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

Sovrce Gear
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I found this description below on the lampizator poland site

Amber 4 is by far our best entry level DAC ever, with 13 years of experience optimizing the old Level 4 to become Amber 1, 2 and eventually 3 and 4. It started shipping in March 01 2022 as a successor to Amber 3.
Following our huge efforts to create the Baltic-3 and the Horizon DAC we gained enough knowhow and confidence to redesign the Amber DAC from ground up, and offer an entirely new product. Circa around November 25th 2021 we start testing Amber-4, while technical necessities caused us to phase out Amber-3 entirely in February 2022.
It took a total redesign of the digital section. It retains surprisingly a lot of the Baltic good qualities - pure, natural, effortless, spacious and super dynamic presentation worthy of at least twice as expensive product.
We also redesigned power supply, and chose completely new tube compliment - consisting of a ECC99 super tube as a very low impedance output buffer amplifier, in a zero feedback, single ended triode mode, as well as 12AT7 as a very low distortion input amplifier. This DAC, thanks to having output buffer - can drive particularly well the transistor amps.
We are very proud of this DAC, and the fact that at an entry level price we can outperform any competitor known to us. This DAC gives joy and bliss in spades.
Some other highlights are: copper output caps, CLC power filter with tube rectifier 6X5, true balanced option, volume control option, full analog preamp of very high quality, USB operation of the highest caliber, newly designed muting to avoid pops and clicks in computer operation, and many many more.

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seems like a pretty great upgrade over the A3 and at the same price, which is pretty impressive

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203

It’s why used prices on the Amber 3 have come down to earth. They’re now back to selling in the $2.5K range as opposed to well over $3.2K range.

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204

Thanks to @M0N and his recommendations - I’d the chance to listen to a Weiss DAC 501 and I purchased.

So NOS/R2R DAC will be a project for next year(s), as I’m quite pleased with the Sigma-Delta Weiss.

Awesome community, greatly appreciate about many very useful feedbacks!
Gerald

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Congratulations, it’s a worthwhile endeavor. The Weiss and a NOS/R2R DAC is where I’m currently residing and very much enjoying the many ways to skin a DAC.

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Hi MON,

Do you have any info or experience with Metronome Le Dac? Throwing that one into the mix with SW1x and Totaldac.

Anyone else on the forum with Metronome experience…I’m open to your impressions.

Psound

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I have never heard one before so I can’t comment, I haven’t even really seen any impressions on them either so I’ve got no idea what people think of them. Aren’t very popular in the US market from what I see since I don’t know any dealers or places that might carry them. If anyone else has heard them would definitely be curious on thoughts as well

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As far as I can see they have 1 North American dealer/distributor (I assume) in Toronto Canada, so I suspect there aren’t going to be a any of the US folks who’ve heard one.

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Gets quite a lot attention in EU, Germany as well. Fairaudio (de website) has some decent infos about it:

Métronome Le Dac: D/A-Wandler - Highend-Audio | TEST fairaudio (use google translator :wink:

Around €6k over hear at the moment. Was also on my DAC comparison list some months ago. What I ve read in other forums: goes in the direction of Aqua

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Very French according to this promo shot.

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They couldnt even clean the bottles.

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It is called Lé DAC. :smiley:

There’s a joke there about an audiophile PePé LePew, but it escapes me.

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Exclusive price.
No I2S connection, a bit of a shame for the money.
But probably not necessary.

The name Le Dac is kind of funny.
Reminiscent of Le Bicmac/que from Pulp Fiction, :rofl:.
Sounded kind of metronomic, :rofl:.

Personally, I’m very keen on the Audio Note 2.1 Signature or Amber 3/4, should another one come into the house this year. :innocent:

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Am I the only one getting anxious about having wine and glasses on top of the DAC :slight_smile:

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I wonder what wine pairings/vintages are recommended with this DAC? :wink: :smile:

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It’s their entry model so maybe they’re not so concerned and just thought it would be a good idea to add some sparkle on top :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

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I had one other brand to check out. R2R dac …Audio GD 7 HE. Has anyone listened to this dac? Reviews are good compared to Holo Audio and Denafrips.

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Ah, while I haven’t heard that specific dac, I really really personally don’t like AGD dacs (or amps for that matter). Personally I think they lack technical ability, refinement, and value. But that’s just me, I just can’t think of a single AGD product I’d want to own that I’ve heard. While they are more tuned for being warm, rich, and somewhat more “fun” they come with a lot of drawbacks that I personally think overshadow their more casual voicing that could be beneficial

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Thanks … I will eliminate that one. Still trying to decide between Totaldac D1 core and SW1X 2 spx.

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Hi listening fellows,

just watched Steve Huff’s latest video and his DAC Top 10, just wondering if any here is already owning/chance to listen to the dCS LINA DAC and gets similar experience? Also wondering why he never tests anything from Playback Design…

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I watched it as well. How good is the Playback Design Merlot? How does it compare to other dacs?