I know that it is not an expensive DAC but I have had a great deal of pleasure listening to my SMSL DO 100 DAC. They report that it has a SMSL hump, but my room and the Magnepan LRS+ paired with the Peachtree Gan400 seems to work well. It might be the Schitt Freya + tube preamp that is softer sound than my previous Solid state preamp.
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).