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Worlds best DAC

Went to CES this year to work on my transition to high Rez digital. I've heard many of the highly regarded players in my room or in others systems in the past. I'm actually very happy with my current cd based sound. As I listened to various DACS playing CD then high Rez, I was not bowled over. High rez was better, but only slightly so. The best (and most different) sound I heard happened to have one similarity. They were 2 non oversampling DACS with tube analog stages(Zanden and Ypsilon). These were without question the most natural sounding digital systems I heard at the show. They made CDsound miles ahead of high Rez. What gives?

PS: I understand the limitations of show auditions.
bflowers
devilboy
1,172 posts
 
I have the Metrum Octave NOS DAC. Very natural and organic. Every day I'm amazed at the sound I get from this thing. I'm a firm believer in NOS.
jfrech's avatar
jfrech
1,816 posts
 
Hi, I know your speakers and cabling well. Have heard the boulder only once, but I know its great stuff.

Have u ever tried dcs? Given your system it might be worth auditioning. I'm in austin, the dealer here is great (also a wilson/transparent dealer). I have a dcs puccini/u clock now and am considering stepping up...I still feel sacd via transport beats any hiz rez computer I've tried (yet that is), my u clock is 24/96 (dcs has announced upgrades to 24/196 via usb...)

Good luck !
bflowers OP
80 posts
 
The yspsilon does 24/196 and is non-oversampling. I heard no noise. Systems were crystal clear, detailed, and completely lacking in digital harshness. It's possible the show conditions don't reveal deficiencies in deep bass and possibly noise floor. It's hard to imagine that the level of detail retrieval or effortless top end could be worse in one's own system.
magfan
1,583 posts
 
Give me an old TDA1541 system with 176khz oversampling, any day.
babybear's avatar
babybear
106 posts
 
Hi,
I was wondering if you had a chance while at CES to hear the CH Precision digital front end. I had the pleasure to hear this digital front end in my system at the beginning of December for a weekend. Like you, I have a good digital front end that I am happy with and I have listened to many other great digital front ends either in my room or in other systems that I a familiar with. In addition, I have a friend who has built a non oversampling dac with a tube output stage using the TDA 1541 dac chip (limited to redbook only). I would agree with you that my friends dac might have been the most natural sounding of them all until I heard the CH Precision. This is by far the best digital that I have ever heard. It is a 2 box design - with a CD/SACD transport and DAC which can also be used as a preamp. the dac has has all of the standard digital inputs as well as asychronous USB, and an ethernet card to be released in February (which they were showing at CES) to allow direct attachment to a network attached storage device. With its full solution you can play CD and SACD using its transport and also redbook and hi-rez digital files from either a computer or a NAS. I didn't get a chance to hear the Ypsilon dac so I don't know how they would compare (and that is difficult to do at CES anyways) but I think the CH Precision gear is certainly worth looking into.

Arnie
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