DAC Info that may be helpful

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The first post in this thread is a WikiPost, and can be edited by anyone with the appropriate permissions.
You'll get more traffic if you create a thread. Doubt many people pop in here anymore.
 
The first post of this thread was made in 2002, so 21 years ago.
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Hello everyone, my first post here. Having been an audiophile for 30 years, owning probably 20-30 dacs, this should be appropriate place. Had Ayre, Berkeley, Lampi, DCS, Meitner, Mark Levinson, Schiit, Meitner, Audiogd x 5, Auralic, Aqua, Chord and other dacs. Among them, dcs, Meitner, mola mola tambaqui are the ones that stood out. They unfortunately get better with increasing price.

I’ve done this 50 post thing many moons ago in South Africa where I came from, now live in the UK. Greetings to everyone on this forum.
 
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.
 
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.
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.
 
I think the best value dac is the Schiit Ygdrassil. It’s not exactly cheap but it can hold its own with the big boys such as dcs and chord dacs.
 
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.
 
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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.

It's not a DAC and that could arguably mean greater sound differnces, but my new headphone amp has swappable opamps and power modules. Change the lot and its £1000 for a "noticable" change.

So as to my above point, I'd look for something that sounds different. Topping make some of the most accurate gear out there, while some love/appreciate the sound (and many of those are reviewers needing a good base point), they leave many feeling rather cold about them.
 
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.
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
 
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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
What do you think of the Exposure amp. Been thinking of looking for a used one.
 
What do you think of the Exposure amp. Been thinking of looking for a used one.
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 plug
 
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
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.
 
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The first post in this thread is a WikiPost, and can be edited by anyone with the appropriate permissions.

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