I have about $10k’s worth of components in my system. After getting everything else up and running on the performance levels I was looking for, I turned to the last piece of the puzzle, the DAC. I’d been rather happy with an EVS-modified Oppo 103 for some yrs, but wanted to see if I could do better.
Started with a Denifrips Pontus (original version). Liked it ok, except that low-level detail seemed a little reticent and I recall just not being able to get sufficient tonal color out of the thing. It sorta did that "live" sound thing pretty well, which may be the thing these days in Southeast Asia, I’m supposing, but I was intentionally looking for color and hopefully without the attendant "veil" that can come with it (as is sometimes the case with McInntosh gear). Sold it after a few months.
Next up, I tried a Berkely Audio Design, Alpha V2 DAC. Although I ended up passing on this DAC as well, this did indeed have STUNNING amounts of color - just glorious - and by such a huge margin it wasn’t even funny. Almost TOO much color - something I didn’t think would be possible. A rather nice, if tightly defined, sound field, as well. Although resolution was quite good, where it really ended up letting me down was in the bass, particularly the midbass and low end. It just...well..sat there, like a bump on a log. The bass seemed strong enough and grippy, but inspite of threatening the get up and boogie at some point, it just never actually got around to it - it just refused to **move**. Me being a bass fan, that was deal breaker. I sold it after a year. A heartbreaking farewell, as I recall.
Next, on a tip from a friend in the pro industry, I tried my current DAC, a Burl Audio B2 Bomber DAC. This one is made in Calif. by the pro’s for the pro’s. It is what’s known as a "monitoring DAC". That is, it’s intentionally designed to neither gussy anything up about the sound or presentation, or sweep anything under the rug, so that a pro can accurately track the mix down process. It just so happens that this DAC is gloriously musical at the same time. And tonal color happened to be spot on across the range, not just ’here or there’. Gobs of transparency. In this DAC, there are No capacitors in the signal path - very unusual. So the bass is extremely extended, but also very o-p-e-n - the dead opposite of the prior DAC. And complete realism across the board...and with magic, soul, space and all that good stuff...
I’ve been gobsmacked with this DAC for more than a year now. The B2 is Never going Anywhere from here. If it should ever die, I’ll just get another one(!). Very much night and day for me on this DAC.
