After a long declutter operation of ripping all my CDs and then recycling the jewel cases and putting the actual CDs into storage, I went further to detach a computer from the entire chain. I relinquished myself and sanity to the streaming services and went though a year of hair pulling and natural age-related changes to hearing. An innocent McIntosh MC5200 was jettisoned from my creative room in the process. I even re-purchased some CDs that were packed away and lugged the Esoteric back from across the house to eliminate culprits. In the end, ridding myself of the pre-diamond B&Ws restored my life. There is watermarking and other issues with streaming and digital in general that seem to affect me more than others. Later I found cycling through filter options on the various DACs I have attached to the current pre-amp / amp configuration offered additional relief for streaming. The Esoteric reminded me I could probably do that with stand-alone DACs. While I understand that in your situation the B&Ws are the immovable objects, instead of changing out your DACs, perhaps a vacuum tube amp might smooth out everything? Nothing is more analog than a tube amp. And they are also very social. While my seemingly self-induced torture may seem nutty on its face, I play instruments 3-4 hours per day, for which I have zero ear fatigue but need hear to learn songs to do covers.
Looking for recommendations for a 'warm' sounding DAC
Would anyone know of a warm sounding DAC, budget to £2500/$3000 new or used. My ears don’t like a crisp and clinical sound, I find that Chord/dcs/Topping sound painful if loud. I know many love those crisp leading edges that these deliver but that sound does not synergise with my amp/speakers nor my sensitive ears. I know the easiest way to achieve this would be to switch speakers to a mellow speaker but this option is not available.
Any suggestions would be welcome.
Any suggestions would be welcome.