Opinions Wanted: What is the most Analog Sounding DAC?

[Paul R]

To be fair, that includes some computers, storage, and networking, a few video stations, cameras/security, fire, and the wiring as well as a build out for the HT. The money seems to add up very fast in this field, but honestly, I am not all that sure how dealers stay in business. The margins get pretty thin after a bit. Integrators get the short end of the stick - especially true when the client is a friend. One can wind up working for expenses.

[realhifi]

To be fair, that includes some computers, storage, and networking, a few video stations, cameras/security, fire, and the wiring as well as a build out for the HT. The money seems to add up very fast in this field, but honestly, I am not all that sure how dealers stay in business. The margins get pretty thin after a bit. Integrators get the short end of the stick - especially true when the client is a friend. One can wind up working for expenses.

 

More and more are dropping out of the business every day. Of course if clients want an 60 to 80 percent discount it does make it difficult if not impossible.

 

Even with all you have outlined above the total for that system is remarkable. Are they getting something like Lutron's homeworks installed also and is in that total? What is that house going to cost, around 4 or 5M or so? Have done plenty in the 60 to 80k but that figure is off the charts.

[Paul R]

That's a good question, and honestly, I am not sure in today's market. Around 11M at one point I think. On the lake.

 

As for discounts- it's the total package that really counts. If you discount one feature, you will make it up on another, so it all sort of balances out. Nobody gets a discount on everything of course, and average discount on that stuff is probably closer to 22% than 60. Some stuff, yeah of course, some stuff came in as a great deal. Some of the wood used was recovered (reclaimed) from another property.

 

-Paul

 

 

 

More and more are dropping out of the business every day. Of course if clients want an 60 to 80 percent discount it does make it difficult if not impossible.

 

Even with all you have outlined above the total for that system is remarkable. Are they getting something like Lutron's homeworks installed also and is in that total? What is that house going to cost, around 4 or 5M or so? Have done plenty in the 60 to 80k but that figure is off the charts.

[kurb1980]

@Paul.Richardson I previewed the Benchmark DAC1 then returned it for the DAC2 HGC and they allowed me to keep the DAC1 to preview both. The DAC2 is a outstanding and is hands down better than the DAC1 IMHO. I read all the spec's on the DAC2 and was impressed from a technical stand point has some the state of the art technology which is copy righted of course. I don't know what you will be using for speakers or headphones but if you have power hungry headphones I recommend opening up the unit and increasing the gain output. The owners manual comes with directions so don't worry they are detailed and provided pics. Let me know if you have any questions about the DAC2 I really love this DAC and I'm sure you will be impressed.

[realhifi]

That's a good question, and honestly, I am not sure in today's market. Around 11M at one point I think. On the lake.

 

-Paul

 

Serious house. We have quite a few very nice homes up here but even one I worked on that was gorgeous and on 600' of lake frontage (on a bit different lake, Lake Michigan) was around 6M.

[Paul R]

Has anyone heard Jesus Sonore DAC, list $1295?

 

It seems to have a lot of good stuff in it, but the web page doesn't give a lot of detail.

 

-Paul

SONORE DSD DAC

[Paul R]

Just browsing on the internet for DACs, and you know what? There are an amazing number of DACs out there I have never heard of.

 

Scott Nixon DACs?

Maverik TubeMagic

Promitheus Audio DACs

MHDT Stockholm

Eastern Electric MiniMax (heard of that one hear of course)

... and about a zillion other ones

 

Now I begin to understand why the heck people new to CA get insanely confused about DACs. All of them claim to be the best!

 

-Paul

[wisnon]

Has anyone heard Jesus Sonore DAC, list $1295?

 

It seems to have a lot of good stuff in it, but the web page doesn't give a lot of detail.

 

-Paul

SONORE DSD DAC

Ted reviewed it right here months ago...

[Paul R]

That's odd. I did a search on "Sonore DAC" and checked all the results back to Dec of 2011, and I didn't see that. Still don't actually. Guess I will go search on Ted's posts and see where it is, unless you happen to have the linkback handy?

 

-Paul

[HTGL]

DCS Scarlatti upsampler and dac combo was the best analog like dac to me...no let me take it back. Maybe not exactly analog like..it is not either analog or digital..the sound is.... hard to describe

But to my ear, totally different league than emm labs, wadia or other high end dacs. Extremely low noise floor, high macro and micro dynamics and especially massive three dimenaionality..they were just the king to my ear until vivaldi came out.

[uzernaam]

I'm wondering where the Cambridge Audio DacMagic Plus fits in here. I've read that it has a "zero pre-ringing analog-sounding" filter which you can switch to (one of three different filter types built-in to this unit)

 

It's in my price range, but obviously I don't want to spend the $500 if it turns out to be not-so-good relative to something else.

 

Anyone have an opinion on this unit?