I have had (recently) the following dac’s:
Benchmark dac1 hdr
Audioquest dragonfly red
Tact 2.2xp
Ps audio DirectStream DAC (currently running red Cloud)
Logitech transporter
And my father has a couple different models from theta digital that I am very familiar with.
Dsd and mqa are really nice to have. It dosent matter what your philosophical stance is on the formats are - it’s nice to be able to play them.
The tact was ok, but no longer relevant given the company no longer exists.
The Logitech was remarkable for the price at the time it was made, its still very good... but also no longer relevant (except as a roon endpoint).
Benchmark makes really high value gear. I strongly considered upgrading to a dac3.
The audioquest dragonfly red is great for travel. I particularly like that I can use it with my iphone. Otherwise it dosent come close to the quality of any of the others on the list.
The upgradability is the theta stuff is nice, keeps it relevant without having to replace the whole thing. The gen 8 really impressed me when it was new... it’s starting to fall a bit behind now though.
The ps audio directstream is amazing. Handles Dsd, mqa, is a roon endpoint, steaming from tidal... software upgradeable (the most recent upgrade was significant - and free)... and sounds better to me than any dac I have heard.
I haven’t heard the schiit stuff... but I’d kind of like to. I hear they made some improvements to their totl dac in October.
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