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upgradeable dacs

I am tired of wasting money on buying dacs to have them be usurped by new technology within a year of purchase. many dacs that claimed being upgradable either were not, or were so expensive as to be not worth it. (original berkeley and bel canto come to mind) Other than the new nad dac line which i think really can be upgraded, does anyone know of higher quality dac products which can be upgraded without any nonsense? thanks
emster

Showing 2 responses by tgrisham

tgrisham
1,291 posts
 
The technology is changing quickly. Your question is relevant. The issue is whether or not the new DACs sound better to you. The newer ESS chips sound better to some but others like the NOS DACs. Vanilla or chocolate? My advice is that you will have to experiment. Trying to keep upwiththe latest tech in DACs is fruitless. It is impossible for a manufacturer to design a DAC to accept every new chip that comes along. Can you hear the difference? I propose that the software that plays your bitstream may be more important.
tgrisham
1,291 posts
 
D'S- I am with you on that. DACs have been steadily improving for the past few years and coming down in price. What used to require $4000 for a great DAC can be had for much less. I suggest you buy used here on Audiogon and try it out. There is always someone who will buy it from you if and when you upgrade. On the other hand, my Eastern Electric DAC is everything I wanted and now I spend money on music and upgrading the player for my computer. Good luck and ignore the "static" you read here sometimes.
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