WTD - Dac

[Lee Henley]

Morning all, Im now in the market for a Dac and putting the feelers out on here to see if anyone has anything available. I have a budget of around £900 to spend. I would prefer to have a Dac with valves if possible. I may yet decide to buy a brand new Eastern Electric Dac plus as this is just out side my budget but I could stretch to it!

Drop me a PM if you have anything suitable.

As a bit of background these are the Dacs I have previously owned

Dacmagic 2 - Very good for the money but again the sound is probably a bit too much up front for me.
EE Tube Dac - Had this for a short while when I was a Naim user, although this was a nice dac I never really gave it a chance and sent it back
M2Tech Young - Only sold it becuase the wife wanted a cd player
8200 CDQ - Brought to replace the Young but feel that the Audiolab sound is not for me

My vinyl rig is what is played the most and I do like the sound of the EAR 834P modded phono stage with the Spacedeck / OL Live arm / Rondo Bronze combo, if I could find a Dac to sound anything like this I would be happy but I doubt I will!

As far as transports go I have a mac mini and an old Sony DVD player with coax out, I may consider buying a better transport depending on what dac I decide to get.

All the best

Lee

[synsei]

I'm fascinated to hear that you found the DacMagic 2 to be a little 'up front' Lee because in my system the DM2 did not shine at all, in fact I found it to be dull and uninvolving :eyebrows:

[Dominic Harper]

Well if you fancy taking a trip up to Preston, come and have a listen to the Dac I put together. I can certainly build you one within your budget if you like it.

[walpurgis]

I'm fascinated to hear that you found the DacMagic 2 to be a little 'up front' Lee because in my system the DM2 did not shine at all, in fact I found it to be dull and uninvolving :eyebrows:

Yes, I got the same somewhat dull and indifferent results with the three different DacMagics I tried. If yours was a bit forward in your system, you'll need to be very careful choosing your new DAC, as it sounds as though you have a rather revealing or even bright sound system balance. Definitely home audition I reckon.

[Lee Henley]

Yes, I got the same somewhat dull and indifferent results with the three different DacMagics I tried. If yours was a bit forward in your system, you'll need to be very careful choosing your new DAC, as it sounds as though you have a rather revealing or even bright sound system balance. Definitely home audition I reckon.

Just to clear things up here, at the time when I had the DM I had a Naim system, which would probably explain the reason :rolleyes:

[val]

I have upgraded Havana dac with different valves ...

[Lee Henley]

I have upgraded Havana dac with different valves ...

Which model

[MCRU]

hello mate
get your mits on next month's hifi choice as the mdac is in it with mine and nick's psu, cannot reveal how it did but I reckon the m-dac and the psu will beat most dac's up to £5k, IMO of course!

other's will no doubt post they don't like the m-dac for whatever reason but I have one here you can borrow along with the psu

martin johnson on here has it as do others. the m-dac is £520 ish now so a bit of a bargain I reckon

[Lee Henley]

hello mate
get your mits on next month's hifi choice as the mdac is in it with mine and nick's psu, cannot reveal how it did but I reckon the m-dac and the psu will beat most dac's up to £5k, IMO of course!

other's will no doubt post they don't like the m-dac for whatever reason but I have one here you can borrow along with the psu

martin johnson on here has it as do others. the m-dac is £520 ish now so a bit of a bargain I reckon

Hiya Dave

I was wanting to try something different this time, I've just sold my CDQ which has similar sounds to the M-Dac, I really want to go tube based this time, something like

Eastern Electric plus
Audio Note
Lampizator level 2
Jolida Glass FX

Lee

[John]

This looks interesting http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MP-D1-24Bit-USB-Asynchronous-Digital-to-Analog-Converter-DAC-/290840081828?pt=US_Home_Audio_Amplifiers_Preamps&hash=item43b76b75a4

[Ali Tait]

Nick is currently working on a valve dac. Not sure of e.t.a. but it will be worth waiting for. I will be certainly be buying one.

[MCRU]

Nick is currently working on a valve dac. Not sure of e.t.a. but it will be worth waiting for. I will be certainly be buying one.

I am first :ner:

[Ali Tait]

Ner ner!