Advice needed: It's time for a new DAC
Hello People of Audiogon!
I received some help a little while back when I was considering upgrading my speakers so I am looking to the community again for guidance and opinions. It is time to upgrade my DAC.
My current system is Sasha DAW's driven by a Luxman L-509X.
The three DAC's on my short list are:
MSB Discrete
Berkeley Alpha V3
Chord DAVE
One thing to note is that I am in Canada so many brands are difficult if not impossible to audition.
My priority is "musicality" or "soul". What's this? Well to me, it means feeling. The Luxman and Sasha's well convey musical emotion and that is important to me. I don't know how to describe it better beyond that. They have flow (perhaps PRAT, to use another vague term). Sounds have meat to them and texture. The music feels real.
The second priority is three dimensionality.
The third is resolution.
My one caveat is no tube DAC's. Tubes, for me, just don't work well based on my listening style and habits. I love tubes, I've owned tubes and tubes are wonderful, but as things are now, I just don't want them in a DAC. Perhaps they will find their way into my system in a pre-amp in the future.
I listen primarily to Tidal but MQA is not a priority for me. I would switch to Qobuz but they were not available in Canada until recently and all my play lists in Roon are with Tidal tracks so I suspect a switch will be a real headache, but I digress. My point is MQA isn't really important and DSD isn't necessary either.
Of the above DAC's, if you have heard them, what are your thoughts/opinion?
Thank you in advance,
-Paul
@blisshifi I could 100% see how a DAVE owner would love the DAC200, but I’m going to be listing mine now having the Cen D³. The T+A build quality and feature set is just incredible and in my heart of hearts wanted to keep the T+A because I really like how much time, attention and quality craftsmanship went into it, but I feel it’s DSD DAC far outshine it’s Burr Brown DAC chip, which kinda let me down. It’s resolution and vocal forward presentation would again attract DAVE fans.
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@bigfatpaulie that fuzzy center image is most likely due to first reflection points not being treated. The fireplace has some say in it but it’s negligible. The direction of the sound your Sashas put out is forward with tweeter and midrange dispersion to the sides at a slight angle. I don’t have a fireplace but had exactly the same issue. Cured by treating the first reflection points and installing bass traps to tighten up and refocus the lower registers. Snapped together nicely. As to the DACs, you have a nice list. If you use Tidal and don’t need DSD, go with the Berkeley Alpha 3 ( has MQA processing capabilities). However, keep in mind that it has no USB input and you will be using AES with it most likely, which means the clock in your streamer is what you’re going to be relying on. Not sure how good that section of the Lumin is. |
@audphile1 makes a bunch of great points. I left out the Cen D³ doesn't have I²S in if that's something that you wanted, and converts all incoming signals to DSD up to 1024 (no MQA). There might be an upgrade in the future and has a open module slot. |
Save yourself some $$ the Excellent T+A 200 dac can compete with Anydac up to $15k and compared to the chord Dave much more musical and at $7200 before discounts and HQ player built in a true Audiophile bargain check out all the Great reviews and get a demo unit to try out . that ones next on my list. |
