@sheridanmartinj
I own ARC DAC2 and DAC3 MKII. DAC2 is built-on one of the best DAC chip Ultra analog D20400 chip, 20-bit implementation and it is solid state. DAC3 is tube DAC built on a delta-sigma 1-bit DAC from Crystal Semiconductors. DAC3 uses 4 7308/6922 tubes. I believe DAC1 uses Ultra Analog D18200 chip, 18-bit implementation. DAC 1-20 uses D20400. Both DAC2 and DAC3 are excellent performers. I would recommend you look for DAC2 which will be better than DAC1 and DAC3 is some aspects. On good recordings, both DACs performs very well. However, DAC2 can make some of the older recordings and not well recorded material sound musical. In other words, DAC2 is more forgiving than DAC3.
These are my observations and I use both DACs. I have a Cary Audio 300/200 CD player with Burr Brown 7308 multi bit DAC as a reference. Some times, I don’t hear a difference between DAC2 and Cary CDP. DAC3 is a slightly a different beast due to tube stage. When it gets it right, hard to beat that tube sound. I use 4 Amperex 7308 NOS tubes.
I would track down a AR DAC2 if I were you.
