then also need to store the new remote setting by pressing the “FILTER” button for 4 seconds

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.TRS0&_nkw=Apple+remote&_sacat=0

Cheers George





Cheers George

Vinnie Rossi, Spatial, Volti Audio, and Triode Wire Labs have all been using Border Patrol at recent shows.  That catches my attention.

@tommylion, Metrum dacs (Onyx, Jade, Pavane, Adagio) and Holo Audio Spring all use discrete resistor ladders and are NOS. Soekris also uses their own discrete resistor ladders, and going by George's post, has a NOS mode, I'd definitely consider their flagship dac 1541, which is way less than $2000.

Mesch-Did not know that.

Tommylion-When you say "old Phililips chip," do you mean the chip is old, or the design? But in any event, I totally understand not wanting to spend $$ on a lateral move. I've had a couple of those experiences.

Wharfy, BorderPatrol was the other company that was sold online by Linear Tube Audio. Could't remember when typing my 1st post.

I currently have an old Audio Note DAC Kit 1.1 that is NOS, and uses the AD1865 chip, with a tube output stage. I'm very happy with the sound I’m getting from it. Audio Note is working on their own discrete resistor DAC, which, hopefully, will be out later this year. Unfortunately, it is likely to be out of my price range.

I was wondering if there is anything else out there that is both NOS, and uses discrete resistors, which follows a design philosophy similar to Audio Note's? The BorderPatrol is intriguing, but it uses an old Phillips chip, and I'm not sure it would be much better than what I already have.

BorderPatrol has a NOS DAC that mates well with CD transports. 

http://borderpatrol.net/DAC.htm

I'd also definitely look into the new Metrum Onyx, it may be a bit above budget but Metrums are very high quality, and the new dacs use all new r2r fpga modules.

There's a nice Metrum Hex DAC for sale here now at $1800.  Best of luck. 

More Soekris filters here, including the "near NOS" one as well.

https://hifiduino.wordpress.com/2015/06/27/r2r-dac-benchmark-filters-for-now/

Cheers George

nitewulf
The Schiit and Soekris dacs aren’t NOS dacs, they are r2r but oversampling.

I know the Schiit isn’t NOS, but from what this seems to say, the Soekris has many user sellectable filters, and NOS mode is just but one of them.


Soekris Filters:

"The Soekris filters are the result of experimentation and evaluation-by-ear. In some cases, the “best sounding -or most likeable” filters are NOS or near NOS which measure the worse. Manufacturers filters are “short” vs longer filters in the Soekris DAC. This allows more experimentation and fine-tuning. As an example, the Soekris DAC filters can have up 1016 coefficients in FIR1 and up to 120 coefficients in FIR2."
"1021filtNewNOS NOS (Since there can only be one NOS filter, this is the only one to use)Latest iteration of the NOS filter which includes POS’s improved de-emphasis filter.”The NOS filter does not actually filter at all – all the coefficients are set to 1 so the audio is passed unaltered and is only up-sampled. The side effect is none of the mirror images of the original signal that appear in the up sampled signal are removed…””Listened to NQtb65, NQtb70 (see Nyquist filters below) and NewNOS today. All three are pretty nice. But NewNOS feels distinctively more dynamic, direct and more full-bodied…”

All Soekris user adjustable filters.
https://hifiduino.wordpress.com/2015/04/19/digital-filters-for-soekris-r-2r-dac/

Cheers George

OMG what a cool and esoteric niche oriented world we live in......

The Schiit and Soekris dacs aren't NOS dacs, they are r2r but oversampling.

In your budget you want the Holo Audio Spring, level 1 or 2:

https://kitsunehifi.com/product-category/brands/holo-audio/

A bargain in a R2R discrete DAC is the Denafrips DAC’s starting at $750 or so - the Ares their entry level one is an exceedingly good value.

I believe all Denafrips are based on Sokeris module boards, and his complete dacs you would think will be worked out better being the designer.

http://www.soekris.dk/ the DAC1421 at 676euro is the pick, as it’s the same as the top of the line DAC1541 without the balanced output, saving $400euro

Cheers George

If your talking about the BB 1704 U - K / J these days only the J version is available. They go for up to $200 per IC for a genuine one - lots of fakes out there. So for a complete DAC your budget will be hard to meet. A bargain in a R2R discrete DAC is the Denafrips DAC’s starting at $750 or so - the Ares their entry level one is an exceedingly good value. It has some interface challenges - impossible to read gray screen on black and 1mm LED indicators - other than that a great sounding unit.

Good Listening 

Peter

Check out the multibit DACs from Schiit.  Not sure if they are discrete resistor or not (although I assume they are).  There are three of them under $2,000 new.

Check out Linear Tube Audio. They sell MHDT models and another brand of interest that has been mentioned on this forum, however i forget the name. All are R2R NOS DACs.