New DAC in Town

[luvdunhill]

I saw that but I am frankly impatient and suck at writing reviews.

Dew eet! I'll write the review for you!

[Aimless1]

The Neko is a nice DAC. I think Wes offers a 30 day money back guarantee. Buy it, use it ...well, you get the idea.

[The Monkey]

Since we are talking about DACs, I have been thinking of upgrading the the Pico DAC on my desktop rig (Mac Mini -> Pico DAC -> GS-1. It will need to have a small footprint. I have been going back and forth between the two. Has anyone heard all three? Rega, Neko, Pico? Probably not but I thought I would give it a go.

Edit: Oops, I guess the last post in this thread was in January... maybe I should have posted elsewhere.

Shelly, do you have (or did you have at some point) an Electrocompaniet ECD-1?

[shellylh]

I do still have the ECD-1. The problem is that it is hooked up to the WA5LE and KGSS and is about 10 feet from my desk where I have the GS-1. (I usually don't leave this setup plugged in because of the lightning storms here.)

I think I will do the rational thing and sign up for the loaner program (assuming it is not too late).

[recstar24]

Thinking about downsizing and going the Wireless streamer to dac route. Wondering if anyone had other comments to add on SQ as functionally being a cheap balanced dac is pretty much what I am looking for.

[blessingx]

Threadjack...

Eastern Electric Announces MiniMax DAC Plus Update http://ow.ly/1tUTXe

Depending on price, this could be interesting. Maybe knock existing model cheaper.

Edited June 19, 2011 by blessingx

[Hopstretch]

Getting USB DAC urges again. Some cool-looking stuff on the way.

http://www.playbackdesigns.com/mpd3.html

http://www.meitner.com/beta/index.html

http://resonessencelabs.com/

(PS: That last one, no idea if they're blowing smoke or not about their unit, but that's a fucking user manual right there. At least 30 pages of measurements and various digressions on audio engineering theory and practice.)

[Hopstretch]

Yes. But I've had it for, like, ages and the harmonicules are almost all used up.

[Grahame]

What does this do to your urges?

[Dusty Chalk]

Yes. But I've had it for, like, ages and the harmonicules are almost all used up.

Dibs! (If I can afford it, which I probably can't.) So I should probably just say, "want."

[livewire]

That $4K Invicta Sabre DAC is impressive but their comparing it

in some odd way to a 1935 tube radio from another company is lame.

[guzziguy]

don't you, uh, have a really nice USB DAC?

He caught Monkey Disease in Africa.

[luvdunhill]

Has anyone tried the AudioCast M5 streamer?

http://audiocast.io/

Looking to use it for my patio rig...

[Bond]

Is there a rule to which DAC I can share? I'm going to introduce tube DAC out of China from company that made all the gear for a high end German brand. It's the Doge 7 company doesn't over produce they have four items. The DAC is pretty amazing design is superclean and doesn't waste real estate. The builder is a pure analogue engineer so he had to work with a company to do the digital side. There's more to the build then I could share. It's $2k with tubes or you can save and get your own. This is my favorite DAC out of many I have owned. biggest is the Dynamics and fullness that other DACs did not have do side by side comparison. It also has a headphone section. It's not analytical or sterile. You get a warm lively sound with girth. No roll off in the treble. I was worried that it didn't use the latest ess chip but surprised that there is no sheen that many have complained about older ess chips. I choose tube over others because I hear a more natural sound vs what many will call a DAC to digital. In that part I was never bothered by digital going from tapes to cd was a big change in my younger years.  website www.doge.audio

 

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