Worlds best DAC


Went to CES this year to work on my transition to high Rez digital. I've heard many of the highly regarded players in my room or in others systems in the past. I'm actually very happy with my current cd based sound. As I listened to various DACS playing CD then high Rez, I was not bowled over. High rez was better, but only slightly so. The best (and most different) sound I heard happened to have one similarity. They were 2 non oversampling DACS with tube analog stages(Zanden and Ypsilon). These were without question the most natural sounding digital systems I heard at the show. They made CDsound miles ahead of high Rez. What gives?

PS: I understand the limitations of show auditions.
bflowers

Showing 2 responses by bflowers

The yspsilon does 24/196 and is non-oversampling. I heard no noise. Systems were crystal clear, detailed, and completely lacking in digital harshness. It's possible the show conditions don't reveal deficiencies in deep bass and possibly noise floor. It's hard to imagine that the level of detail retrieval or effortless top end could be worse in one's own system.
Arnie,

I was in the room with that dac while a friend was listening to something else by that distributor. I thought it was on static display. I wasn't aware that it was a contender. It looked nice as I recall. Do you know the price?