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A DAC that crushes price vs. performance ratio

I felt strongly that I wanted to inform the Gon members about a new DAC that ranks with the very best on the market regarding performance, but costs around $2,000.00.  The Lab12 DAC1 SE was compared to three reference level DACS that retail for over $12.000.00 in my review for hometheaterreview.com and was at least on the same level sonicly, if not better.  This DAC from Greece is not just "good for the money" but competes with virtually anything on the market regardless of price!

For all the details about the Lab12 DAC1 SE performance and what other DACS it was compared to take a look at the review.  If you are shopping/looking for a new digital front end to drive your system, you owe it to yourself to check this DAC out, unless you like to spend tons of more $ without getting better performance.
teajay
roxy54's avatar
roxy54
2,651 posts
 
captelee,
I'm sure that the ifi pro is a good modern DAC, I just went to the website and had a look, but to me, there is nothing that compares to the natural sound of a good, non oversampling DAC like the Lab 12.
genez
134 posts
 
I checked out online some pictures of the The Lab12 DAC1 SE...
It does not even offer balanced capacity.  Not an XLR output to be found.. A DAC like the Yggdrasil being fronted by a good tube preamp should produce more accurate sound...
wcfeil
464 posts
 
>>Not an XLR output to be found..<<

Irrelevant. 
captelee's avatar
captelee
9 posts
 
The iFi Pro iDSD DAC "may" oversample if you choose that option, but it is certainly not recommended. I've never heard any DAC that can compare to the iFi Pro iDSD, regardless of the costs.

charles1dad's avatar
charles1dad
6,996 posts
 
Agree wholeheartedly with wcfeil. It'd be difficult to find a more irrelevant factor in my opinion than lack of an XLR output and its effect on component accuracy. 
Charles 
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