Such thing as "synergy" between DAC types or brands and one's system? Maggies/Bryston


Hi all,

I need your thoughts on my situation, and perhaps a DAC recommendation, please. As many will confirm, there is a great synergy between my Magnepan 3.6Rs and my Bryston 4BSST. After many years of experimenting, these two are keepers for life! But as much as I love my Wyred4Sound DAC 2 DSD Femto, I have to wonder if my 5 year old W4S is a technological dinosaur.that needs to be replaced, especially if a new DAC has that "synergy" with my system (or my ears).

Now don't get me wrong. I am not afraid of "vintage" (thus my Maggies and Bryston). And as I said, I am happy enough with the W4S. It's not perfect, but it's highly resolving. (and that really jazzes me - along with the instrument's/layers clearly defined separation! ). Plus, I don't really have the itch of "upgrade-itis."

So...Since I have long since abandoned chasing minor advances in SQ, then  IF I put myself in the market for a new DAC it would have to be significantly DIFFERENT from the W4S's presentation, while still being highly resolving and still having. Is that even reasonable, given a $1K-$4K budget (new or used)?

A few other details that would help with your recommendation: I don't use a pre-amp. So volume control and a pre-amp functionality are essential. Also, I prefer SS (although the idea of a tube buffer is interesting....).

Thoughts?

Thanks!
mkh1099
Mkh that’s a tough one, the reality is that the really good dacs especially with volume control tends to cost a bit more.

Yes you do have the Mytek Brooklyn Bridge which is excellent a $2,500-3,000k and the Ifi DSD pro at $2,500.00 then there is the Lumin D2 which does have a digital volume control and it costs $2,300.00

However, are any of these dacs going to be mind blowingly better than the dac you have? Generally you get what you pay for and although all three of these pieces are excellent we sell all three, we think you still might want to explore the next level, with that being said, we still feel that any of these three would still outperform the Dac you have by basis of the newer technolgies present in these products.

We just got in the Bricasti M3 which is a $5,500.00 dac with a real analog volume control. We are still breaking in our demo but the sound right away is spectactula,r huge sense of space width and depth, a slighly warm midrange, fantastic build quality and a nice degree of modularity, the piece can add a streaming board and a headphone amplifier.

We were interested to try the Bricasti after hearing the rumors that this dac was about 80% of the sound quality of the Bricasti Reference dacs the M1SE, but costing 1/3 less money.

We sought out the Bricasti because of the rummored superb sound but also for its analog volume control, abundent digital inputs, streaming board which is Roon capable, and the nice option for a headphone amp as well.

The nice thing about Bricasti is that they have offered upgrades to their products previously and the feature set and build quality are outstanding.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor Mytek, Ifi, Lumin and Bricasti dealers