Short High End DAC Comparison PT.1 & PT.2, Source Gear Progression, and General Thoughts

My plebian conclusions of the R2R DACs in the past week:

Chain:
Local FLAC/Deezer/Qobuz → Pi2AES running PiCorePlayer and Squeezelite/Logitech Media Server → I2S HDMI (Sagra, Wavelight)/ I2S Ethernet (Morpheus)/ AES (Yggy) → Raal PDA-1a new revision

Headphones:
64 audio U12T
Hifiman HE-6 (4 and 6 screw)
whatever else I can’t remember

Schiit Yggdrasil A2: The equivalent of audiophile junk food. Not accurate, not detailed, almost excessively too wild, fun, and fat-sounding that it can make the other DACs sound boring. Truly the American hifi experience. :us:

XI Audio Sagra: Technical and quite detailed but too dry for my taste. Isn’t very engaging to me for some reason. It slams, it has good control, but it’s missing some level of engagement like the other DACs. It almost sounds artificial, kind of like how I remember the Chord TT2 sounding.

Rockna Wavelight: A cut above the rest in technical capability like detail and slam while not being unengaging like the Sagra. Especially in Linear phase. Gives a great sense of space. Would be the DAC I would keep for clean resolving sound without being sterile.

Sonnet Morpheus: Forward sounding and kind of dense. And yet it’s pleasing and kind of relaxing to listen to. Maybe a tad mid-forward. Might have the best timbre of the DACs. Typical of what I am slowly associating with ‘NOS’ sound. Like the DAC equivalent of a Sennheiser HD600.

Higher end DACs I’ve heard in the past:
Chord TT2 with and without Mscalar
Holo Spring 3 KTE (did not use balanced outputs)

PS I hate DACs man.

18 Likes