Best "bang for the buck" DAC

bazelio

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7k-8k ... I'd go for the Bricasti M1SE over the "inexpensive" Lampizators. It might need to be a used M1SE, but still doable. But then, I don't think I quite understand the love affair with Lampis either.
 

snopro

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Oct 1, 2012
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For $2500, I think the Audio Mirror Tubadour III SE is really good. Punches way above its price point!
 
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Imperial

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Mar 6, 2012
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Does second hand count .
Mark levinson 360S DAC , easily beats the much later designs like Meittner MA2 Wadia 581 i players which i owned regarding detail retrivial , bass definition , natural sounding , rhytm , it simply makes digital not sound digital , which is the highest compliment in my view .
The ML 360S might the best D/A ever made.
Reports online testify to its prowes in delivering within its resolution and noisefloor.

That awesome mark ii version the 'drive 1' that now is delivered by totaldac is the very finest buffer/driver yet produced any audio company in 2020..
 

sbnx

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$2k range — border patrol SE Or Schitt yggy.
4k—lampi amber 3
5k denefrips or lampi
8k+ — pick a Lampi model
10k — also the bricasti is nice
 

bonzo75

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7k-8k ... I'd go for the Bricasti M1SE over the "inexpensive" Lampizators. It might need to be a used M1SE, but still doable. But then, I don't think I quite understand the love affair with Lampis either.

You won't hear any difference between these dacs through a Raidho
 

Brucemck2

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May 10, 2010
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7k-8k ... I'd go for the Bricasti M1SE over the "inexpensive" Lampizators. It might need to be a used M1SE, but still doable. But then, I don't think I quite understand the love affair with Lampis either.

Latest Bricasti M3 is very nice. You can get it with a network card preinstalled (avoiding a bunch of upstream contraptions for streaming) and there is a very high quality intergrated headphone amplifer available as well. One box with a Roon (or similar) interface, fed via ethernet, perhaps with an EtherRegen or similar upstream to clean the ethernet feed.
 

sbnx

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You won't hear any difference between these dacs through a Raidho

It is bad form to speak ill of another person's speaker choice.
 
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bonzo75

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It is bad form to speak ill of another person's speaker choice.

The point is he commented on a dac he has not properly heard, never compared, at most heard at a show or used his tube output buffer generalization. That's bad form
 

bonzo75

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It is bad form to speak ill of another person's speaker choice.

And yes Raidho is my least liked product in all of hifi. I think the retail price is the price to pay someone to take it out of your room
 
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spiritofmusic

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Ked broke that rule early w me.
 

Empirical Audio

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www.empiricalaudio.com

bazelio

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The point is he commented on a dac he has not properly heard, never compared, at most heard at a show or used his tube output buffer generalization. That's bad form
Hahaha. Pot meet kettle. Who's generalizing here? You don't know when/where/how I've heard Lampi DACs. And I don't have Raidho speakers.
 

Al M.

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The point is he commented on a dac he has not properly heard, never compared, at most heard at a show or used his tube output buffer generalization. That's bad form

Oh my, you are so sensitive, Ked. Not everyone needs to like your favorite DAC, just like not everyone needs to be into your favorite other type of gear. While I'm also enthusiastic about my gear, I accept if people aren't into this type of stuff or haven't heard it properly. Grow some thicker skin, Dude.
 
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MadFloyd

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I guess it's probably redundant for me to express that I like the Yggy a lot as I'm one of the people Peter mentioned. I think it's great value and for me it was a no-brainer when compared to my Vivaldi DAC/Upsampler (note I did NOT have the Vivaldi Clock) as other than the Vivaldi having deeper bass, it was really hard to tell the difference between the two DACs.
 

bonzo75

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I guess it's probably redundant for me to express that I like the Yggy a lot as I'm one of the people Peter mentioned. I think it's great value and for me it was a no-brainer when compared to my Vivaldi DAC/Upsampler (note I did NOT have the Vivaldi Clock) as other than the Vivaldi having deeper bass, it was really hard to tell the difference between the two DACs.

I would expect most dacs to be better than the vivaldi, so hard to tell the difference is not saying much for the other dac
 
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sbnx

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Bonzo, it might save some typing if you just made a sticky post that was "Ked's List of Sh*t gear". So far we have DCS Vivaldi and Raidho.
 
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spiritofmusic

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Hey, I'm insulted. Zu should be top of that list.
 

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