Looking for a DAC that's better than Mc C47

Im not familiar with the MC, but I’ve been very happy listening to the new Mytek Liberty 2, if you can push the budget up a bit. It’s 1300 to 1500 depending where you look and most places give you a 30 day demo.

Do I prefer DACs in the 7k plus range, absolutely, but for me, this DAC is sufficiently good that I’m having plenty of fun listening, and I’m not missing those higher priced options, even though I know they give “more”.

Listen to a Bricasti M3. Then let us know your thoughts.

Audio Research DAC 9, Berkeley Alpha Reference 3.

The ARC is a tiny bit more musical.

rsf the bricasti is a 5500 dac and  and it favors clarity over midrange bloom 

so that is not the right avenue 

a better question is how are you feeding the dac are you using stock power cords, power conditioning? vibration isolation?

often it is all of these tweeks that bring out the sound you are looking for

Dave and Troy

audio intellect NJ

Thank you guys for the recommendations.  Where I stay, there's no seller for Mytek, Berkeley and AR.  But I'll research on them and see if I can buy online based on blind faith.  Hahahaha

Bricasti is way off my budget chart.

@audiotroy 

Thanks for the tweak tips, but I don't think cables and vibrations are the cause for what I'm looking for.   I run a TT to the C47, it's a Technics 1200 mk2 more than 20yr old and old Benz cartridge MO-0.9, using old YBA Integre phono module output and the SQ is really super.  Only soundstage not as good as digital version of the same music, eg. MJ "Smooth Criminal", or George M "Kissing A Fool".  I have both albums on CD and LP.

Yes, I understand LP and digital are very different and many variables in between.  The rich harmonics, lush and 3D-ness on the LP is lacking in the digital playback.  So using existing equip with LP playback as reference, vs digital playback, via C47 preamp.

I ripped the CDs and use a Intel NUC as playback from SSD storage.  USB cable is Furutech silver plated OCC.  The SQ is really very good, just that the missing oomph is not quite there compared to LP.

Off topic:  My TT setup is such because the C47 phono is very sucky, to the point I find unlistenable.  Tried both MM and MC input, with and w/o step-up trans, and of cos' all loading options.

I owned the C47 for a while and was not happy with the built in dac. I bought a Musetec MH-da005 for about 3K. I know this may be above your budget, but some feel this compares well to dacs costing 10K. Much has been written here on the Audiogon digital forum about it. Some think it may be the end of the search. I wrote a detailed review.

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/review-holo-may-l2-dac-and-the-musetec-audio-lks-audio-mh-da005-da

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/musetec-lks-mh-da005-dac

Look into a used Benchmark DAC3b should be around your budget. Chord Qutest should also be a step up. These two DACs I’m familiar with and I heard the dac1 built into McIntosh integrated. 
Other choices just based on reviews are Schiit Bifrost, older Bryston BDA-1 or BDA-2. 
 

@rsf507 let me know where Bricasti M3 is in sale for around $1000. 😂

Close to your budget the MHDT Orchid sounds "less digital" with the ability to shape the sound with tube rolling.  Lots of reviews and posts about it.  

Thank you guys.

Looks like Mytek Liberty 2, Schiit Gungnir and MHDT Pagoda are more in line with my budget.  Will dig more info and reviews into these 3 models as I have no demo here.  The rest AR, Berkeley and Musetec are out of range.

For the MHDT, their website doesn't give me confidence though, so 1994.  Hahahaha~  Taiwan company manufacturing in China.  And I'm not the 300B tube kind of person, so the Orchid emphasising a lot on the mids is not for me.  The Pagoda on the other hand looks more balance and more incline to my taste.

Anyone has experience with YBA D100 dac?  It is considered acceptable price range at about USD1400.  Specs wise not as strong as China brands, it only has 1 R-core trans, 1 PCM1795 chip and a few op-amps.  I understand sound quality is not all about audiophile components used and specs measurement.

Hello guys, after some research, looks like I need to pump up my budget by quite a lot to get the sound sig I'm looking for.

Anyone can comment on the Yggy OG vs MHDT Pagoda Balance?  If there's an option for XLR connection, I'm more keen on that.  Both are at the USD2500 point though, really quite off my initial budget.  What do I do?  Hahahahaha~

The Yggdrasil is a very good deal for the money. Last year I did a complete literature search and chose The Yggdrasil for his main system and I bought a Gungnir for my office system. Yggdrasil is a great chose for the money. Detailed and natural sounding.