Should I upgrade DAC, speaker cables, ICs, or PCs?

Lewinskih01, first of all, what do you feel is missing in your system sonically?

In terms of upgrade logic and order of importance, I place speakers first. After that, its a wash. I used to think the source was next but after farting around with Dale Pitcher's latest PC offering with its proprietary filtering technology, I am less sure. I have had several friends with midlevel CDPs who had their system transformed by that cord. If source is where you want to fiddle, there is a myriad of ways to go. I own the Zardoz which is very nice. I have heard the Mojo Audio DAC and it also has a nice "analog" presentation. Another friend of my has been bewitched by a relatively inexpensive NOS DAC from VALABS ($200) recently. Whether to go NOS or with an upsampler is a whole other matter. It comes down to sonic preference. Another friend owns the Weiss Minerva and is in love with it. I will be doing a shootout with my Z and the Berkley DAC in July and that should be interesting. Anyway, your system is a living entity if you will and all the parts work together. There is no one right answer.

Blindjim: Thanks for the thoughtful post. I'm adding the Lavry DA10 to the list. Looking at your system I see you also have a tubed pre and amp.

After going through several threads I'm wondering about jitter immunity. For over a year until I can get into either computer audio or upgrade my transport I will need to use my Rotel RCD1072 CD player through coax as source to the DAC. Does anyone have a point of view in terms of jitter immunity from Lavry, Benchmark, Bel Canto, Bryston, Weiss DAC2, or PS PWD?

Thank you!

In terms of jitter, the benchmark and bel canto are much higher jitter than the weiss or PWD. The Weiss is a very nice DAC, but if you're looking in that price range you're better off going with a TC Studio Konnect 48 or a Prism Sound Orpheus (which is what I own). The TC and Prism are leaps ahead of the other DACs listed in terms of jitter reduction and clocking... granted, they will take a little more work to play audio (well worth it in my opinion). I heard the Stahl-Tek Vekian the other day, which is an awesome piece of gear and personally preferred my Prism's more natural, less "hifi" sound... detail retrieval was identical between the two units. I did not do a comparison side by side, however, so the comparison isn't 100% fair.

Lewinskih01

I thought I had posted reviews here on the ‘gon about both the Lavry DA10 & Bel Canto DAC III. Just now looking back at them, I see only the BC D3’s appraisal.

Apparently the Lavry article has gone missing or been deleted.

Read through that BC review and you should get a better feel for what it does, but also check out the other reviews online, especially the Stereophile review.

In the Lavry account I made the allegory between the two something like this::

I felt the BCD3 was the Dodge Viper, and the Lavry DA 10 perhaps a BMW 500 series. Both will get you there however the ride is different. The Viper being more exhilarating. the BMW being the more svelte.

My Knowledge base and equipment levels have both been increased since that two year old paper was issued. Other gear has come and some items are no longer here. The BCD3 remains.

Different software is now in use, a different interface as well, and I’m 98% PC based music via server. I don’t use USB or SPDIF, but BNC to feed the BCD3.

The Vaunted Sony 777 was sold. Why? I get as good and often far better audio now from the hard drive based arrangement I currently use…. IMHO. Otherwise, I’d sure have kept it.

The better the drive, the better the results will be when attached to a good DAC that controls jitter. BNC & AES are the least jittery interfaces. Consequently I use the Hiface as a USB to BNC converter with an Oyaide BNC silver cable. Things have not been better!

Shortly after my posting on the BCD3 Stereophile’s JA published his review and measurements on the D3. he counted the jitter from each interface too. Check out that article… in it he mentions that the BC DAC3 was at that point the best measured device he had yet to test.

Jitter is key. A very big deal! It’s not the ONLY deal though but it’s way up on the list. The BC d3 does a great job on jitter reduction. Given it’s current preowned selling price, the fact it can be upgraded by BEL CANTO to higher levels after the fact, I find it still a great value and now more than before.

But to frustrate you again, it is your call, and some other DAC might well suit your needs. So that’s your call.

If as with the Lavry, some of those mentioned herein have generous return policies, and you have the cash up front, I’d say go on and audition some. Trying a couple or three, costs then only the shipping, perhaps no more than $100 over them all…. If that.

I have made my choice and am fine with it. Still.

Would I be in the hunt for another DAC had I more funds?

Probably.

But THAT price tag would be severely higher, literally by a few grand. As the review I read recently at CA on the Weiss 202 interests me…. But $6500.00?

Nope. Not here anytime soon.

There also would be no guarantee for better. Only the unspoken warranty for different. Which is always the case with audio gear and accounts so much for the exact same piece being in two different systems in two different peoples homes, and them both saying entirely different things about the same identical unit!... as you’ll see in my BC review if you read thru the comments too.

Good luck