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Mid-priced warm sounding DAC?

I've recently decided that a good route for me to take is upgrading my system with a good DAC. My current system is a bit bright sounding, so I'm looking for a good DAC costing up to $600 (used) that will provide a smooth, warm sound to match my currently bright system. I'd also like the DAC to be capable of upsampling, although if necessary I could add an upsampler to the digital chain at a later time. My preference would be to have it built-in, however.

Any suggestions?
jwglista
teajay
1,333 posts
 
I would strongly suggest you audtion a BEL CANTO DAC2. A audiophile buddy just went through an audtioning process and purchased a demo unit for under $900.00. It upsamples to 24/192 and is warm and musical but still detailed and has very good dynamics. It might be just alittle more than you want to spend but it might be just what your looking for in your system. Hope this helps.
jsala
99 posts
 
I like the Scott Nixon Tube Dac. It is a non-oversampling dac. Scott supplies it with a Philips Miniwatt 6922, I prefer the Siemens 7308 which isn't expensive but produces clearly smoother sound. Price of the Tube Dac, brand new, is $475. If you're not into tubes, then the Chibi Dac is just $250. Down the road, you could convert the Chibi Dac to run off battery power (Vinnie Rossi of Red Wine Audio does this), which will give you the cleanest power possible.

I find that non-oversampling dacs sound very coherent and have more refined top ends than most oversampling dacs. They can fall a bit short in terms of bottom octave bass but they reward you with a beautiful natural midrange and refined treble.
dopogue
1,767 posts
 
I agree about non-oversampling dacs and suggest that you consider one of the battery-powered Ack dAck models selling in the $300 range on Audiogon. These are the l.0 to l.3 versions (the new model is 2.0) and one could be easily resold at little loss if you don't like it. The last paragraph of Jsala's post applies perfectly to these dacs too. Good luck.
ptmconsulting
1,000 posts
 
Here's a link to another NOS DAC.

http://www.diyparadise.com/dackit/1545dackit.html

It's a kit, sort of. You buy the completed board for about $140, shipped, then purchase a 12V rechargeable, sealed lead acid battery from here for about $25 shipped:

http://www.batterymart.com/battery.mv?c=sla-12volt

You need to put it all into a case and ... there you go.

I've got about 50 hours on mine and the mids are sounding wonderful. The bass is deep and tight. The top end is a bit retiscent, but that's what you're looking for. I've got the opposite problem, a soft sounding system, so I'm hoping it will open up more over time.

Overall though, it does sound quite good and for less than $200 it's a no-brainer.

Enjoy,
Bob
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