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?
Agree. A good DAC and good preamp can sure help bring out the sound. Not sure why some folks believe no preamp or a minimalist dac is better sounding. Tried it many times and find this approach to be much less engaging. To each his own. |
At the risk of raining on your solidarity, there are virtues to a non-tube preamp. I have both a SS preamp that adds virtually nothing and also a nice tubey 6SN7 preamp. I've also spent a fair amount of time listening to a very neutral autoformer based preamp. What does a neutral preamp give me?
Then I put the tube preamp back in and a bunch of other enjoyments occur. It's trade offs, really. But one can have a neutral preamp and not be lacking in many of the things people like about tubes. |
I agree that ESS isn't for everyone - sometimes it just a chip specific thing. For instance, some people find AKM velvet sound chips too mellow regardless of the implementation. My setup now includes a Holo audio dac which is my end dac - really like it. However, I did consider some other R2R Dacs including those from Audio-GD, who have brought many R2Rs to market and are fans of Burr Brown. Website: http://audio-gd.com/Products-EN.htm Not everyone's cup of tea but perhaps worth some research since their price point is certainly reasonable. |
@hilde45 I agree with you.. & perhaps I worded my thoughts poorly. I certainly wasn't implying that tubes or any type of topology was better or worse than another. As much as I like to switch things up I often find myself going back to the shortest most transparent signal path I have available. At the moment in my digital set-up I'm going straight from Dac to amp. This is where I find myself just enjoying the music & not thinking much at all about the components. I didn't mean for my current thoughts of straight wire with a gain to come off like a negative. I'm just more open to trying something that may be deliberately not as transparent or without the lowest THD. I don't mean something broken or with poorly engineered noise. Utmost transparency, neutrality, lowest noise floor, is normally what most try to achieve I believe or thought. I feel that saying I'm open to trying a tube dac or old R2R technology could lead to some people thinking "why?". It's certainly not because I don't value or appreciate a neutral or balanced presentation. I'm also not saying that all R2R or tube dacs can't achieve that..I don't have the experience to say one way or the other. I do lack experience with different types of dacs.. especially anything outside of what I guess is basic low cost delta sigmas. I had been under the belief that I didn't need anything different or "better" than that.
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Your thoughts and experiments are what matters most. It all comes down to your preference. Never apologize to anyone about what you hear yourself. Just like it did for the audio engineers doing the original recording, adjustments to the sound for emphasis and de-emphasis, mastering, way before you DAC. If you want the most pure, go to a live performance, and then listen to how it all sounds based on the room and where you are seated in the room. Lots of variables. In the end, you'll end up keeping what sounds best anyhow.
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