Best DAC for Pink Faun? Aqua formula xHD, dCS Vivaldi, or TotalDAC d1-unity? Thanks in advance!

[OZ996]

Would love your suggestion for DAC for my Pink Faun 2.16 ultra.

Still not decide which DAC is best for Pink Faun. Read some posts and feel like Aqua formula xHD, dCS Vivaldi, TotalDAC d1-unity may match. Any insights, opinion or experience sharing from masters here?

Background:

Already got a new Avantgarde UnoSD. Pick up DarTZeel combo (18ns+108b). Considering CJ’s new Art combo (88+150) and Kuzbass XL for my vinyl collection. Audio room is in my basement of 170 sqt with 9 feet tall.

As for the music genre, big fan of classics such as Bach and Vivaldi. So no modern music and very rare vocal.

 

[Another Johnson]

Me? I’m pretty happy with my lowly Rossini Apex ring DAC and its resident streamer.

 

[OZ996]

Me? I’m pretty happy with my lowly Rossini Apex ring DAC and its resident streamer.

Many thanks Johnson for your sharing. Cannot say Rossini is lowly pack. Are you using the Rossini player with all in one box?

 

[ChrisTaiwan]

HORIZON!!!!

 

[andromedaaudio]

Apart from the WADAX which is fantastic , the metronome would probably be what i d buy.

AQWO DAC Switchable outputstage SS and Tubes sounded fantastic in Munchen

 

[andromedaaudio]

Me? I’m pretty happy with my lowly Rossini Apex ring DAC and its resident streamer.

The info aint right the Wadax aint 59000 $$ US afaik

 

[DasguteOhr]

Apart from the WADAX which is fantastic , the metronome would probably be what i d buy.

AQWO DAC Switchable outputstage SS and Tubes sounded fantastic in Munchen


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+1

 

[Zappadaddy]

Pacific 2 cause It brought Pink Faun to very different level of undigital teritory

 

[skids929]

Would love your suggestion for DAC for my Pink Faun 2.16 ultra.

Still not decide which DAC is best for Pink Faun. Read some posts and feel like Aqua formula xHD, dCS Vivaldi, TotalDAC d1-unity may match. Any insights, opinion or experience sharing from masters here?

Background:

Already got a new Avantgarde UnoSD. Pick up DarTZeel combo (18ns+108b). Considering CJ’s new Art combo (88+150) and Kuzbass XL for my vinyl collection. Audio room is in my basement of 170 sqt with 9 feet tall.

As for the music genre, big fan of classics such as Bach and Vivaldi. So no modern music and very rare vocal.

Which DAC did you end up with?

 

[OZ996]

Which DAC did you end up with?

Actually haven’t decided yet. I tried the ones mentioned before but like CH1.2 the best. Unfortunately, it is a bit over my $20K budget . So most likely I will buy JCF Audio’s Latte, a pro AD/DA, for now. And wait for Wadax’s new Studio DAC. Any suggestion? Thanks.

 

[skids929]

Actually haven’t decided yet. I tried the ones mentioned before but like CH1.2 the best. Unfortunately, it is a bit over my $20K budget . So most likely I will buy JCF Audio’s Latte, a pro AD/DA, for now. And wait for Wadax’s new Studio DAC. Any suggestion? Thanks.

I would highly suggest looking at Totaldac..The Biunity is in your budget. I have the Triunity and it's the best DAC I've ever heard. He allows a few weeks to listen to it so if you don't like it you can send back. It's a great ecosystem too, fully upgradeable and he has reclockers and streamers etc if you wanted to go that route.

I am awestruck every time I listen to my system now and I was on that DAC listening journey for a while.

 

[Golum]

You may also ping @ClarisysAudio i.e. Florian as he has first hand experience with several DACs with PF Ultra like TOTL Soulution, Lampi Horizon, Amber 4 and most likely something else as well...

 

[flkin]

This thread is about DAC choices for the Pink Faun. Just want to point out that I have found the bridge card in the streamer to be very significant also. Anyone with their Ultra streamer and is using USB as the connecting method should consider the new Ultra USB bridge card too. Big improvement over both the older v1/OCXO and the v2 cards, more like a major component upgrade and might be a viable option/addition to a DAC switch.

 

[Loco57]

Good evening, I auditioned an Aqua Formula XHD V2 dac in my system and the greatest praise I can give this unit is it just sounds right but really needs 500+ hours to hit it's best even though it sounded great from the start. It is a real hairs up on the back of the neck good, through my Stax SRL 700 MK2/SRM ti MK2 driver & ED1 combo it is an almost religious experience. Add in the Aqua Linc Q + I2s cable and you have a truly world class setup that would give any cost no object alternative a hard time time justifying the cost difference it really is that good. Direct comparison against a well known Silver spec Greek dac costing many multiples of its cost it was embarrassing a comment by all who were present and collectively vastly more experience of mega $ systems than myself.

 

[Dunc69]

Me? I’m pretty happy with my lowly Rossini Apex ring DAC and its resident streamer.

That's the price for the streamer, the dac is over $160000.

 

[Another Johnson]

That's the price for the streamer, the dac is over $160000.

As others have pointed out. Also, the prices in old YouTube videos don’t auto-update.

 

[Billygxx]

You should consider Aires Cerat DACs.,

 

[lordcloud]

You should consider Aires Cerat DACs.,

I was going to suggest this.

 

[gionaz]

TOTALDAC… your research path ends here..

 

[clearsound]

TOTALDAC… your research path ends here..

I agree my new totaldac triunity + sublime reclocker sounds amazing