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Shopping for a DAC at AXPONA

I finally retired yesterday (at 77). Since I didn't receive a gold watch, or actually anything at all, from my employer, as a celebratory gift to myself I decided that I would buy a new DAC to replace my Lumin T2.

I intend to listen to several higher-end DACs at AXPONA, but it is unlikely that I shall be able to get more than a cursory sense of their qualities -- particularly given all the other equipment, and the room environment itself, will be far different from what I have at home. Here are the DACs I especially wish to hear:

     Bricasti (M1 Series II and/or M21); dCS Bartok APEX; Lumin X1; MSB Discrete; Playback Designs MPD-6 w/Stream X-2; and Weiss Engineering (DAC502 MkII -4ch and/or Helios).

I would be grateful to receive the thoughts of others about these DACs and, particularly, your thinking regarding any contrasts between two or more of them.

Thanks!

 

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benzman's avatar
benzman
384 posts
 

Congrats on your retirement. You certainly deserve to treat yourself. Maybe look at the Grimm MU 2.  Getting a lot of chatter as the best sounding Streamer/server/dac/pre in the 15-25 k range. Lists at 17500. Going to see a lot of them at Axpona so you should have a good chance to hear it. 
it’s just shipping now but there are a few owners over at the style site 

see you at Axpona!!

celtic66
1,610 posts
 

Weiss Helios.  I've the Weiss 501 with 4 channel upgrade and it's great!  Have fun at the show for me.

jmeyers's avatar
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jmeyers OP
116 posts
 

Thank you both for you helpful replies. I had not really considered the Grimm streamer/DAC previously, so I read the company’s website and all discoverable reviews. Consequently, I wrote Grimm Audio to see if I could meet them at AXPONA privately for a few minutes. They have developed a most impressive streamer/DAC!

smodtactical
967 posts
 

Sorry you didn't get that gold watch. I can tell from your writing you deserved it. Hope you enjoy whatever dac you choose! All the best!

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