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Need help choosing a new DAC

With so many options for DACs these days, I'm having a hard time deciding on a new DAC.  Currently considering a MHDT Orchid or Pagoda, Denafrips Pontus II, Benchmark DAC3,  Schitt Yggdrasil, or Audio Mirror Tubadour III SE.  I don't need any options such as volume control, BT, or MQA.  I also prefer musicality over measurements.  I'm currently using a SMSL SU-9, which will be moved over to my office system.  I'm tired of moving it back and forth between systems. My bank account prefers the cost of the Orchid since the other options cost up to twice as much, but I can go as high as $2500.  I mostly steam Qobuz thru a Raspberry Pi 4, but also use a Cambridge Audio CXC v2 CD transport on occasion.  My preamp is a Don Sachs DS2 tube preamp going into a D-Sonic m3a-1200s amp feeding "Gunned" MMGs.  I mostly listen to the Grateful Dead, rock, jazz, and acoustic music. Which DAC should I get and are the any others I should look at? 

terrapin77

Showing 1 response by fmzip

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fmzip
12 posts
 

@terrapin77

I noticed you said you had no interest in DSD. I too once had that sentiment. I had no music locally stored that was DSD. However, my LKS DAC MH-DA004 was capable of handling DSD512 so I was intrigued to find some of these files to see how good the sound was. Wow what an amazing difference it was.

Once I delved down this path, I eventually found that upsampling everything to DSD512 was stellar. I accomplished this through Roon/Tidal/Local/HQPlayer/Mac Mini M1. I really can’t believe how good even mediocre 44K CD rips sound now.

I listen to a broad range of music from Classic rock Led Zep Grateful Dead,1960's Jazz, Adele Norah Jones etc. I'd highly suggest trying upsampling, you may like what you hear

 

 

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