What the Best Dac have you heard or owned. How could you tell it was that good.

There are so many very good to great DACs these days! I went to AXPONA earlier this month just to listen to as many DACs as I could (and there were quite a few). I ended up purchasing a Bricasti M21. Why, you may ask. I have perhaps an unusual explanation. As time has passed, more and more I cannot recall the specifics of each presentation I attended, even if they were quite marvelous -- except for one, which was the Bricasti M21. It was exceptional when I heard it, and I can still clearly remember some of the tracks played and my reactions when hearing them. I have to mention, however, that the rest of the Bricasti room's demo system was also terrific, so, to a certain extent this purchase is a leap of faith on my part because I have been unable to hear it on my own system.

After auditioning and comparing my incredible Ayre Acoustics QX-5 Twenty Streaming DAC to several other more expensive reference DACs (and some less expensive), I opted for the Ayre, and I have been extremely happy with it every since. I felt that any variations in sound quality between the Ayre DAC compared to, and, in some cases, those DACs costing significantly more, just didn’t justify the increase in price. After 3 years with the Ayre Acoustics QX-5 Twenty Streaming DAC, I’m still in love. Happy listening.

I have not heard expensive dacs in my system but my modded PS Audio DSD sounds good for a $3500 dac. I experienced my dac improvement with added mods and now fully upgraded with APS nickel transformers, VOCM mod and analog power supply board powered by a Keces P3 with a Neotech 20ga silver dc cable connecting Keces power supply to power supply board in dac is the best sounding dac in my system so far. All that said I have not tried a lot of different dacs in my system.

The timbre, impulse and transient information coming out of my Ayre Acoustics QX-5 Twenty ($15,000) with L5xe is fantastic. Horns, voices or anything else in the midrange sounds rich, relaxed and has information around the notes normally missed in dacs such as the Bartok Apex ($20,950) which I sold. The bass with QX-5 is incredible as it has texture, extension and detail galore without sounding bubbly, bloated, unnatural or lacking. The QX-5 has made me a better listener because now I know what I was missing. Compared to the competition, the QX-5 should cost 2-3x as much. Happy listening!

The best DAC I have heard is the MSB Select.   I have not heard the Nagra, Wadax or Playback designs.  I have heard all the others mentioned in this thread and it is not even close to my ears.