sub $600 DACs: MF vs Music Hall vs Schiit


OVERVIEW
I'm comparing sub $600 DACs and need opinions on my top three contenders.

LISTENING STYLE
My listening tastes are across the board: jazz, classic rock, classical, bluegrass. Pretty much everything but black metal and hot country hits. I favor balance over bass. I listen to mostly vinyl and 320k mp3s/FLAC digital from my computer. Looking into lossless options for converting and playing the files currently on my CDs. They're starting to gather dust.

THE CHALLENGE
I've pretty much maxed out my current system in terms of budget and the room itself. The room is pretty small (12'x14'). The one area I see for improvement is converting the digital signal to my pre. I'm currently using a cheap TurtleBeach USB sound card and think I could improve overall music depth and soundstage with a proper DAC.

THE SYSTEM
NAD 1700 pre
NAD 214 amp
Audes Blues floorstanding speakers
Music Hall MMF5 turntable
Nakamichi CD4 CD player
Tara Labs Prism 55i interconnects
Monster Cable M2.2 speaker wire
Turtle Beach AudioAdvantage Micro sound card

THE QUESTION
The three DACs I'm looking at are
- Music Hall DAC25.3 $550
- Schiit Bifrost $449
- Musical Fidelity VDAC $350

Do you feel one of these might suit my system more than another? Are there others I should consider? Or, should scrap that plan and put my $ into a new pre? a completely new integrated? Any advice would be appreciated.
mojo1819

Showing 1 response by jedinite24

I say put the Cambridge Audio DacMagic along with the Pangea P100 Power supply on your list. I enjoy this combo quite a bit and it is well within your budget.

Another DAC that I've read good things about in the sub $600 range used on A'gon is the PS Audio Digital Link III DAC.