Thank for the adviceYou'll get more traffic if you create a thread. Doubt many people pop in here anymore.
Not night and day. I think the SMSL is based on a ES9038 chip. It will sound brighter and more detailed than the R2R dac. It will also sound brighter and not everyone likes that. The R2R dac will have better imaging and sound smoother. The SMSL will measure better. It depends on the rest of the equipment too, if you have a modest speaker system, you will not pass a blind test.Just the man to ask then.
Am i going to hear a night and day difference between a SMSL M500
Mk ii dac and a R-R dac say an Aries ii?
Got to be that much of a difference for me to justify the spend, budget is implied in the choice of dacs.
Night and day needs to a huge difference, and that is hard to come by until your talking extreme prices.Just the man to ask then.
Am i going to hear a night and day difference between a SMSL M500
Mk ii dac and a R-R dac say an Aries ii?
Got to be that much of a difference for me to justify the spend, budget is implied in the choice of dacs.
Yeah, got the SMSL M500 MkII but wished I'd bought the Aries but not sure if I'd benefit?I do think you can go down two routes, well for me anyway.
You can do down the route of something that measure accurately, which is usually Chinese as that seems to be their raison d'être, or go fro something that sounds different. Anything with ESS/Sabre chips your talking diminishing returns from a reasonably low price point. Of course manufactures can add their magic like Ferrum, but then your talking a price bracket of £2K for products like that
Or go with a different slant say R2R/Chord/Schitt.
Out of the SMSL or Ares I'd go Ares all day long.
I got my SMSL D1se cos it was dirt cheap 2nd hand, but still a very highly rated dac for under a grand, but mainly because I spent twice my planned budget on my headphone amp.
But my next DAC will be not be ESS chipped as I just think there is more diverse and noticably different sounding DAC's.
What do you think of the Exposure amp. Been thinking of looking for a used one.Yeah, got the SMSL M500 MkII but wished I'd bought the Aries but not sure if I'd benefit?
System
Exposure S3010S2d
Bluesound node 2i
PMC Twenty5 22i
SMSL M500 MkII
For the money it’s the mutts nuts. A powerful amp with all the detail I need for now .Stays cool when I turn it up a bit, though I don’t do that for long. Only criticism I have is I can’t turn it on and off with the remote. So control that with a smart plugWhat do you think of the Exposure amp. Been thinking of looking for a used one.
I have the Musical Fidelity M5Si AMP with PMC Twenty5 21i's which seems to be a great match, Bryston AMP's are well regarded paired with PMC.Yeah, got the SMSL M500 MkII but wished I'd bought the Aries but not sure if I'd benefit?
System
Exposure S3010S2d
Bluesound node 2i
PMC Twenty5 22i
SMSL M500 MkII