Are there any DACs that can go low?

In your dreams. Any manufacturer that claims this is lying. Not possible.

Even small increments in jitter reduction at very low levels can be heard in a resolving system. See these jitter plots:

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=115008.20

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

So I was going to sell my Cary Audio Xciter DAC since

1. out of the box, the resolution (soundwise) on the Wyred4Sound DAC-2 that I got to replace it was slightly better

2. the Xciter's USB interface is its weak point, the W4S has asynchronous and is capable of 192

3. no remote (yes manufacturers, not all of us sit 2' from our gear).

In fact I HAD sold it, but the guy wanted $150 off AFTER the sale which I found weird, so I had him return it.

In the meantime I had added an Audiophilleo 2 to my W4S DAC-2. It did make the sound somewhat better on DAC-2. I had been pondering an Ayre QB-9 but had barely seen any difference between that (granted the original QB-9 version) and the W4S DAC-2 and the Audiophileo 2 in 3 weeks of testing.

Still that setup prompted me to this start thread. So many DACs to try

In the meantime I said to myself hmm if the Audiophilleo 2 has reputedly reduced jitter so much, what if I attach it to the Cary DAC, that has pretty good output stages right? Now my Cary SLP-03 was nowhere near as good as my Ayre K-5xeMP and like the SLP-03, the SLP-03 was an entry level Cary. I expected this to be disappointing. But, no whomp, there it is! Bass.

But no there it is base, a better soundstage It's all good.

I'll keep the W4S for TV and other lower fi sources and keep the Cary DAC on for computer sound.

Given how little the Cary Xciter is selling for these days, if you are interested in a USB DAC, this turned out to be a good way to go.

I guess the lesson is, check what's in your basement first, eh?

Uggg too early in the morning (and it's already 10! what gives?).

Plenty of typos in that one, but at least I'll correct one line that is particularly bad

and like the SLP-03, the Xciter was an entry level Cary

Interm... - The optimum way to use the W4S DAC2 is using I2S. The Off-Ramp 5 provides HDMI I2S output specifically for this. The reason that I2S sounds better I believe is that it bypasses the clocking that occurs with S/SDIF input to Sabre DAC.

Steve N.
Emporical Audio

Steve, that's interesting. Then again, I think that the output stages of the Cary may be better than on the DAC-2 and that makes a huge difference.