Awesome, congrats! Always nice to be able to hear something before bringing it home. Hope it gets you exactly what you’re looking for.
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in your stupid simple signature chart, would you put the Weiss 50X in the neutral forward region where the Wavesera and Rockna reside? Or more in the Neutral Relaxed where the Berkeley resides?
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Yes
To be honest, that really should be in neutral forward, but I didn’t want to cram that category
This is really why I took down my first initial comparison, it really isn’t accurate anymore, since revisiting these dacs with a proper digital source really changed my opinion on them
This is how I’d update those 2 categories today (with the weiss added)
| Neutral Relaxed | Neutral Forward | |
|---|---|---|
| Most: | Bricasti | Waversa |
| Nagra | Weiss | |
| BAT | Berkeley | |
| Rockna | ||
| Least: | Aries Cerat |
Really the WVDAC is a huge wildcard, and I’d still struggle to properly place it, so perhaps ignore that one. It was just a confusing dac for me that I didn’t exactly get (and still don’t fully understand), there’s reasons why it should be in either category
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Had the berk2 for a couple days now and although foward, its not really fatiguing at all, and despite it not being “Warm Foward” like the mojo, it still has excellent, if not the same bass extension, just less richness i suppose. What makes it better to my ears is the more foward treble air/sparkle that is somewhat lacking on the mojo and AIC10 fwiw. So strikes a great balance over all in my system that I would say its almost dead nuetral, but with great detail and extension throughout all areas. SO despite it being neutral foward, this high up in tier easily surpasses the next lower tier(duh) and could have more bass extension than a lower tier warm foward/relaxed dac. The Berk2 just brings out everything “foward” in a recording
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Yes it’s a very more “what the source is” dac, and that’s why it’s so hard to place.
Would agree for sure
The berk is likely one of the highest value used dacs I’ve encountered if your source is up to snuff lol (also reasonably synergy picky)
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@M0N or anyone else that has heard both – How big is the difference between the MA1 V2 and DAC2xV2? I found a MA1 V2 for sub 3k and am kinda tempted to just grab it as a hold over until I sell my car and can get something better (since I can do it now and not need to wait for more audio stuff to sell like I would if I went D1-Dual or Mystique). I realy liked the MA3 but Im wondering if maybe the MA1 V2 wont be enough of a step above the P6P to bother.
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It would be hard to call anything at that level bad so what we’re really talking about here is which is the best fit for your system and your taste. I’m glad that I’ve learned enough to at least be able to put the components I’ve chosen into categories. I can also see myself owning wanting four or five other DAC solutions on the list as good synergy in a chain tents to transcends just slapping a classification label on something.
The ones that work best are when intangibles are introduced that just just take things to that next level. Not being able to properly articulate why you like something but knowing that it’s just something that very appealing and begs one to listen more.
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I know audio stuff scales up and up and up, but is there a level where it just goes all bespoke tailored for you? Like fancy suits, and high end instruments?
Almost forgot you had those coming in. I am still hyped on these.
Because most forums, even the good ones get on hype trains (here and mojos) and they tend to go blind. Or also people like a trusted source to grab stuff and preach before risking their own skin.
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Big enough to justify the used cost differential. Keyword used, I do think the new prices are a bit high for emm and meitner
I think it will be imo
Of course, none of the dacs in that entire comparison I’d consider bad (perhaps outside of the aqua, but something really had to be up with that)
Yes that really was the hardest part for myself, trying to simplify everything down when I really shouldn’t have done that lol
Yep that’s basically all dacs in this range lol
Yeah, although that typically lives alongside the highest end gear. But you also have to realize that most high end companies are really only a few people making things one by one, so almost all high end is bespoke lol
Got delayed, but hopefully next week, no word on the clone lol
lol
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I’m interested in the clone!
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I’ll be excited to hear how you like it if you end up getting it, the MA-1 V2 was on my shortlist while I was DAC shopping before I picked up the Mystique V3.
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What is the difference between MA-1 and MA-1 V2 ?
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About 5 years
But realy, i have no idea. I was going to look into it a bit more before i jump
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lol as soon as I click post and saw you replying I thought “he’s just going to say V2”
Cool yeah I saw that one posted on and then remembered that M0N mentioned the MA1 V2, I wondered if they were the same.
Anyway not chasing that one. I’m tail spinning elsewhere and on several fronts - all is normal…
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Yeah i kind of thought that after hitting send. A bit like super luxury cars i guess.
I hope the clone is absolutely fantastic. Then we can all…
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Is there a master list in order of preference?
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Likely not what you were asking but I think it would be fun to interpret it as this lol
I said I would never do it, but I guess why not at this point
15 most enjoyable DACs I’ve had in house (somewhat revisited)
Some things to note and potential problems:
- they weren’t all on the same setup, and I really should reevaluate things on my setups now
- some may have been gimped by digital source, I tried to reacquire and properly reassess their performance, but I wasn’t able to do that for everything I’ve heard of course
- note how I didn’t use best lol, but this is somewhat of a best for me sort of list, while it really is down to most enjoyable to me in the end, you might find the trend of the most technically capable dacs being at the top lol, but not always
- I’ll try to add a short blurb on why (although I’m too lazy to go into the specifics of what system, you’ve seen most of these dacs in their respective systems anyways)
- I would want to do this of most enjoyable I’ve ever heard but I only feel comfortable doing this with stuff I’ve owned for at least a bit in my own setups, so no non home demos, and no home demos either, stuff I actually had to buy myself
- while if something is closer to the top I like it more, I won’t note how large of a difference there is between 2 things, so the difference could be small or pretty large
- it’s judged based on it’s showings in the system that suited it best
- I’m only going to include one product from one mfg for sake of simplicity
- I could do a lot more, but I think 15 is plenty for now, it gets most all the ones I really like in there
- please don’t use this as a tier list or top list, this is just for fun and a thought exercise for myself
With some of that out of the way, you can likely guess these but might as well do it anyways lol
Favorite Five:
-
Totaldac d1-twelve-mk2 (w/ d1-driver-mk2 monos, live-powers, d1-digital-mk2)
– Really just both the most realistic and engaging digital setup I’ve owned, but also most unforgiving -
***APL HIFI DSD-MR MK2 (may be too early to call)
– So far, it’s the most sweet and forgiving yet capable DAC I’ve heard that makes everything sound amazing although it lacks something that makes it sound truly convincing, also very heavy coloration -
Lampizator Pacific (w/ KR RK 5U4G & RK PX25)
– A strong focus on nuance and organicness yet still retaining a lot of directness and energy, reasonably pretty neutral too -
Aries Cerat Kassandra II Ref G2
– Strongest macro focus with the least amount of tradeoffs for that focus, makes things an immediate blast, also very well rounded -
Berkeley Alpha Reference 3
– Insane balance and refinement, overall does everything right and little wrong, but not as technically capable as the first 3
Almost There:
-
Audio Note DAC 5 Special v2 (GE 5841A & 6463, Bendix 6X5GT, Telefunken <> ECL82)
– Also very refined and nuanced but I have a feeling it could do better with a different system and source -
Mojo Mystique EVO Pro 21
– A ton of warm fun without going overboard and still keeping respectable technical ability -
Rockna Wavedream Signature Bal
– Great wow factor and well refined, although not the most organic in it’s portrayal -
Nagra HD DAC + MPS
– Great in all respects from a techincal perspective, but I never felt super actively engaged in listening with it -
Bricasti M21 Platinum
– Moves out of the way sonically although it’s more relaxed and chill nature can sometimes leave some to be desired
Still excellent but not as stand out as the above:
-
Waversa WVDAC MK2
– I still frankly don’t understand what I was experiencing with this one so it gets pushed down a bit, but still great -
Great Northern Sound modified Wadia 860
– Classic dac with classic dac sound, it’s just that it ended up being too much of a specialist and made too many tradeoffs -
Mola Mola Tambaqui
– Great well done analytical focus, but again didn’t really pull me in enough -
BAT REX 3 DAC
– While this was a cool dac, I could just never get fully into it, although I enjoyed listening to it from time to time -
Lavry Quintessence
– It’s a studio dac that both does and doesn’t sound like one, yes I’m being vague
Now if I did this in terms of value, that might be interesting lol (although too much work for my lazy ass)
BONUS: Vintage DACs (and transports) that opened my eyes when I was younger and ended up owning later on as well (except the last 2, unranked, with no further explanation given)
-
Sonic Frontiers SFD-2 MKII (w/ Audio Alchemy DTI Pro + Sonic Frontiers SFT-1)
-
Theta DS Pro Gen V (w/ Meridian 500 MKII which I actually still own to this day, the transport at least)
-
Mark Levinson No.39
-
Krell KPS-20i
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Sweet!
Thank you for that.
(Now pondering how to fund Totaldac)
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Nice thanks! I’ll try and add some pricing information for myself to see how far from my budgets this entire list is 
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