Best Vintage Dac??

Mike - Curious what you mean when you say "vintage".  DACs are a somewhat newer technical development.  "Newer" being truest, I suppose, relative to them as standalone devices.  I usually associate vintage with something old...say, mftd.  25 years ago or more.   Since DAC technology has been advancing rapidly, I'm not certain how well served you would be with a "vintage" DAC, whatever that means.  Of course, giving an idea about your budget will help with better quality suggestions.  Regardless, this link might be of some interest.

http://www.head-fi.org/t/404357/old-dacs 

If small, affordable and newer is of any interest, you might find a device from Audioquest (Dragonfly), iFi or Schiit a good choice.    

Good luck in your search.  

Hey ghosthouse - remember Audio Alchemy?  1980's...
I owned the entire line up at the time. Quite good in it's day.

N

EAD DSP-7000 is champion.

EAD DSP-7000 is champion.

+1  as long as it's the MKIII version.  Great DAC!

the Audio quest dragon fly blows the doors of my  MSB Link3 i would stick with something newer I agree with ghosthouse

I just purchase the Elears as well, but went with Ayre Codex for the DAC.  Only a week breakin so far, but I do like what I'm hearing.

But to answer your question I  might look towards a Musical Fidelity Tri-Vista DAC

Why the hell would you want a vintage DAC...??! There are so many excellent modern budget DACs...

In the past i’ve owned a California Audio Lab’s (CAL) Alpha, a Audio Alchemy Digital Decoding Engine v10 (DAC) and a Musical Fidelity Tri-Vista. These days they are all considered very vintage. Of the three, the Tri-Vista was the better, followed by the CAL Alpha, yet the AA DAC was pretty good, looking back.

Of the 3 the Audio Alchemy device may have the lowest current value.

The strange thing is, I never sold the CAL or the AA and have them stored away.

get a msb link dac 3 try to getit with the upsampling card and upgraded power supply ..i have used mine for cd playback for years its a great 24/96 dac 

When I read "vintage DAC", I think Apogee AD/DA -- Duet 1, Rosetta, etc.  

Benchmark DAC 1 is a great DAC for the money.  It also doubles as a preamp and headphone amp.

Ha my DAC was built in 95 I guess that makes it vintage. Sounds great to me and not going anywhere. AN DAC-3 Signature if you can find one.

Museatex Bitstream is my fav DAC. About 25 years old. I purchased it few months ago and enjoying it very much. 

A vintage DAC is not something you might want.  It was in its infancy and had many problems in the early years.

Museatex Bidat or Bitstream dac.  I will never get rid of either of them.  The Bidat is in the main rig and have been using the Bitstream on the cans.