Best DAC you ever heard?

Go on....

 

Uh, yeah...that'll work...

 

Fremer has been able to review some very high-end DACs and gets to hear very high-end DACs at special listening sessions at audio shows and audio dealer demos. When he reports on those demos he seems to often add in a little dig at digital saying something to the effect that it was good but not as good as a turntable can be. He's been able to hear the best of the best of digital and turntables.

 

But Fremer's whole shtick is "CDs suck". So I'm skeptical that he would fess up if he heard a digital source that he thought was as good as a vinyl rig.

 

He makes a living touting vinyl; on this subject, his opinion is of little value to me.

 

I haven't heard many upscale dacs so my Resolution Audio Opus 21 is the best dac I've heard. It does that thing where I can listen to the music, not the equipment. I can honestly say, til death do us part.

 

My recommendation would be to check out the Computer Audio Design (CAD) DAC.

Computer Audio Design »

 

Yes, he is very biased about turntables being better. I know that. And everyone who follows him and his reviews knows that. I don't expect a balanced take on digital from him. It's still funny though, and expected, and by now clichéd, to expect him to take a jab at digital even if he's listening to some of the best of the best digital components. You expect him to take that jab. And if he doesn't you're disappointed.

 

I kind of wonder why Stereophile does this. Manpower shortage? I actually enjoy Art Dudley's reviews of digital products and find them to be well done, but when he begins all of them with "...now keep in mind I prefer analog over digital in all cases", it makes me wonder if somebody else couldn't have taken on that one.

 

For me, Schiit Yggdrasil.

 

Plus he's approaching the age J Gordon Holt had in the heyday of Stereophile, so his hearing is probably past its prime. Facts of life. JGH used to say he could still "perceive" good sound though...

 

Another vote for Lampizator here. My Atlantic is the most realist digital I've heard to date.

 

I'm older than Holt in his heyday and there are benefits to my aged ears. For example I no longer feel the need to get too involved in the "what is best discussions". Read them for fun. My main system is good enough. It's liberating and the music is still great. As I write I'm listening to Leonard Cohen and Coldplay on Bose QC 35's from my iPhone 7. Not half bad either!...............if you're an old guy.

 

I dont know.

my experience is still that analog has the edge. Its not a big edge at all and I can live without a analog setup as I get used easily to a good DAC, but I find that vinyl is undoubtly subtly more natural, clear and just plain more transparent when directly comparing.

Good DAC nowadays are so good though that Im willing to trade the ultimate sound quality for convenience....

 

Agreed there should be no age limitation on enjoying music as long as your ears are healthy.

There's a funny story about JGH and I am quoting it: "I once was told a story about an appearance of the late J. Gordon Holt at an AES presentation. It was over twenty years ago. He had set some gear up for some sort of a demo and out of the rig emanated a 10K whistle. Nearly everyone in the audience heard it except J.Gordon Holt. So, "golden ears", may not be the word, but "tin" might actually have been more appropriate"

I don't know if it's true, but funny nonetheless.

Holt was also they guy who waxed poetic about Sony's first CD player back in '83 and then regretted it. Ditto for the Dynaco PAT-4 solid state preamp...

To his credit, I heard a Sony CDP-101 years later and thought it wasn't bad sounding at all. Even with the steep Chebychev brickwall analog filters and multiplexed DAC. Go figure!

 

I made a lot of needledrops a decade ago. Using the best equipment I could afford at the time. Some I even did on 96khz, 24 bit resolution using an EMU 0404, which was one of the better consumer units back then.
Playing them back on my computer based system, and decoded by my Lampizator Atlantic, they sound identical to the source. That is, I close my eyes and my long departed VPI analog rig is resurrected in my living room. Pretty damn good if you ask me!

 

Gee........a LOT of posts here about Vinyl............ which have exactly NOTHING to do with this Thread.

Anyway........Best DAC I have heard so far is the Jeff Rowland Aeris.

 

I only mentioned vinyl to make a point about the transparency of digital as a medium. With a the very best DAC's what goes in should come out unaltered.

 

problem with TDA1543 chips is there are many different versions of them, some very good, other not so, some id think at 14$ could be fake as well.

a good read about why the TDA1541/1543 is so good but also so hard to optimize:
Building the ultimate NOS DAC using TDA1541A - diyAudio »

TDA1541/TDA1543 DAC done right for example: EC Designs SD1/SD2 or AMR CD77

 

What I would like to hear.....the updated Berkley Audio reference DAC, PS Audio DSD and the Gryphon Kalliope....the new Chord DAVE dac has also been getting rave reviews.

What I have in my Bryston BDA-3 Dac is the best I have heard and whilst not cheap it probably offers versatility above most of the high end DAC's out there....how it competes sonically is something I can't answer but it does sound wonderful.

I heard the very latest DCS set up (all the boxes but not the disc player) a few months ago in a dealer's in Glasgow but they were running in new Magico speakers so the system probably wasn't at it's best (amplification was the top Moon integrated irc) . In a smaller room than I have-I listed to a fair bit of Aja and being 100% honest I wouldn't say it was the best sound I've heard,

 

Best DAC I ever heard in my system: Audio Note 3.1 Signature. CDs sound really really nice although I found the AN output a bit too high.

 

Cool...........was only making a general observation........it wasn't your specific post.
Apologies if it seemed that way but it's probably only because my post was the very next one after yours!!!..........LOL

Re you DAC comment......Agreed

 

Chord Mojo so far...

 

My favorites: dCS Vivaldi, Tidal Audio Camira..... I also heard DACs from Burmester, PS Audio, Meitner and other brands.

 

The DAC in my Denon DCD3000 cd player is an incredible sounding DAC. The player has digital inputs so it can be used as a DAC for external sources.