I've been following threads on new dacs coming out day after day. I'm consistenly amazed at folks with $20,000 plus speakers,amps and preamps settling on $1,000 dacs. Folks say digital is constantly changing, it is but if you are listening to 90% of your cd music on mac mini at 44.1, thats not changing last time I looked. So why compromise! Dacs I have had in my system over recent years, Mac MDA 1000 and for the last 2 years the Wavelength Cosecant V3. Ones I've demoed and prefer in my system in order of best to my ears Sim Audio 750D, Lampizator level 4, Sim Audio 300, Rega and the Bifrost Schitt. I've listened to a lot others but it's hard for me to get a feel for those dacs since the whole systems were totally new to my ears and I couldn't tell if it was the speakers, amp, preamp or dac.
All these dacs I mentioned have been praised on the internet but none has given me the immediate wow factor from the get go so the Wavelength has remained. As you can see from preferences of demoed dacs the most expensive dacs win. Right now I'm demoing the Bricasti M1 and right out of the gate with no burn in is wow, wow and wow. Powerful, fast, detailed and musical( brings back memories of my Burmester/Hansen Prince days). The one I'm demoing has the new USB with the addition of new filters as well as a preamp volume control. The filters are a nice touch since it rolls the top off as you go from 0-5. This helps with bad recording or system tuning. The unit has the professional recording look with the Mark Levinson red led lights and is fully balanced. I'm currently using their stock power cord, Burmester silver balanced interconnects, Synergistic Research USB soon to be replaced with Audioquest Diamond USB into my Luxman 590AX, Tannoy Canterbury SE, Auditorium 23 speaker cables and 2009 Mac mini with a boulder power supply. The Bricasti new MSRP with the USB, new filters and preamp is around $8600. I'm not sure whether I will be buying this dac yet but it's definitely an attention getter. No Schiit.
Bricasti Design M1 D/A converter | Stereophile.com