R2R next? Don't like ESS


Can you recommend a good 'starter' R2R dac?  I've been through a number of ESS Sabre dacs and they're not for me.  IMO, they lack a certain transparency that I'm after.  Point of reference:   The *only* dac that I've heard that is decent to my ears is a 10yr old Maverick Audio D3 w/ Sparkos OpAmp swap.  *This* was great.  Alas, I sold it because I thought I could do better with something newer.  

Geshelli's offerings have piqued my interest - the J3 in particular - but it's an ESS chip.  Wondering if I should make the jump to something R2R - Denafrips, Broder Patrol..  thoughts?

martinman

Showing 1 response by helomech

I’ve owned dacs from many brands including Denafrips, Line Magnetic, Topping, Questyle, Electrocompaniet, Eversolo, Parasound, Musical Fidelity, SMSL and Chord. Multiple models from some of these brands. And I’ve experienced/heard many more than those. 

My favorite among these has been the Topping E70 Velvet, a $400 DAC that can hang with $1500+ DACs all day and better them in many cases. One of its filter settings is filterless, so in a sense it is like you get multiple different DACs in one. You can have that old-school filterless sound with a rolled off top end or ultra-resolving and extended, or something in between. This is one of only two DACs I’ve owned where the filter differences are quite profound (assuming you have a highly resolving system). 
 

If you don’t want a “Chi-Fi” DAC as it goes, the Electrocompaniet ECD-2 is exceptional for the used market price.