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Best significant upgrade? Dac? Preamp?

Hi guys!

Im hoping some of you with knowledge of my system can help me make a good decision about my next upgrade.
I would like a surprising and obvious difference not hard to spot subtle change.
From my research i think the next move should be the Dac.
I would like to explore DSD,i have some SACDs now.
my system:
Mark Levinson 320s preamp
(Would i see a difference with a ML no.52?) I am also looking at the no.52 ,would i see a big difference compared to the 320s? Worth the extra $$ ?
interconnects: Acoustic Research master series silver high definition RG6
ML 431 amp
XLR: +bo ? +ba ? Only info on them

Wilson Audio Watt Puppy 5.1 speakers (serie 7 tweeters) +transparent music wave plus cables
Arcam rdac (wifi) with Teddy Pardo power supply.
Running on mac air (usb) ,Tidal HIFI
(i currently listen most of the time to this vs rarely SACD).
Thanks!



128x128nicsaudio
fossda
112 posts
 
Dac first for sure. So many good designs now and changing fast. Really like the moon products and much better output stage than the ps audio dac. With the mind option you can stream tidal etc. Very nice dacs from meridian as well. At your price point you may want to look at on-line companies which are making some excellent dacs-myteck (sp?) etc.
c_s
15 posts
 
Can't argue w/ (carefully chosen and especially bass-trap type) room treatments, but I also agree that the right Dac can make a bigger improvement than you might expect.  For me, upgrading to a Schiit Gungnir Multibit (upgrading from a Stereophile A+ rated dac, by the way) made a surprising improvement in terms of overall listening enjoyment, and is arguably the new MVP in a system where some individual components are 5x its cost.  No DSD on this one though. It is warm enough that I would suggest trying it first before adding tubes to the system.  

Also upgrading a usb source from an (albeit older) mac mini to an Auralic Aries mini provided a surprising improvement and high ROI IMO. 
 
  
johnziomas's avatar
johnziomas
41 posts
 
C_S, is your USB input on your DAC asynchronous?  Auralic doesn't have USB out if I remember correctly, wondering why going Digital USB from the Mini to Digital coax/toshlink from the Auralic would make such a difference.  Thanks
sbank's avatar
sbank
3,378 posts
 
To paraphrase Bill Clinton, "It's the room, stupid". If you love your speakers, working on room acoustics & setup will give you the most dramatic improvement. Cheers,
Spencer
c_s
15 posts
 
Hi johnziomas, the Gungnir dac has async USB and the  Auralic Aries Mini has a usb dac out.  The Aries Mini usb out is significantly better than both my (c. 2008) mac mini usb out and sonos coax out (which sounded quite different from each other, btw)  To me it just sounds more like music: less harsh, more tonally balanced , more detailed and with better layering and imaging.  Even my wife noted the improvement (fairly rare) As to why, I can only speculate. I only thought to try it because of the interest around this sort of thing on the forums (computer audiophile, DAR, etc)  At any rate it solved some long standing issues that I'd been trying to address through preamps, DACs, cabling, tubes, etc., wish I would've looked into it sooner.        
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