Best DAC ?

Oooooh! The best-est DAC in the whole world???
I'm Thinkin' Theta, ARC, DCS.

Ayre QB-9 DSD if in the budget. Amazing with DSD upgrade.

Berkeley Alpha DAC 2 w/ USB smokes nearly anything made, holds it own against 100,000 dollars analog set up. A very good pre amp is needed however for this to happen.

To Vhiner,

There are huge differences in dacs, I have a number of great dacs on display and I would say that comment is ludicrous, I have not heard the $43,000 MSB but if the Marantz is that close then perhaps the MSB is not that good?

I have many high quality dacs on display from $400 to $22,000 and every step up makes a huge difference.

Now I would say there are dacs's which sound amazing and come very close to more expensive dacs, the Auralic Vega at $3,500.00 does offer much of the sound quality of the $7,000.00Meitner MA 1 which is still better, the $15k EMM Labs Dac 2X is way better than the $7k Meitner MA 1, now if you are comparing the EMM Labs Dac 2X vs the $22k Esoteric D02 then if comes down to personal taste.

So in summation, there are very good affordable dacs the Auralic Vega, and there are amazing expensive dacs, The EMM Labs Dac 2X is you hear them in the same system the EMM Labs Dac is in a totally different league.

John Atkinson published a rave review of the MSB this year. I suppose the
$3500 Marantz DAC embarrassing the MSB in the same publication
*might* mean the MSB sucks, but others might come to an entirely different
conclusion.

But who am *I* to argue with the AUDIOORACLE. He has spoken. ;-)

In the meantime, it's worth reviewing the writings of Anthony Cordesman,
which appear in the Absolute Sound. On at least three occassions during
the past three years, he has commented in print about how close the
humble PS Audio MKII DAC comes to products from the much vaunted
houses of Boulder, Meitner and other justifiably famous digital designers.
Robert Harley, Cordesman's publisher, continues to sing the praises of the
Berkley DAC.

While both writers acknowledge that the Meitner flagship belongs at the top
of the heap, to their credit, neither reviewer waxes on about how many of
the uber expensive DACs are leaps and bounds better because (with a
very few exceptions) they are simply not.

You want to hear leaps and bounds? Spend $100k plus on something like
the latest dCS stack. You still might wish you'd spent that money on a
better room or better speakers.