Update: irDAC-II
While looking for my long term DAC I picked up a new Arcam irDAC-II in the meantime. I'm assuming its more broken in now at 80+hrs. Over the past two years, this newer version of the Arcam DAC received lower overall scoring reviews reportedly due to a few quirks about the headphone amp and bluetooth (neither of which I use). I bought the latest irDAC-II for the DAC/Implementation inside, which received much more favorable "sound" reviews. Since i enjoyed my former standard irDAC so much, and i have the Arcam rPlay streamer, gave it a shot. Some of the former irDAC owners indicated the did not like the newer DAC. I'm in the other camp, i do, and like it better than the prior version. It's more open, detailed, transparent, yet it still has that smooth Arcam signature tone and sound so far. Cables help too.
Pleasantly surprised.
Smooth detail sound coming through.
Musical. Voices, guitars, clean, not colored.
At retail price its good. On sale, its very good.
Seems to benefit from higher quality interconnects, RCA, Coax.
For a solid state DAC, so far I'm liking the overall tone and sound for the $.
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Looking forward to finding and trying a worthy tube DAC under $1500 to do another DAC-off.
