Which DACs are known to be sweet/rich/relaxed?

@robert1976 I am in a similar boat. My system is also very enjoyable but, tends to get bright and harsh with certain (rock) recordings. I don't listen at higher volumes so that is not an issue. I too am not unhappy, just curious if I can chop off that bright top end with certain recordings.

I was thinking about taking a slightly different approach. Purchase a less expensive Dac that would only be used for poor recordings. Something that tones down a hot top end. Dacs I am considering are a used PS Audio direct stream or Lampizator Baltic 3. I will also look at used Audio Note Dacs.

So what I am looking at is an Aurender 200 feeding a Berkeley Alpha USB then AES to a Berkeley Reference 3 and SPIDF to the new Dac. Both DACs will be connected to my preamp.

I did compare the Berkeley to the MSB Premier and preferred the Berkeley. One caveat is the new Dac must have balanced output.

Are there any other DACs I should be considering that will only be used for about 10% of the music I will be listening to?

I really think this is all barking up the wrong tree. Instead of spending 25-40K that may or may not work, spend $500-1000 to start for an acoustic engineer/technician to come to your house and measure your room / system. Without a baseline to know if your system is a bit bright of not, you are just throwing darts. An experienced set of ears may pick up on the flaw you hear, but cannot clearly identify the cause for. Just basic windows software on a PC can do equalization with absolutely no distortion. I am listening with headphones <0.01% distortion at high volume. That is lower than your DAC. All the equalization does is change the tonal balance. No distortion.

Ordering Aesthetix Pandora for my self soon to go with my Aurender N10 demo it in my system it was glorious 

++++++ Aesthetix Pandora, running a signature for years in a resolving and musical system….

The Brinkmann Nyquist II is also excellent.

hello op

we have a ton of experience with Roon as well as other servers and streamers.

First We were aureder dealers then an innous dealer the Innous sounded far better we tested sotm lumin and many others.

The Stereophile comment is very wrong the statement sounds far better if you are using usb and yes demoed that way the difference is very audible via ethernet there would be no difference.

fast forward we found a thread New to the forum: high end music server with Roon Core and 3 x dedicated linear power supplies | What’s Best Audio and Video Forum. The Best High End Audio Forum on the planet! (whatsbestforum.com)

the poster found the 5k 432evo Aeon sounded nearly as good as theese 10k euro servers

The Aeon has a very rich and Musical presentation. and we have compared it to the nucleus and the Aeon sounds far better.

may/ june Absolute Sound Andrew Quint reviewed 432Evo Aeon and found the Aeon to be best sounding server I have heard. in fact he purchased the sample..

as per dacs the Aqua hifi dacs are very musical and are fully modular and upgrad able as they are ladder dacs they are very smooth and natural sounding.

Dave and Troy

Audio intellect nj

US importer 432Evo music servers AQua hifi rdealer focal dealer