Options for $1k or less DAC?

op

Anyway, I’m not sure how this translates to the HiFi world knowing that we all want clean / clear power for our listening. But when I see tube dacs for $500-$800 I’m skeptical.

don’t be - they are for real... i have tried many if not all of the contenders in the $500 to $2000 range... mhdt makes several models based on r2r nos chips, all w tube output, even their more expensive models can be found used for under $1000 - but when they appear on audiogon or us audiomart, and are snapped up pretty much straight away

jolida/black ice, as mesch mentioned, also makes a tube output dac... also very good (but not quite as good as the mhdt’s)

frank van alstine/ava also has made excellent dacs less than a grand in cost, with tubed output stages that sound very natural

if you do research you will also see mention of a border patrol tube dac around $1000 used... i would suggest you pass on that one... the tube is used in the power supply section... not in the output stage, and its sound quality, while good, does not represent as good a value as others mentioned

there is also a chi-fi dac by musical paradise that is tubed output -- it has seen some good reviews but i have not tried it in my own system (i personally lean against direct marketed chi fi stuff as there is questionable support if anything goes awry...)

bear in mind also that to get a full, natural ’more musical presentation’ than the more common treble-centric robotic-sounding dacs, using tubed output is not the only solution -- ayre codex and metrums octave/amethyst are two others that provide an ’analog-like’ sweet and dimensional sound profile under $1000 used...

good luck have fun happy holidays

all rhetoric aside, if big_greg is trying to lead the op and other readers to believe the schitt bifrost is an equally good sounding or a better sounding dac than a mhdt stockholm 2 or orchid, that belief would be rather incorrect imo

based on my comparisons, the mhdt dacs outperform not just schiit’s bifrost (mb) but also their gumby and yggy for overall musicality, finesse and coherence ... the bifrost has a warm midrange and bloated midbass that obscures, and a sibilance problem in the lower treble -- the yggy solves the sibilance problem but delivers a rather ’hifi’/accentuated treble that is rather disembodied from the rest of the music, something akin to a speaker with a ribbon tweeter poorly integrated with the mid/bass drivers

saying the bifrost ’holds it own’ is a matter of personal taste and how much allowance for poorer sound one allows in their system and with their hearing -- a samsung smartphone ’holds it own’ against a top flight hifi dac in that it also transmits the music... but it sounds much worse

my 2 cents

ymmv, which obviously it did with greg

op

search is your friend

big greg ---->>>  https://www.lineartubeaudio.com/products/mhdt-labs-dacs