Marvey's DAC Chart of Awesomeness

Discussion in 'Digital: DACs, USB converters, decrapifiers' started by The Alchemist, Sep 28, 2015.

  1. Jokko

    Jokko Friend

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    I wonder if the NAD M51 would be competitive to Gungnir Multibit over AES. I see plenty of M51's around for 850$
     
  2. Walderstorn

    Walderstorn Friend

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    Some people prefer it over the Gungnir Multibit, my brother prefers it for example so he bought one for the same selling cost. I've seen them about the same price used in Europe but its rare to see them being sold.
     
  3. Robert777

    Robert777 Acquaintance

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    I decided to get the NAD over a Gungnir Multibit because they can be found for a good price in the UK. I am afraid I cannot compare it to any other high end DACs but I absolutely love it. Drums sound more realistic than anything I have heard before, which admittedly is not much, and my time spent listening to music has quadrupled since I got it
     
  4. ButtUglyJeff

    ButtUglyJeff Stunningly beautiful IRL

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    The NAD has a nice feature set, and many stick with it as their primary DAC for years. I'm sure you'll be quite pleased with your choice...
     
  5. Robert777

    Robert777 Acquaintance

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    Thanks. I hope so too. I love reading about all the awesome new DACs and amps coming out but all the ones that really catch my eye are way out of my price range. Still, I like to know what is out there.
     
  6. Walderstorn

    Walderstorn Friend

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    What software V is yours?
     
  7. Robert777

    Robert777 Acquaintance

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    No idea I am afraid. It is connected to a CD player so I have never installed any drivers or software.
     
  8. Thomas Crown

    Thomas Crown New

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    I have both but I could absolutely live with only the m51.
     
  9. zonto

    zonto Friend

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    How's the HDMI-in on the NAD M51?
     
  10. BleaK

    BleaK Friend

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    Got the Lynx AES16 into the NAD M51 and compared it to the usb input. It was no contest. The Lynx gave the NAD a new life. So try other inputs than USB before you judge the M51. :drunk:
     
  11. Thomas Crown

    Thomas Crown New

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    you mean quality wise? For sure I love it as feature, I have both a ps4 ( spotify and movies, ps4 can't play audio cd) and a ps3 (as audio cd player) connected to it through the hdmi, while the ps3 optical goes to the Gungnir Multibit, this means I can't go higher than 48khz. Still to my ears it's pretty good, I'd say no difference with the spdif.
     
  12. landroni

    landroni Friend

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    For the fun of it, you don't want to know what @schiit thinks of HDMI for high-end audio:
     
  13. Walderstorn

    Walderstorn Friend

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    I think my brother uses Toslink but ill have to ask.
     
  14. perkele

    perkele Acquaintance

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  15. Mikoss

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    Curious if anyone has heard any dCS DACs. There is a '90's vintage one (DCS952) for sale, and I don't think it's worth $2000, just curious. It seems these R-2R DACs use a ring topology. I'd guess Gungnir Multibit is more resolving than the DCS952 in particular, however their newer DACs are in the astronomical price range... I wonder how they sound.
     
  16. landroni

    landroni Friend

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    I believe @Torq was planning to sample the dCS wares as part of his DAC comparo, but I don't think he got to them yet.
     
  17. skypickle

    skypickle New

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    has anyone listened to the gustard x20 or the spring holo dac in comparison with some of the dacs listed here?
     
  18. Yeskey

    Yeskey Friend

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  19. skypickle

    skypickle New

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  20. Torq

    Torq MOT: Headphone.com

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    I'm pretty familiar with the Gustard X20 (more so than I'd like, unfortunately) as well as having done a number of high-end DAC comparisons that include Yggdrasil and the Spring DAC. The short version is that the X20 isn't comparable to either of them, and I didn't include it in my comparisons to Yggdrasil for a couple of reasons:

    1. Well, as already stated it is not on the same playing field.
    2. It would have meant spending two solid days listening to it, which I would prefer* not to do.

    On the X20 ... it's a relatively typical mid-fi Sabre implementation - which means a tendency towards exaggerated detailed (i.e. fake detail) resulting from an upward treble tilt and what might be described as an over-sharpened sound. Yes, it checks a lot of the squares in the classic game of Chi-Fi buzzword bingo ... more than half of which are courtesy of the XMOS input/clock board, but while superficially impressive, especially for short-term listening, it gets fatiguing fast, is excessively technical and never really manages to be musical.

    If I could bring myself to do it**, it'd be nice to have a properly detailed post to refer people to when they ask - which would make it a lot easier to give you a better recommendation with back-to-back comparisons to back it up. But, well, I'm not going to do that. Instead I'll say that, if it were me, I would rather listen to Modi MB than to the X20.

    And no, I'm not joking.

    --

    *This is a polite way of saying that I'd rather stab myself repeatedly in the ears with pencils.
    **I can't. I won't. And you can't make me.
     

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