They come up rarely. A $10k launch price means rarity as standard!
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They come up rarely. A $10k launch price means rarity as standard!
sweet!
I'd like to add something different....simplicity.
I've been a long time active speaker user and have recently had a chance to set up an old pair of Meridian DSP5000 speakers with their integrated DACs in my dining room - hope that is Ok with the original thread criteria.
I am currently listening to Tidal via an Musical Fidelity USB SPDIF convertor to the master speaker as I can't bear to watch the rugby at this point. The lack of boxes and easy going rich sound is really quite nice to my ears. I think mine date from the late 90's.
It is not 100% perfect (to my ears/tastes if I am being super critical and compare to my main system) but that misses the point in my humble view...its just so simple with no fuss!
I would like to nominate the NAD Master Series M51 DAC.
Of late, NAD have not been living up to their long lived reputation of quality products at a reasonable price, this one is back on form.
http://www.jkwynn.co.uk/Pics/M51_Front+Back.JPG
Fully balanced design, with plenty of inputs including HDMI, which has a pass through facility that lets you strip 2 channel audio out of the signal.
It was a Stereophile A+ recommended product from 2013 to 2017. With the vast number of DAC's being released during that period, I think that says a lot. It was only dropped from the list due to their policy of automatically dropping items three years after its last review. Apart from them loving the way it sounds, when it came to testing it..........
"NAD's M51 Direct Digital DAC offers measured performance that is almost beyond reproach. Color me impressed.—John Atkinson"
I can confirm from listening to it in my own humble set up, it's a very, very, good product.
It's still listed as current on NAD's website, though getting hard to find.
It peaked at about £1700 after many favorable reviews and is £1400 at present, it makes an excellent used purchase and can be picked up for as little as £600 in mint condition.
Re: NAD M51 DAC
Dynamics/bass - It depends which version of the firmware is installed, I have four versions.
The firmware v1.39 is praised by many as being the best bass, but I found, while being fatter and more dynamic in the upper bass, it lacked any real depth.
versions 1.41 and 1.43 focus on detail and are weak in bass/dynamics.
The latest firmware is v1.50, I like this the best and its the most dynamic of the bunch, with much deeper bass than 1.41/1.43.
Associated equipment will of course effect the result and it took 85 hours for mine to burn in, which a store demo model may not have achieved.
Now mine has settled, I am getting very pleasing results, but that's with my gear in my room, so results may still vary. ;)
Wow , so what we have here is 4 different sounding cd players in one . Thats a bit confusing whouldn't you say ?
Having said that the worst place to evaluate a piece of audio gear is in a audio store . You don't know the equipment , the acoustics the recording. That' is why I said at a store .
You would think that dealers would take their time to set up a nice sounding system but they don't in general .
Having said that the best place to audition is in the context of your own system . That is why a dealer that lends you a piece of hardware to evaluate it in your system is so important . Dealers that have that policy are worth their weight in gold . A pity many have under mostly because of the internet .
Hey ! I'm off topic . [emoji3]
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