2. digital
  3. 1251693219

New or Old DAC

I currently have an older Theta front end. Data ll transport & Chroma HDCD. I like it, even though it is old and discontinued. I would like to update my DAC first , I am looking for a Theta Pro Gen va. I know the sound of the older Theta stuff and like it. But, are there any newer DAC's out there in that $1K (used) price range that can really give an equal or better performance than the Pro Gen Va? Do the newer anti jitter (re-clocking) DACS fall into that price range?

thanks, mike
128x128mikedaniels

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stereo
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I am an older DAC chip guy. I just finished a DAC design by Pedja that uses a TDA1541A Philips chip. The chip went out of production in or about 1995. I found and use the TDA1541AS2 chip (premium grade), a very hard chip to find. Another great older DAC chip is the Burr Brown PCM63. The PCM63K is Burr Brown's premium chip. Cd's are recorded in 44.1 khz and at 16 bits. This is all the info that in on a CD. A better circuit design and good DAC chip make a good DAC unit. Some older units are very good as well as newer designs, but there is still only 16 bits of info so an 18 bit-24 bit DAC chip will not get more info off a standard CD.

Anyway my choice is a newer design using and older DAC chip. Zanden is a company that does this at a very high cost.
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