Introduction--Looking to Upgrade DAC

[Lee Henley]

Ive tried quite a few DACS (Exogal, T+A DSD8, Naim, M2Tech, Chord) over the years and the one that sounded best to me on DSD was the Lampizator, it simply blew the rest of them away, Ive not yet heard a Auralic so cant comment on that

[Lee Henley]

Ive heard nothing but raves about Lampizator products. Their entry level, however, is pretty far above what I want to spend (~$2k), and the raves I read are about their higher end, the Big 7 and Golden Gate DACs.

 

How did the Exogal, T+A, and Chord DACs compare? From my research the Exogal, QUTE, Hugo, and Aries Vega are more close than they are different, although reviewers can still talk about "significant" differences between them

 

They all faired ok on DSD to be fair, the Exogel is not native but did an ok job, the Lampi blew them all away, and no I don't own one but may get a Level 4 in the future if funds permit

[Lee Henley]

Wow even a level 4 Lampi blew away the rest? How did its performance on PCM compare?

 

Really good, I may be getting one round for a demo in the next few days as its been quite a while since I heard one, thus demo will have an inbuilt pre amp where as the last one didn't