DAC under $3000

The weakness in your system is the Mac Mini.You are never going to get great sound out of that compared to a dedicated music server or a CD transport.I have one with 1500 albums on it via a 3TB hard drive and only use it for burning CDs so I can listen through my transport.

The assumption that you can get really good sound from a computer is a flawed one.
Most people I know have changed to dedicated music servers or gone back to CD/SACDs.
Dare to compare.

 

Thanks. I'll definitely try them at home

Even though there are lots of great DACs out there, there are not many dedicated high-end stores in my area, so I'm somewhat limited to the products they import.

 

Thanks for your reply. I'm afraid I cannot comment on musical servers as I haven't auditioned any, but I've read some reviews and if I'm not mistaken, all of them have a computer inside.
I know my Mac Mini is not completely dedicated to audio -even though I'd like to know what I could delete without affecting its functionality- but my current set up doesn't sound bad at all.
It can be argued why the change, then. Well, audiophiles are constantly searching for the "perfect" sound

 

In your opinion, of course.

 

I would recommend you consider the Consonance music servers.They are affordable and at a get together in which a range of computer sources all of which had been modified extensively to improve their sound quality were compared to each other and then to the Consonance [Reference 7 from memory] the dedicated music server was clearly much better sounding.

A good CD or CD/SACD player will be better again of course but not everybody wants to go there and it requires spending much more.

Your TEAC DAC is actually pretty good.Spending $3000 may not be an improvement.

 

From what I know about MOON, mainly due to excellent reviews I think the NEO DSD would fit you perfectly. I am not too sure about a Mac Mini holding back a top DAC sonically since by now ALL USB ports are asynchronous, so the source is not responsible for the digital turnover. Of course a NAS is a better solution and media servers are worth an investment if you want absolute reference class playback, esp. when you want to stream media to various rooms receivers..
Yiou can always buy one later but with an investment up to 3.000 Euro I'd do the same as you - max out on the DAC. It is a pity both of my favortes-the T+A DAC 9 and the PRIMARe DAC 300 have been built in 2012, when DSD chips were not as wide implemented as today. The MOON should be around the same level of performance/build quality - so I would try to get one for a Home Demo. The NEO 280 was reviewed not long ago in the german audio press and got excellent results. Hope you like that.
By now there should be some Ayre DAC#s on the second hand market; so in case you are not 100% convinced by the MOON check for a used AYRE in your price range. I would still buy the MOON over the Ayre, but that is just me and others might like the AYRE better.

 

I've only heard it in a hotel room but the Quad Artera Play impressed as both a transport and a DAC and supports up to 32bit/384kHz + DSD64/128/256 files... unfortunately for Quad they've said a version supporting online streaming services is due later so I've held off getting this version even at £1,400 (€1,900).

 

Vielen Dank, Herr Baron

I'm not really interested in streaming to other rooms

I think T+A and Primare will end up releasing DSD capable DACs in the near future, so if I don't like the Moon, I simply can wait for a few months. I'm sure there will be new DACs available in 2016.

 

Thanks. I'm still not convinced a music server must sound better than a computer, but I'm open to new suggestions so I'll certainly give the Consonance a listen if I can find a dealer near my area.

I hope I can improve on the TEAC with the money I can afford. If not, I'll have some cash for other things

 

Thanks. I would prefer a dedicated DAC with no transport, but I'll do a search

 

I have the Chord Electronics 2Qute DAC ($1795) and I like it very much:

 

Absolute rubbish. A few weeks ago I listened to a high end system that sounded as good as most analog rigs I have heard, and it was sourced from a Mac. Up until that night I was firmly convinced that digital could not sound that good and I have heard quite a few high end systems in my day.

 

Could you please tell me the DAC they used? If you remember, of course Thanks

 

I agree. I have this set up:

External hard drive or NAS > Mac mini or Auralic Aries Wireless Streaming Bridge > Roon 1.1 (build 65) or Audirvana Plus 2.2.4 or Pure Music 3.0.1 or Auralic Lightning DS 2.2 > Chord Electronics 2Qute DAC > Mark Levinson No 38S Preamp > Mark Levinson No 532H Amp > Thiel CS2.6 Speakers

and the system sounds as good as ever. JRiver, Decibel, and Sonic Studio software is excellent as well.

 

Actually it buffers the CD and sends the data asynchronously... It's actually also a preamp

 

That is pretty much what all my audiophile friends used to think but now they know better.Computers can impress because they seem to emphasise articulation but when you really get to hear a great sounding digital source like an Accuphase DP 720 CD/SACD/DAC you realise instantly that good digital does not sound like that.It sounds far more natural,far more open and much less mechanical.It is that flat and mechanical presentation that you get from computers that is the problem.It is simply not right.

 

Everything you've mentioned (i.e. CD/SACD players, DACs and Music Servers) are computers, so tell me again how a computer can't be any good?

 

Maybe you’ve been watching just a little too much of these science fiction and space adventure movies from the 1950s and 1960s with that typical speech synthesizer used by the spaceship’s board computer?

 

A computer is a general purpose device.It has never been designed for dedicated audio performance.
If you want an example of the lengths that people are going to to improve on computers here is an example-all 32 pages of it-
http://www.stereo.net.au/forums/index.php?/topic/82802-building-the-idealish-music-server/

 

Again, a CD/SACD/Blu-Ray players, DACs and Music Servers are computers. And that link in your post are just examples of people trying to build the most quietest playback PC/Mac servers that they can, just like cables, power, etc. everything in the chain matters to them and that is what this hobby is about. But I'm not sure how that link is supposed to prove that you can't get good sound from a computer. In fact the first post in that link tells how the OP comes really close to the tonality of an Accuphase player (that he used as a reference) just by adding a linear power supply ... I can guarantee that he spent a heck of a lot less on his PC build then he did on his Accuphase CD Player and yet has already approached compatible playback performance.

... not only can you get great sound from a computer, but you can best all but some of the most expensive CD players out there, which even then a good PC will give them a run for the money. I would go as far as to say you need to spend 4-5 times as much (or more) on a CD/SACD player just to match the performance of what a well planned out $1000 or less computer can do.

 

Do you really think the guys on that thread would bother with all that if they were happy with the sound of their computers?They have dared to compare.
Indeed many of them own CD players/DACs [Vitus and Accuphase] so it is very easy to compare the disc player with the computer using the same DAC.Which is exactly what I have done and which led me to conclude that computers are a flawed digital source

A Krell KAV 300CD player which you can buy for about $1200 will put to shame any computer I have heard.

 

Here is the complete setup:
Mac with networked hard drives with Fire Wire Connectivity to an Audio Research DAC 8. Louis (the owner of the system) claims the real secret is the Pure Music software that plays the AIFF files from the Mac. Apparently it uses the cpu processor and plays the files from RAM instead of directly off the hard drive.

From there the signal goes to an Audio Research pre (not sure of the model, but a top-of-the-line model. He has the large Maggies for speakers biamped with a 400 WPC SS amp for the low end (Krell maybe?) and an Audio Research tube amp for the mids and high end.

This is really hard for me to admit because this is the opposite type of system from what I have and love (low power 300B SET amp with high efficiency speakers and all analog front end), but it sounds fantastic and opened my eyes to what digital can do. I am going to be adding a similar setup to my system.

 

Then there was something clearly wrong with your computer setup. Did you use Pure Audio software on a Mac to play uncompressed files?

 

I gave up on my Mac Mini [which was running Audivana plus] because my SSD drive PC running J River sounds better.
My Mac also had a SSD.