Originally Posted by PeterMusic (Post 973818)

It's kind of a lame list. 3 DACs that are are everyone else's list, plus 2 that the author does not appear to have heard.

Originally Posted by doggiehowser (Post 973872)

Who died and made him an expert? :) I bet Ivan has heard more than this guy?

Personally I have heard a few in the list or variants of it.. including the ND555 with the PS555 and one of the older dCS (scarlatti?) and an older TotalDAC.

I think missing out on the Chord DAVE or PS Audio DirectStream is a shame, especially when the PS Audio which occupies an incredible bang for the buck space.

Lampizator always felt like a home made DIY system to me that used tubes to color the sound. The one I heard was one that was modified from an old CD player IIRC.

I would split DACs into one of 4 categories:





Discrete R2R - like the TotalDAC (or Denafrips or HoloSpring - which look way better put together than the Lamp).

Discrete DSD DAC - EMM Labs, Playback Designs, PS Audio (and a modified Ring DAC like in the dCS)

Modified Off the shelf PCM R2R DAC - Naim ND555 (with PCM1704) or Ayon CD5S

Modified Off the shelf sigma delta DAC - I really like the AKM used in the Esoteric, Linn Katalyst

I would have chosen at least one from each category.