Streamer/DAC

One disadvantage is that I presume that there is not much chance of upgrading the DAC in a combo like this, so as technology changes you with miss the buss or fork out for new.

Your comment speaks for itself.

If you are looking to get the best and keep up with innovations, then buying a separate DAC and streamer is the way to go. And, some manufacturers have built in 'upgradability' of their units.

Bob

Thanks Bob, for your comments (on both threads). I am sending emails out to some manufacturers asking if the DACs on there are combination units are upgradable. I will narrow it down from there.

I went with the one box option, a Cary DMS-700. I tend to keep audio equipment about 20 years, so it IS my forever streamer/DAC at my age. It’s over your budget but worth considering if you can get to $6K, and you’ll save the cost of an extra cable. I believe there’s a used one for $5K on Audiogon right now.  And it is a R2R DAC.

From Cary:

While the DAC is made by AKM as it was in previous generations players, in DMS-700 Cary Audio uses not a Delta-Sigma bitstream chip but a R2R (ladder) DAC. R2R architecture is tricky to implement so we designed a ‘support’ code-based DAC extension, programmed in a FPGA chip.

yowser - thanks, l'll check it out!

High,

I went the route you are thinking. I used to have a rack full of boxes