Your favourite DAC?

[User211]

MF Tri-Vista 21

Still use it .Don't like the half hour warm up though.

Want to try a MF M1

Same DAC stage as my Tri-Vista SACD. I've not heard a DAC with better subjective speed and grip in the bass region.

Loved and hated it (reliability) for years.

[Reffc]

Jerry brought round a little TEAC DAC for a minor repair yesterday. Was mightily impressed. Not quite up there with the clarity or resolution of the Jolida DAC but not far off either. After hearing a lot of DACs recently, I'm most definitely in favour of valve output stage DACs as there's some scope to tune the sound, a valve buffer/output almost always sounds better to my ears than an op-amp stage and if NOS (non over-sampling), all the better. All very much against what technical purity might suggest but the ears have helped come to that conclusion.

[r100]

I am eyeing the Yulong DA8, the Mytek 192 and tha Anedio D2 because they all have line level volume control and balanced outputs.

[Aussie1]

I have had a Eastern Electric Tube Dac plus for a few months and am really enjoying it and would love to hear from any other people who use this dac.

[Welder]

I am eyeing the Yulong DA8, the Mytek 192 and tha Anedio D2 because they all have line level volume control and balanced outputs.

I liked the Mytek 192 but in the end the Benchmark was easier to use.

For sensible money I’m still a HRT fan. I think products like the basic streamer do more to introduce the chip based music consumers to better quality sound than all the discussions on the forums.

A Dac that does to my ears at least have a particular sound and isn’t silly money that I think performs beyond its price range is the Wavelength Proton.

Stellavox ST20 has to be on my list.

Benchmark Dac2 HGC. Well, I would wouldn’t I. I know it’s expensive, but I just haven’t heard anything better.

[Gromit]

Never owned anything particularly esoteric/hi-end (far from it) but have had, or tried in my system...

Cambridge DacMagic (Azur)
Cambridge DacMagic 100
Beresford 7510
Beresford 7520
Beresford Caiman
M2Tech Evo
TEAC UD-H01

Out of these, the best has been the TEAC but would love to compare it to (from memory) the Evo which was mightily impressive. All the others seemed to have a certain character which whilst great for a while, like an LP12 it started to bother me. The TEAC just seems to add or subtract nothing.

It was also the cheapest.

[Effem]

I've owned a good number of DACs over the years and I would say that it's the one component that I constantly box swapped.

Ranged from the MF Trivista, a procession of NOS DACs, a Meridian 5 series, a White Noise NOS DAC shipped from Argentina with a hole drilled in the mains transformer (), a couple of valve output ones like Conrad Johnson and an extremely rare Anodyne two-box one, but my all time favourites for sound quality are all cranky old 20 bit ones

Timbre TT1
PS Audio
Wadia
Entech
Monarchy Audio M22B

[walpurgis]

I just saw your comments Frank.

I've got the Monarchy Audio M22B (as you may know) and it is excellent. I'm awaiting the delivery of an M22C, for which I have high hopes!

I'd love to try a Wadia (or Mark Levinson). I've heard them, but never see one at a price that suits me.

[Effem]

I just saw your comments Frank.

I've got the Monarchy Audio M22B (as you may know) and it is excellent. I'm awaiting the delivery of an M22C, for which I have high hopes!

I'd love to try a Wadia (or Mark Levinson). I've heard them, but never see one at a price that suits me.

The M22 ranks as my second favourite Geoff, ahead of the Wadia much to my surprise. Top of the listings is the Timbre for it's detail, dynamics and "analogue" sound, but only just above the M22

[Yomanze]

I would love to try a Dax Decade, Threshold or Sonic Frontiers DAC or the LFD DAC3 with the UltraAnalog chips.