Thanks for the feedback jfax237. I am enjoying the WA-33 as well. And it’s good to know that a quality DAC will indeed add to my listening pleasure :-)
I’ve gotten some great DAC suggestions. I was originally leaning towards the Chord DAVE but I was concerned that the WA-33 and Focal Utopia cans would not be able to fully render the DAVE’s analog signal. So I was fully expecting people to talk me down from spending so much money for a DAC dedicated to a headphone centric system.
As was noted earlier though, you really need to optimize the quality of your analog signal if you are going to reach the full potential of your audio system. Philosophically, that makes sense to me. Even if my system can’t render the full analog signal it is still rendering what it can, essentially giving me its maximum performance capacity. Which is better than having a DAC that gives you a substandard analog signal that falls short of your system’s rendering capability. Getting us back to the “big DAC decision.” And that is finding the DAC that provides the analog signal at the transition from too much to too little. In other words, buy a DAC that is too good you’re wasting your money, buy a DAC that is not good enough and you’re left unsatisfied.
It would be fun to try all of the DACs that have been suggested. Unfortunately, I’m not in a position to do that. So I’ve decided to error on the high-end side and go with the Lumin X1. What I’m still wrestling with is the choice for the power conditioner. I continue to vacillate between the Audio Magic Oracle and the GigaWatt that was highly recommended by some of the responders.
I’ve gotten some great DAC suggestions. I was originally leaning towards the Chord DAVE but I was concerned that the WA-33 and Focal Utopia cans would not be able to fully render the DAVE’s analog signal. So I was fully expecting people to talk me down from spending so much money for a DAC dedicated to a headphone centric system.
As was noted earlier though, you really need to optimize the quality of your analog signal if you are going to reach the full potential of your audio system. Philosophically, that makes sense to me. Even if my system can’t render the full analog signal it is still rendering what it can, essentially giving me its maximum performance capacity. Which is better than having a DAC that gives you a substandard analog signal that falls short of your system’s rendering capability. Getting us back to the “big DAC decision.” And that is finding the DAC that provides the analog signal at the transition from too much to too little. In other words, buy a DAC that is too good you’re wasting your money, buy a DAC that is not good enough and you’re left unsatisfied.
It would be fun to try all of the DACs that have been suggested. Unfortunately, I’m not in a position to do that. So I’ve decided to error on the high-end side and go with the Lumin X1. What I’m still wrestling with is the choice for the power conditioner. I continue to vacillate between the Audio Magic Oracle and the GigaWatt that was highly recommended by some of the responders.
