dCS Bartok Apex vs any similar priced DAC

If you can be ok with just a dac , by a Big margin the T+A 200 dac beats  or competes with anything 2x  it’s price or more. At $7k a steal. I know 3 people personally  and 5 in our multi state north east Audio get together .

I have heard dacs up to $50k  and it depends how deep your pockets are.

innuos or other SS drive streamer combos make a great complement to this .

I’m super happy with my dCS Bartok Apex, great soundstage, very musical thru my Wilson Alexx V’s.

The best DACs I have heard recently are the Esoteric’s. If you can stretch to the Grandioso it is probably top 3 DACs period. 

The Playback MPD-8 lacks the on-board streamer.  That said, I had a customer do a direct compare (in-home demo) of the Bartok Apex vs the MPD-6 from Playback and he opted for the Playback.  His perspective was that detail was a push but the staging on the Playback was superior.  The MPD-6 has a streamer option you can add for $3k.  MPD-6 with Stream-X is $18k.
 

I would look at the Weiss Helios, not the 501.  The Helios is better in just about every way and is right in the same range as the Bartok in terms of price at $21,995.  Incredibly detailed and some of the best instrument separation I have heard in any DAC.    
 

I love the Chord but it is 10 years into its life cycle.  Depending on how long you plan to keep it, or how upset you get about new gear coming out, this could be N issue.  That said, I think Chord is one of the very best DACs direct into a power amp or powered speakers.  The volume control/preamp stage is great but does not have a streamer built in.  
 

@seadog137 I used to own the DCS Bartok Apex and as some people love it for me it was to clinical and you need to work around a lot to about brightness 

I switch to Lampizator Pac2 and I am the happiest ever. Amazing DAC way more analog, it’s not as detail but you can always work around with the right streamer to make it sounds more detail if that’s what you want. 
 

Lampizator is more forgiving also and open the possibility to use SS or tubes on the front side 

my 2 cents hope it’s helps 

good luck