I highly recommend the Schiit Gungnir multibit or if at all possible the Yggdrasil. The are outstanding sound quality for their price and will set you up for significant improvements in the future by upgrading other components. I bought a Gungnir mb as a part of helping a friend get a new DAC. We got him a Yggdrasil. Both outstanding for the money.
What DAC to get?
I am currently running Audioquest’s Dragonfly Cobalt DAC and I do enjoy the single ESS ES9038Q2M DAC chip’s quality. However, soon I want to upgrade to a standalone DAC. There are just so many and so many features that I can’t decide.
I would prefer to keep the cables I am running so that I won’t have to buy any other cable except a USB and a power cable. That alone has made the search a bit more difficult and I might have to eventually cave and get balanced cables if I want a high quality DAC.
At present I need to go out via USB to the DAC. Then exit the DAC via 3.5 Stereo pin. It is possible to reverse this and go out RCA to 3.5 Stereo pin to the speaker.
I am not interested in portability. It can be a shelf unit. I want high resolving circuitry and of course a fantastic DAC chip or chips.
At present I am looking at the Schiit line of DACs. Some have recommended the Chord Hugo (II?).
If you had a system that is very sensitive and wanted to push it even further, what have you used?
I would prefer to keep the cables I am running so that I won’t have to buy any other cable except a USB and a power cable. That alone has made the search a bit more difficult and I might have to eventually cave and get balanced cables if I want a high quality DAC.
At present I need to go out via USB to the DAC. Then exit the DAC via 3.5 Stereo pin. It is possible to reverse this and go out RCA to 3.5 Stereo pin to the speaker.
I am not interested in portability. It can be a shelf unit. I want high resolving circuitry and of course a fantastic DAC chip or chips.
At present I am looking at the Schiit line of DACs. Some have recommended the Chord Hugo (II?).
If you had a system that is very sensitive and wanted to push it even further, what have you used?