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Thread: DAC suggestions or solutions

  1. #1
    Join Date: Jan 2016

    Location: Argyll and Bute

    Posts: 460
    I'm Colin.

    Default DAC suggestions or solutions

    Current set up is a Schiit Saga with Prima Luna valve amp. MF cdp which I am going to send off for some servicing and tweaks. Plus an Apple airport and a Technics 1210 tt. What I would like to do is add a DAC one which I can run the Apple to on optical cable and take a coax from the cdp. Don’t need volume control and front controls would be useful. I did think about getting a Peachtree as I had one before and liked it. But also wondered if two units could be connected in line so that if selecting the cdp it goes through the dac without any switching etc. So any suggestions, obviously looking to improve sound quality on the way. Budget say £150 - 200

    Colin

  2. #2
    Join Date: Jan 2008

    Location: gone

    Posts: 11,519
    I'm gone.

    Default

    If you are after a clean, clear, detailed sound then a Topping D30 is very hard to beat for that sort of money, imho.

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Topping-D30...K7EMHWMHXH1899
    .

  3. #3
    Join Date: May 2010

    Location: Worcestershire, UK

    Posts: 1,101
    I'm Rob.

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    I've got a Peachtree DAC-IT that I'm not doing anything with. It been superseded in my system by a Bryston DAC. I've been meaning to put it into my study system, but could be persuaded to part with it.
    Rob.
    Powered by crossed fingers and clenched buttocks

  4. #4
    Join Date: Jan 2016

    Location: Argyll and Bute

    Posts: 460
    I'm Colin.

    Default

    Pm with

  5. #5
    Join Date: Jan 2016

    Location: Argyll and Bute

    Posts: 460
    I'm Colin.

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    Pm with you Rob and thanks having a look at the topping.

    COLIN

  6. #6
    Join Date: May 2008

    Location: U.S.A. Neo-Socialist Kalifornski

    Posts: 3,262

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    If I where looking for a new DAC it would be a Border patrol SE.

    http://www.borderpatrol.net/DAC.htm

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luzW78dp9DY
    Jeff :UBERTHREADKILLER

  7. #7
    Join Date: Jan 2016

    Location: Argyll and Bute

    Posts: 460
    I'm Colin.

    Default

    Yes very nice and a good choice but unfortunately just outside my budget.

    Colin

  8. #8
    Join Date: Jan 2019

    Location: Liverpool

    Posts: 277
    I'm Andrew.

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    I think much depends on your view if DAC's can change the sound or not . For many if a DAC measures well then it will sound identical to any other DAC with similar measurements. My view is that this is not always the case . I seem to have accumulated a small nest of DACS with at least two full sets of Perpetual Technology PA-1 / PA-3 units , A Metrum Quad DAC with octave Power Supply , Ah-me DAC01 , Cambridge Dacmagic mk 11 (original early eighties full size unit .

    In my view they all sound different and I like all of them for various reasons . However with the current configurations I now have in my main and spare room systems they are all redundant and currently live in a large wooden chest in my spare room . I should I suppose get the listed and sold but to many other things to do at the moment .

    Colin I am based in Liverpool if you are anywhere near drop me a PM as I would be more than happy to left you borrow any of these units so you can just hear what a DAC can do as you want . They may not be your final solution but it would at least let you try out and see if the configuration you are looking for works.

    Sorry Colin just looked at your location and you are not at all close to Liverpool . I do however drive up for a break in Dornack to see friends so if you are interested I can let you know next time I am driving up and we could meet .

  9. #9
    Join Date: Jan 2016

    Location: Argyll and Bute

    Posts: 460
    I'm Colin.

    Default

    Thanks Andrew appreciate the offer, I have found in the past that the DACs I have preferred have the sabre chip,it may be a coincidence who knows hence the Peachtree. The Topping is of interest and wondered if anyone has experience of the DACMagic 100?. I am similar in that I have never been particularly bothered about make more sound.
    Colin

  10. #10
    Join Date: May 2008

    Location: U.S.A. Neo-Socialist Kalifornski

    Posts: 3,262

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    I have gone through a few Dac's and have discovered a few things in the process, the biggest lesson I got was with a very affordable Little Dot DAC 1 from China, You could switch sample rates and had a choice of sharp or smooth in the digital filter , yes, you could actually switch between 2 options for final filtering! as well as select the bit rate.
    I learned a lot with that Dac and found the actual chip is not nearly as important as everything else around it and coming after it.
    And that more restitution is not always more enjoyable to listen to, Sometimes to move forward you have to take a step back and this is the hardest thing for an Audiophile to do!
    Lets face it if we didn't love the equipment we would not be on this forum,right...
    Sometimes we end up with a final result so sharply detailed that you can't play a lot of your favorite CD's because they get picked apart and dissected by an over resolving system and in the end it's just not musical anymore.
    You reach a point where if it is not a perfect recording it sounds like crap, now all you can listen to is a few Chesky CD's over and over while the music you want to hear sounds like crap after all the money you put out on the latest Dac that won the arms race of the year for the best specs. Some times less is more, and that goes against everything we have heard from nearly every hifi guru in every hifi magazine and our own human nature.

    I am not saying go cheap but what I am saying is forget specs and just listen to several CD's before making up your mind ,forget trying to crawl up into a certain singer from Fleetwood Macs deviated septum when she sings and just listen to the song and if you start to feel goose bumps and your foot starts to tap, thats your DAC. Everything else is Bullshit.

    The DAC I have now was reasonably priced and it came after the Little Dot 1 , I have the 1st edition Jolida FX Glass Tube DAC . It is nothing remarkable and dose not use a popular chip 1793 TI it can sample16,20 and up to 24 bits at 192 Hz. It dose use very good capacitors and ceramic resistors. It 's output stage is 2 x 12AX7 Tunsol Golds right now, It has slightly less pronounced midrange than with Genalex Gold Lion B57's but the Tungsols do a better job at dynamics and gets the toes tapping and like I said before if the music dose not move you in a good way and keep you listening, something is wrong in your lash up.
    The jolida was near $400.00 new and if you find one used it is a very musical option, I may at some point spring for the Boarder patrol se, but I am hesitate to mess up what is working very well.
    The thing I don't like is it is 8x over sampling , I would prefer 1x.
    Last edited by goraman; 09-02-2019 at 20:47.
    Jeff :UBERTHREADKILLER

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