Neutral Dac?
I’m curious to see people’s opinions on what they believe is the most uncolored dac? Every dac I’ve tried seems to be a flavor that deviates from neutrality in some way (smooths things over, too bright, too soft on transients, lacks bass etc...). Is there a dac that people believe gets all the fundamentals correct with leaving very little sonic footprint? What is the cost threshold needed to achieve it? I’m surprised at my own findings recently but really curious if anyone else has been searching for a fundamentally uncolored dac and what they’ve found.
I realize the most obvious answer is "the dac with impeccable measurements" but I have also found some of them to sound unnatural (dry/bright).
I put the latest Denafrips Terminator, Mojo, top Bricasti, EMM, MSB, etc. DACs among others all worth an audition. But this review of the top Chord DAC also has me intrigued. FWIW… https://soundnews.net/sources/dacs/digital-to-analog-veritas-in-extremis-chord-dave-dac-review/ |
The two most uncolored components I’ve had in my system was a Bryston BP-6 stereo preamp and my current Musician Pegasus R2R DAC. The Pegasus does a superb job of maintaining tonality and fluidity but without truncating upper treble detail that some R2R DACs get accused of doing. I recently added a Denafrips Iris DDC to allow me to take advantage of the Pegasus’ i2S input and got yet another significant boost in transparency, detail, soundstage, and imaging. At $1100 I think it’s the epitome of not only a neutral but also a natural-sounding component that to me is the best of both worlds and is also a great value for the level of performance it provides. |
