Another +1 for the Schiit Bifrost 2/64. I originally purchased the Bifrost 2 before the /64 upgrade, but I did upgrade mine when it came out; I was quite pleased with the product. Recently, however, I purchased the Gungnir 2, well under $2K, for my main system and it made a further improvement in its sound reproduction quality. I have "retired" the Bifrost 2/64 to my office system, a Mac Mini M4Pro, NAD integrated amplifier (356BEE), Infinity Modulus satellites (ca. 1992), and DefTech Supercube 6000, and it does superbly. Schiit offers a trial period, with a restocking fee of five percent.
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?