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What's the greatest bargain in DAC's these days?

Hi, Gang,
I am currently running my Music Hall CD 25.2 CD player as a transport through my Musical Fidelity M1 DAC. I also have the Musical Fidelity V-Link 192 for playing hi-res files from the USB port on my laptop.
DAC's are such a fast-moving market segment that I started to wonder whether there was a "stupid good" DAC, even better than the MF M1 DAC, that could be had for well under $1000.
I started a thread in the Amps/Preamps forum called "What's The Greatest Bargain in SET These Days" that yielded tons of great info. I hope this thread does, as well!
rebbi
theduke
372 posts
 
Audio Advisor is selling the Parasound Zdac for $299.95. I bought one and find that it is exceedingly close in performance to my Benchmark DAC1.
mapman's avatar
mapman
21,888 posts
 
When I say "really good", what I really mean is good performance, ie low jitter. That puts you in the league. However, much like cartridges, most DACs will sound different to some extent still. This is more where judgements about what sounds good or best come into play as opposed to performance. Each person's case and choice is likely to be different. So its a lot like shopping for clothes. You may find many good bargains, but not everyone will be right for you.
beewax
173 posts
 
I always based on the latest (Asynchronous) electronic technology at the lowest price. Such as Parasound ZDAC2 and Music Hall 25.3 tube DAC for less than $500.
mapman's avatar
mapman
21,888 posts
 
Asynchronous is a USB mode. If its USB to DAC, then you definitely want a good Asynchronous USB implementation that allows the clock designed for high performance on the DAC to be in control. Its becoming more common with USB DACs to operate this way in recent years.
arh
366 posts
 
Teredak Chamelion. This is a non oversampling dac with 16 parallel chips. Sounds like great analog. $500
Alan
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