Any reason not choose an Apogee Duet?

The nice thing about DACs is that they are easy to ship and swap out. I'd get the Duet and another one. Sell the one you are less happy with and buy another one. Do this until you have found your sweet spot. I did this with about 6 from $300 to $2,600 and ended up with one that was $1,100.

Being able to swap out gear at close to purchase price is one of the great features of Audiogon.

Mcmanus - "Do this until you have found your sweet spot. I did this with about 6 from $300 to $2,600 and ended up with one that was $1,100."

Would this be the Exemplar Mini DAC? I tried finding info on this DAC but wasn't successful. Is this a modified Mini?

Excellent, thank you. This is great- now I don't have to buy one dac, but I get two! I'm looking forward to this...

The Duet looks pretty sweet. Its limited to no higher than a 96kHz signal though. Download the User Manual and check it out. I'm thinking of the Mini-DAC because it can handle the higher resolution 176.4 files.

Evaluating 2 DAC's at a time sounds like a great idea if you are working with a 30 day return policy.

You could also buy one DAC and see if local audiophiles are willing to bring their DAC over for a listening session.

Stubby - Hi. Yes, I ended up with the Exemplar Mini DAC. You do not see them on Audiogon but you might be able to get one from Exemplar. It bested my Resolution Audio Opus 21 which I sold for $2,400, having paid $2,600 for it a few years earlier. I bought and sold a Bel Canto and came out $100 ahead. I bought and sold a Scott Nixon tube DAC and was out less than $50 on the transaction. I got another two DACs that I cannot remember and never lost much. It was (is) the price of the hobby: playing around with different equipment.