Let's Get A Consensus Of The Best DAC's In The Market Today

[aston456]

Hi guys,
thanks for the friendly feedback to my humble post.
Funnily nobody asked about the rest of my equipment.
I am a fan of active loudspeakers and own a pair of three way studio speakers called ME Geithain RL 922 K http://www.me-geithain.de/index.php/de/studio/produkte/aktiv-lautsprecher/rl922k .
They are ugly as hell but really do the trick.

I really don´t understand this:

But big 7 is a different design, it is a DHT dac, that allows much more higher quality NOS valves than what are used in normal valve equipment like lower levels of Lampi

What is a DHT dac?
Thanks!
Cheers
Kai

 

[aston456]

Hi guys,

thank you for the friendly comments on my humble post.

Funnily nobody asked about the rest of my equipment.
The rest is a rather short story:
After the Lampi comes a pair of active three way studio speakers called ME Geithain RL 922K http://www.me-geithain.de/index.php/de/studio/produkte/aktiv-lautsprecher/rl922k
They are ugly as hell but do the trick.
Question:
What is a

a DHT dac

?

Cheers
Kai

 

[Audiophile Bill]

Bill yes ultimately the indivuidual chooses his preference, I was fortunate enough to compare at length an over sampling Weiss design with a NOS Kondo dac , the differences were profound, the Kondo rolled off both treble and bass, and in doing so emphasised the midrange,
Keith.

I think that is typically the Kondo voicing to a certain extent. Kondo has always sounded rich and warm to me which is not surprising given your treble roll off observation. I would not assume that these dacs all sound the same though - the GG sounds quite different depending on whether you use a 101d, 45 or 300b as an example.

 

[bonzo75]

Hi Keith maybe we misunderstood you the first few hundred times. Please tell us again how all valves sound bad, especially the ones you have not heard

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Valves don't sound bad, quite the opposite 2nd level harmonic distortion is often referred to as euphoric.

Only if you run the grids too high. Usually, they are merely euphonic. :b

 

[robb]

I am very very happy with my Rowland Aeris.

 

[Doak]

And I´ve only listened to Redbook until now which I probably will continue since I don´t see any advantage of DSD.

Kai

You don't SEE an advantage with DSD, you HEAR it - particularly with your Lampi, that's its FORTE.
Try it, you'll like it.

 

[MarinJim]

I am with Anthony Cordesman on this one. DSD is just hyped flavor of the moment.

 

[wisnon]

I am with Anthony Cordesman on this one. DSD is just hyped flavor of the moment.

Have you listened to DSD done right?

It is at least equal to the best PCM done right.

 

[Doak]

I am with Anthony Cordesman on this one. DSD is just hyped flavor of the moment.

 

[KeithR]

Valves don't sound bad, quite the opposite 2nd level harmonic distortion is often referred to as euphoric.
It is still distortion though, it is possible to make a valve amp which measures as well ( almost) as solid state, but it will sound like a solid state amp.
Keith.

Respectively, no it wont. And most ss amps use feedback which adds a layer of odd order harmonics, so its not a tube amp simply adding second harmonic. Bryston is the perfect example.

Also, there are plenty of good measuring tube amps. I personally think there are good examples of both topologies and its up to the individual which distortion they prefer. In fact, Nelson Pass writes about this in his white paper on feedback:

https://passlabs.com/articles/audio-distortion-and-feedback

 

[Jond]

Ok so I'm new here and could only make it through like 11 pages of this thread and didn't see the DAC I own mentioned so thought I would throw it out there, Yamamoto YDA-1. It's pretty low-tech all things considered and completely featureless one spdif input a pair of RCA outputs so its probably not on most folks radar, but if you can live without USB, DSD, etc it's a lively colorful DAC that's a bargain for $2500 retail.

 

[MtnHam]

Let's Get A Consensus Of The Best DAC's In The Market Today.

It will never happen!!

 

[Geardaddy]

Let's Get A Consensus Of The Best DAC's In The Market Today.

It will never happen!!

Well, you can it will change from month to month....

 

[Ken Newton]

I very much doubt that such a consus could be obtained for even one day, let alone one month.

 

[Jond]

Actually not true its a consensus of the best Dac(s) not Dac, so if we simply list them all bam we have a consensus! Right?

 

[khonfused]

Question:
What is a DHT ?

Cheers
Kai

Direct Heated Triode.

Cheers

 

[Ken Newton]

Actually not true its a consensus of the best Dac(s) not Dac, so if we simply list them all bam we have a consensus! Right?

A concensus is, general agreement. While a general agreememt would be far more likely than a unanimous agreement, what would be the valid basis for such an agreement? How likely is it that everyone will have heard all of the candidate top DAC units, I think that there's very little likelihood of that? Most of us are likely to be left agreeing based on price or reputation, but not on any actual listening experience. Even those rare few of us who may have experience with all of the candidate units will not have that experience under the same conditions or in the same system. That's why I've before suggested that the very question is essentially without meaning.

 

[dallasjustice]

A concensus is, general agreement. While a general agreememt would be far more likely than a unanimous agreement, what would be the valid basis for such an agreement? How likely is it that everyone will have heard all of the candidate top DAC units, I think that there's very little likelihood of that? Most of us are likely to be left agreeing based on price or reputation, but not on any actual listening experience. Even those rare few of us who may have experience with all of the candidate units will not have that experience under the same conditions or in the same system. That's why I've before suggested that the very question is essentially without meaning.

I agree. Since Steve is the OP, Steve should buy all WBF posters the top five most mentioned DACs in this thread. Steve, I start off with the DCS Vivaldi.

In reality, it's been my experience that folks will generally say the DAC they own is the best. I'm no exception to that rule. So soliciting opinions like this isn't very helpful. There are a few things that should be generally accepted about DACs at this time:

1. DAC technology is constantly changing. Sometimes those changes constitute a real improvement based on genuinely new DAC design.
2. There can be the lowest correlation between DAC price and actual DAC performance in total musical enjoyment. For example, the difference between a really good $2,000 pair of speakers and a really good pair of $60,000 pair of speakers will be MUCH bigger in terms of sound quality improvement than a similar DAC counterpart comparison. DACs just don't have as much variability in price/performance as some other parts of the system.
3. There seems to be a relationship between numbers one and two above. I think this may be true partly because of the number crunching part of these devices. There are new and different filters along with new converter designs coming out all the time. If one wants to invest in the most expensive "new" DAC, that's their choice. But I think it's better to be patient.

 

[LL21]

I agree, Dallasjustice. The last big piece of the puzzle for me was the digital. Speakers, preamp, amp all came first beyond a doubt. During those upgrades and changes, i had a $60 Daewoo DVD player that did double-duty for movies and audio source for YEARS...and after many trials of ever-increasing quality (and priced) digital...i remained unconvinced to spend a nickel more. Then along came the DCS Elgar Plus, but, even then, i could never quite convince myself to actually buy one 2nd hand. Eventually, along came Zanden digital second hand, and i have once again been perfectly happen to stop looking, other than to keep track for fun and to keep learning.