WTD: DAC

[Ali Tait]

Good call Tony, forgot about that.

[icehockeyboy]

There aren't many cheap second hand DACs that sound great.

I've tried all the older Dacmagics including the Isomagic and they are a bit bland.

The Audio Alchemy DACinthebox is not too wonderful, but better and their Digital Drive Engine is a bit livelier and more worthy.

The little Mission dac5 is surprisingly musical, but not particularly revealing.

The Beresford DAC (can't remember the model no.) I had a few years ago was revealing, but a bit lightweight sounding to my ears (Sorry Stan).

A decent second hand choice would be the Theta Cobalt or Chroma. They sound virtually identical to each other and are streets ahead of those mentioned above. Not as revealing as dearer Thetas, but pretty good all the same.

Find a decent Chroma and make sure it has the connections required and you'd be happy.

No USB on any of these though.

My findings of the Theta Pro Progeny A, Which was around £1700 with the add on bits was sold in favour of, to my ears, and indeed many others here (Hi Jerry! ) the superior sounding Bushmaster.

[brian2957]

Maplins do a decent little DAC for £36 . Excellent for dipping your toe in the water.http://mobile.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?moduleno=504890

[Gazjam]

Second this one.

Aside form a loss of weight and a little bit of "Xfactor", it didn't sound crap compared to a Rega Dac.

Seriously good wee Dac.

[NRG]

http://hifimediy.com/index.php?route...&product_id=87

[Gazjam]

http://hifimediy.com/index.php?route...&product_id=87

Whoa..

[Gmanuk101]

cheers alll!!!

some good stuff to have a look at there, will take these links over his this evening and brainwash him

[Ali Tait]

Neal's link looks a bloody bargain.